Critical Analysis of Public Historical Documents

Prepared by Dr. Amani Wazwaz

Note Taking: Critical Analysis of Public Documents:

Learning the Art of Critical Reading - Notes and Critical Reading

Please carefully read the directions for Options 1 and 2 for this strictly notetaking assignment.

Option #1: Phoebe Prince, The Bullied Girl who Committed Suicide

Step One: Get to Know More about what happened to Phoebe and a general understanding of cyber bullying.

For an introduction to cyber bullying, please read the following article. It is difficult to find a source that will provide straightforward facts. However, please read the source below because it aims to provide facts. Please do research more information about Phoebe Prince so you can get a better sense of what happened to her.

“Introduction to Cyper bullying”

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/DocumentToolsPortletWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&jsid=ed730daa1600d3655f67f77d3c874f6a&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010789101&u=nysl_we_bcsd&zid=341d553b2e08e61394746807140eaa18

Step Two: Carefully read the following article.

Take down as many notes as possible.

Compare and contrast what Bazelon is saying with what other sources are saying.

Is Bazelon overlooking important facts?

Is she leaving out important emotions and lived experiences?

Are there glaring gaps in Bazelon’s historical retelling through her journal article?

What would Phoebe’s family say?

What Really Happened to Phoebe Prince?

By Emily Bazelon

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/bulle/features/2010/what_really_happened_to_phoebe_prince/the_untold_story_of_her_suicide_and_the_role_of_the_kids_who_have_been_criminally_charged_for_it.html

Please make sure you take as many notes as possible. These notes can be numbered or bulleted. Please make sure you ethically and accurately document your sources. Please also include a works cited page.

These notes are intended to help you create your first draft and then submit the full analysis next week.

Please use this time to carefully and critically read.

Remember that you are doing this exercise so you can carefully listen to your family member’s lived history. Then, you are expected to critically analyze historical documents to see if there are any gaps in the public history.

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Option #2 : Watts Riot of 1965

Please research sources on the Watts Riot so you can gain your own critical understanding of the event.

Please read the brief overview of the “Watts Riots” from the Civil Rights Digital Library found in the link below

http://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots/?Welcome

Then, carefully listen to the news report in the link below. Take a careful look at the images shown.

Stock Footage - Los Angeles Watts Riots 1965

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXBpUGJJ6_0

Take down as many notes as possible.

Compare and contrast how your researched sources have portrayed this event as well as how this event was reported in 1965.

Is the 1965 news report overlooking important facts?

Is it leaving out important emotions and lived experiences?

Are there glaring gaps in this historical retelling?

How would the people of Watts told their story?

These notes are intended to help you create your first draft and then submit the full analysis next week.

Please use this time to carefully and critically read.

Remember that you are doing this exercise so you can carefully listen to your family member’s lived history. Then, you are expected to critically analyze historical documents to see if there are any gaps in the public history.

Materials in this class are subject to copyright law and are for class purposes and personal study and should not be distributed or displayed outside of class.