Ethan+Vietnam+Literacy

Summary of the Article: In this article, Charles Howlett advocates for the use of primary source research projects to instruct in content, citizenship, and promote connections to the past in secondary and college levels. The project was assigned in his American history class at Amityville Memorial High Scool (Long Island), whose “academic reputation has been less than stellar” and where nearly 90 percent of students were minorities. Students were tasked with a year-long project exploring public response to the Vietnam War in the local community. Howlett set aside time to teach the appropriate skills for thinking historically and throughout the year checked in with students on their progress. Through this project, students experience the work of an actual historian, rather than “fact-oriented teaching to the test.” He concludes the article by comparing the research of his high school and college classes, and suggests paths for collaboration between the two. In this case, each group’s research compliments each other, and reaffirms certain paradigms in broader Vietnam War scholarship.

Reflection & Applications:
On the whole, this project promotes some key tenets of social studies Disciplinary Literacy – inquiry, bias, perspective, and context. Through some direct instruction and professional modeling, there is an atmosphere of apprenticeship in Howlett’s teaching: class discussions, individual sessions, and encouraged collaboration were steps toward higher learning. Furthermore, this project hits many major components of ELA/SS Common Core standards for reading and writing, making this project an effective and “standards-based” teaching tool. Having seen some poor writing out of college freshman, I wonder if this was as much of a problem in his class which might prompt him to provide more direct instruction on proper historical writing. He does address certain research and writing skills which are crucial such as, pursuing bibliographic leads, being mindful of historical context, and acquiring tools for analyzing and interpreting documents.

This project is a great lesson in history as well as civics and citizenship (one of the 5 standards of social studies), and can teach students that they do have a voice and if used effectively, they can be part of broader national movements. To see the protests and writing of students before them is encouraging, and may compel some to let-loose their own inner-political/social activist. This project can even be shrunk down to a middle-school level as long as students are engaged with the primary sources and interpreting them on their level (or a higher level through collaboration and apprenticeship). I believe many high school students possess the capability to do the work of an “amateur historian” and this article is encouraging in that respect.

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 Charles Howlett, “Public Opinion on Long Island about the Vietnam War: A School Year Project Using Local Sources and Perspectives in the Classroom and in Student Research Papers,” //The History Teacher// 37 (2004): 457.  Ibid., 459.