|
Rounding the Bases
Introduction
Day One
- Demonstrate to students how one can study U.S. history and culture
by examining the topic of baseball. Show the portion of Our Game
(6:46-18:07) from the first volume of Ken Burns' video documentary,
Baseball: The National Pastime. The topic is introduced
with images and quotes from the game's greatest players and other observers.
This clip shows players from different backgrounds and social classes.
- Provide students with enough time to carefully observe the images
and reflect on the comments. You may wish to let them take 5-10 minutes
to write down their impressions in a journal.
- Discuss the students' observations of the images.
- Explain the objectives of the lesson to the
students. Emphasize that the heart of the lesson is observation, analysis,
and evaluation of primary sources.
- Use the rubrics on Evaluation
of Discussion and Evaluation of Final
Product to explain how the assignment will be evaluated.
Day Two
- Show a later segment of Our Game (18:08-46:14) of Burns' video
Baseball: The National Pastime. This segment shows the
origins of baseball. You may wish to have students share their thoughts
on this segment.
- To introduce students to the topic of race and ethnicity, show the
segment The Answer is No (1:01-5:05) from the eleventh volume
of Baseball: The National Pastime. This segment is entitled
The Answer is No. This segment describes the baseball commissioner's
refusal to integrate major league baseball. When the segment is complete,
pose the question: Why did this change only three years later, in 1947?
Engage students in discussion.
- Have students review these primary document images of baseball in
the nineteenth century.
- Have students share their observations about
these images with a partner, answering the following questions:
- What do you see?
- What do you these primary sources tell you about
baseball in early America?
- What do the sources tell you about U.S. culture in the late eighteenth
and early nineteeth century?
- Why do you think this way about early baseball and U.S. culture?
- Explain that the students will trace the development
of Americans' ideas about race and ethnicity through the history of
baseball.
|
