Interpreting primary sources

As an entry into the year 11 course on the Israel/Palestine conflict I have started with a whole lot of primary sources generated around and during the recent invasion/assault/slaughter/crisis of Gaza (depends which news agency you look at) and have asked students to interpret them to write 'a short history of the 'assault...' on Gaza'. The intention is to show that all historical narratives are based on the interpretations of primary sources and open to constant reevaluation. But also to teach them how history is an evidenced-based subject; if you are going to make a claim, have a good reason to make it. The other intention, of course, is to show students how you can't really understand this event without a much broader knowledge of Middle East history. I think I started with far too many sources which bamboozled a few of them, but there were some excellent discussions about what 'historical truth' is, and how to deal with conflicting sources. However, had I done this again I would:

• Have fewer sources - it was too overwhelming for some to select from a multitude of maps, photographs, graphs, newspaper clippings, internet printouts etc...
• Break down the task requirement more. The first thing they should have done is to decide, based on the sources, what to call their short history (was it a slaughter? Crisis? Assault? Crime? Offensive? Attack?) and to give reasons for this. It would have been a nice little exercise to hand in.
• Be more explicit early on with the difference between long term and short term causes. Perhaps have had a few long term causes in their primary source pack.

The other thing which I did too late was to show them what a "history" is. Sam Wineberg in "Historical Thinking and other unnatural acts" quotes someone who writes that all histories have a motive, actions and effects. Today we brainstormed what they had found from the sources and related this to these three ideas which gave them a reasonable framework with which to do their first piece of writing.

Pretty soon they are starting their research assignments where they have to show how history is important to the present. I am planning on a couple of periods per week for 3-4 weeks to be in the library with the other two periods carrying on with the long term causes of the Israel/Palestine conflict. It will be interesting to see whether this works without confusing them too much. I am hoping that together we can learn how an historical understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict is essential to understand the present situation which will at the same time provide a model for their own research. Some have some excellent ideas which I will write about once they have been firmed up. One thing that has become clearer to me than it has in the past, is that research, done well, takes a lot of time. They need time to decide on a topic, read around it, develop some research questions, do the research, take notes, possibly rejig a question, write up a draft, have it peer edited, write the final copy and have it published in an authentic manner as possible. Weeks of hard learning!