Transcript 11 IB OPVL Presentation

6 Key Concepts of History
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Concept #1
CHANGE: Investigating the extent to which people
and events bring about change. Examining a
situation before and after events.
6 Concepts of History
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Concept #2
CONTINUITY: While history often focuses on
significant change, but students should be aware
that some change is slow. There also has been
considerable continuity in the midst of great
historical change.
6 Concepts of History
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Concept #3
CAUSATION: Thoroughly explain and understand
how a certain set of circumstances originated.
6 Concepts of History
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Concept #4
CONSEQUENCE: Understanding how forces in the
past have shaped future people and societies.
Students should be aware of both long and short
term effects.
6 Concepts of History
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Concept #5
SIGNIFICANCE: Why was something recorded?
What was excluded? Students should assess the
relative importance of events, people and evidence
and if that evidence supports the claims others
make about their significance.
6 Concepts of History
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Concept #6
PERSPECTIVES: Students are encouraged to
challenge and critique multiple perspectives of the
past and to compare them with historical evidence.
How 11 IB will examine documents:
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O-Origin
P-Purpose
V-Value
L-Limitations
What types of documents do historians
examine?
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Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
What happened?
Why did it happen?
Why is it important?
What information is missing?
0: Origin
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Examples include: the person responsible for
creating it, the date and the place it came from,
and the person or audience it was intended for. The
more details you can give, the better!
Some source details MAY be given to you.
Questions to ask yourself:
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Who created it?
Who is the author?
When was it published?
Where was it published?
Who is publishing it?
Is there anything we know about the author that is
pertinent to our evaluation?
P: Purpose
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Describe the aims (goals), give the reason for why it
was produced.
What was the person who said, wrote or produced
it trying to do?
Who was the intended audience?
Questions to ask yourself:
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Why does this document exist?
Why did the author create this piece of work?
What is the intent?
Why did the author choose this particular format?
Who is the intended audience? Who was the
author thinking would receive this?
What does the document “say”?
Can it tell you more than is on the surface?
V: Value
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In historical context
Go back to O and P: it could be valuable because it is
about an event that the author saw.
You could know the position held by the author, and
can then judge if his/her purpose was to convince or
deceive.
Note that a source that is not reliable, that is, does not
mean what it says, can be of value. Providing you
recognize that it is propaganda, clouding the facts,
covering up the mistakes made, or intended to support
personal gain.
Questions to ask yourself:
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What can we tell about the author from the piece?
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What can we tell about the time period from the piece?
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Under what circumstances was the piece created and how does
the piece reflect those circumstances?
What can we tell about any controversies from the piece?
Does the author represent a particular “side” of a controversy or
event?
What can we tell about the author’s perspectives from the piece?
L: Limitations
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Use knowledge of the source’s origin and context
Students often find a source to be of little value
because the writer was not an eyewitness.
BIASED!!!! (not good enough!)
Students often describe content, rather than evaluating
the context
In desperation students suggest limitations based on a
translation, secondary-not a primary source and that it
is biased! (also not good enough!)
L: Limitations Continued
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Is there any other information that would help clarify or
fill in the holes?
What part of the story can we NOT tell from this
document?
How could we verify the content of the piece?
Does this piece inaccurately reflect anything about the
time period?
What does the author leave out and why does he/she
leave it out (if you know)
What is purposely not addressed?
How to write OPVL
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With reference to the origin, purpose and content,
what is the VALUE of the document?
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With reference to the origin, purpose and content,
what are the LIMITATIONS of the document?
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Your OPVL should be written in two different
paragraphs. One which discusses VALUE (specifically
mentioning Origin and Purpose), the other which
addresses LIMITATIONS (specifically mentioning Origin
and Purpose).
What OPVL should look like..
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Paragraph 1: The origin of the document is
_________, the value of the origin is ________. The
value of the purpose is ____________. The content
of the document is valuable because ________. The
overall value of the document to historians. is
________.
Paragraph 2: Limitations of the origin, limitations of
purpose, limitations of content, overall limitations to
historians.
Working with the people at your table…
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Communally and on a clean piece of paper,
please O,P,V,L the Jamaica Letter written by Simon
Bolivar.
Keep in mind all the things we just discussed.
Turn it in to the silver basket on the way out of
class today!
Remember-this is just your first try at this, it will
get easier and we will keep practicing!