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What's up with Columbus Day? Return to Group
How to Engage in this Guided Inquiry
- First Round of Reading: Quickly read and watch all of the videos, proclamations, historical accounts, interviews, comics, commentaries, and essays in this collection.
- Round Two of Reading: Now slow down. Go back to three, four, or five of the documents in this collection and take all the time you need to write a lot of annotations on the ones you choose.
- Some of the texts you annotate more deeply should have sentences and paragraphs in them that fit with your ideas about Columbus Day.
- But you should also annotate texts whose authors you disagree with or that make you feel uncomfortable.
- Spend time with texts that both support and challenge your own views about Columbus Day.
- Once you have engaged in annotating several of these documents, you will be ready to write an imaginative script of a drama where you bring several of these authors together beyond time and in a space that you choose to debate Columbus Day -- using the actual words of these texts.
- When you write your script where these writers, artists, and producers sit down and present their arguments, your goal will be to fairly represent the mosaic of different opinions about Columbus Day.
- Read more about how to do the "First Round of Reading" and "Round Two of Reading" in this Activity on LRNG.
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2 Comments
Statement on Columbus Day by Franklin D. Roosevelt
Read and annotate President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1940 Statement on Columbus Day. Take notes on what Columbus represented for Americans at the beginning of WWII. (Click here to learn about Making Comments on NowComment.)
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"Columbus, Indians, and Human Progress," Chapter 1 of A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Spend some time carefully reading and annotating the first chapter Howard Zinn's groundbreaking, engaging history of the United States, which starts with the story of Columbus.
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Presidential Proclamation--Columbus Day by Barack Obama
Read and annotate what Barack Obama wrote in a 2010 Proclamation about Columbus and the commemoration of his historic voyage.
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"We Have No Reason to Celebrate an Invasion," Interview with Suzan Shown Harjo
Read and annotate an interview with Susan Shown Harjo, a 45-year-old Cheyenne-Creek, who has strong reasons for not wanting to celebrate Columbus and his invasion of indigenous people.
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Without Columbus, There Would Be No Latinos by Jennifer C. Braceras
Use annotations to show if you agree with Jennifer C. Braceras's argument for why celebrating Columbus Day is celebrating Hispanic heritage. (See how to use the Commenting Toolbar for Large Images on NowComment.)
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Christopher Columbus was awful (but this other guy was not) by Matthew Inman
Spend some time with Matthew Inman on his site The Oatmeal (captured in images) and see what he has learned about Columbus. Annotate specific parts of the 11 images here, and take note of his suggestion for who to remember instead of Columbus. (See how to use the Commenting Toolbar for Large Images on NowComment.)
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Why We Celebrate Columbus Day by David Deming
Write annotations to show how you are understanding historian David Deming's argument for why we should continue to celebrate Columbus Day, if not the man himself.
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History vs. Christopher Columbus - Alex Gendler
You be the judge. Was Columbus an intrepid explorer who brought two worlds together or a ruthless exploiter who brought colonialism and slavery. Watch and annotate this video by Alex Gendler where he puts Columbus on the stand.
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