Chic, Virginia and Mr. Lincoln:

Understanding Historical Perspective

by Christine Adrian

June 2006

Abstract: Students will examine historical perspective through many methods-through each other, local primary sources, historical books, and national sources to gain an understanding of the term through a case study of Virginia and Charles “Chic” Sale feelings of Lincoln, as well as others’ perspectives and the words of Lincoln himself. In the second part of the project, students will conduct historical research regarding Lincoln from a multitude of perspectives in order to form their own educated perspective on Lincoln. They will use this educated perspective to write a perform a monologue about Lincoln.

Essential questions/enduring understandings:

• How historically accurate are secondary sources? Primary sources?
• How do our experiences affect how we see our past?
• How do we evaluate the reliability of sources during historical research?
• Are our understandings of historical figures accurate?
• How do historical events shape the way we see individuals?
• What factors shape our understandings of history?
• Does historical fiction change the way we see history?
• Is history static, or do our views and beliefs about events and people change?
• Who decides what is history and how to tell it?
• Collected recollections of events and people are truer than those of one person.
• Why do we analyze things that have happened in the past?
• Analyzing multiple perspectives over time gives us a truer picture of historical events.
• Why is historical research important?
• How do the insights of individuals affect our collective picture of history?
• Historical perspectives affect the way we see individuals, events and places.

Assessment: Students will be assessed throughout the unit through completed worksheets and discussion. The final project, described in the Final Assignment Handout, will be graded by the teacher using the Final Assignment Rubric, the class using the Evaluating Historical Fiction Handout and by the student him or herself using the Self Evaluation Handout.

Setting the Purpose: The purpose of this unit is for students to examine the idea that history is a collection of experiences; each person has their own historical perspective that is guided by what one learns in school, hears from their parents, reads in books, hears from friends, and sees on television and so on. One cannot gain a true understanding of history without looking at multiple sources.

Lesson 1

Students will examine the definitions primary source, secondary sources, and historical perspective

Lesson 2

Students will do a case study of Charles “Chic” Sale and Virginia Sale, two famous actors from Urbana, Illinois. Students will study their interest in Lincoln and the view they had of the man.

Lesson 3

Students will examine historical perspective through early 1900’s children’s novels. These novels are the basis for both Chic and Virginia’s performances related to Abraham Lincoln.

Lesson 4

This lesson examines quotes by Lincoln and those who knew him directly in order to compare and contrast statements to determine people saw Lincoln in his time as he really was.

Final Lesson

Students will conduct their own research on Abraham Lincoln from multiple perspectives in order to create a “He/She Knew Lincoln Monologue” that reflects a historically accurate picture of Lincoln.

Duration: Between 12 and 18 classes if used as a whole unit. Lessons are built to use as separate plans that can stand alone as well.

Analysis of primary sources

resources

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