Lesson 2: Corroboration #1

Welcome!

In this lesson, we will learn about the importance of corroboration and how to determine points of agreement and disagreement in our sources.

INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS:

Please click on the “Introduction” link on the right-hand side of the page to get started.

INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS: 

This lesson is designed to teach the historical thinking skill of corroboration or the process of considering important details across multiple sources to determine points of agreement and disagreement. This lesson will engage students in the thinking process about how to analyze documents for corroboration by having them compare two accounts of George Rogers Clark’s Illinois Campaign, specifically focusing on his expedition to take over Fort Sackville (in present day Vincennes, Indiana) from the British during the American Revolution.

One source students will look at is George Rogers Clark’s Memoir, which he wrote 10-15 years after the events he is describing. The other source comes from Captain Joseph Bowman’s Field Journal. Captain Bowman was Clark’s second-in-command during the journey to Fort Sackville. Along the trip, Bowman kept a Field Journal, making almost daily notes about the weather and the troops’ movements. Unlike Clark’s Memoir, which was written several years after the trip, Bowman’s Journal records events as they are happening.    

The sources are provided here as transcriptions of the original text. They include any errors in capitalization, punctuation, grammar, or spelling that appear in the original documents. 

While this lesson can be completed entirely online, a worksheet has been provided here to help students track their thinking. The front page of the worksheet provides a note-taking area where students are given space to track the details found in both Clark’s (on the left) and Bowman’s (on the right) accounts. The note-taking area is divided into eight sections which match the headings for each page of the online lesson. On the right side of each category heading, there are two check-boxes: one labeled “Agree” and the other labeled “Disagree.” These boxes give students a chance to decide if the two sources agree or disagree in that particular category and then mark their answers so they can easily refer to it later. The back side of the worksheet mirrors the questions offered on the “Final Questions” page that ends the online lesson. The worksheet can be viewed and dowloaded here. 

Please have your students start the lesson on the “Introduction” page.