This enquiry develops students’ ability to make inferences from sources and to reach conclusions about why different sources might offer contrasting interpretations.
Students are presented with a set of sources about the life of a cowboy and asked to make inferences about the cowboys’ lives and characteristics.
Only having discussed these inferences do they realise that there have been two sets of sources in circulation and that these two sets present widely contrasting interpretations of the cowboy.
Having developed a more detailed understanding of the reality of life as a cowboy in the mid-19th century, students are in a position to explain the disparities in interpretations of the cowboy. Finally, students exercise their judgment skills, rating the seriousness of the different problems faced by cowboys during this period.
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- Lesson presentation: PowerPoint
- Lesson write-up:PDF
- Resource 1-3: PDF
- Worksheet 1: PDF
