Setting the tone, correcting student misconceptions about History, these are all good reasons to have a plan at the ready for the first week. There are many ways to demonstrate what it is historians do, and I have picked up and used a number of them to share with students. The one I’m about to show you, though, works great every time.
First, I make an assignment called “Open Interpretation of an Oil Painting.” I place this assignment in the first week, a space usually reserve for getting to know you, class functionality, and what have you.
The instructions for this assignment are pretty straightforward:
I want you to analyze the oil painting to the right. Take a look at it, analyze it, take notes.
Then, reduce this painting to a single word which describes the painting.
Based on that word, craft a sentence.
Based on that sentence, craft a paragraph.
Upload or copy and paste your work by Tuesday night.
You can earn 5-extra points by doing this.
Make an interpretation of this painting!!!
By the way, there are no points assigned, here. A student earns an extra 5-points merely by following the above instructions and turning in the assignment on time.
Last year a student wrote the following in their submission:
Exploited
Manufacturers exploited children in the crafting of goods.
In Holland, in the early-nineteenth century, manufacturers used child labor to produce all sorts of goods. Children as early as five years of age were put to work if their parents were poor.
You must admit, that this a fairly astute observation on the part of the student (And, there was much rejoicing). Note: that I did not give away anything. I did not supply the country of origin, the year it was produced, the artist who crafted this magnificent oil on canvas, I did not give away it’s size in real life, I gave away NOTHING. With just the image and little to go on, I wanted students to interpret this primary document - yes, it’s a painting - and take a stab at using its clues to make guesses based on their prior knowledge and experiences. Most were way off.
Nonetheless. The following week, there’s a page on the learning module entitled, “About That Oil Painting.” It’s here, then, that I reveal who painted this girl (Jean-Baptiste Greuze), the year (1759), and the country of origin (France). I also provide a link to the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in Los Angeles where the painting is currently curated.
But I also let students know that the “oil painting you analyzed has many stories. There is the one that you just came up with,” and then there is this story from the Huntington. I was purposeful in using the word “story,” for if you clicked on the link one would discover that no one truly knows the motivation of the artist. The Huntington raised the following two questions:
Is Greuze implying that knitting is a tedious chore and inappropriate for a young girl?
Or is he gently chiding her inattention to an edifying task?
There are no hard answers supplied by the Huntington, merely a trifle of background in response to the questions they raised. They left readers ready to make their own assumptions. The Huntington went on a path many art historians take, and I am not chiding them for this (maybe I am, I don’t know), but they clouded the painting in terms of the Enlightenment and enlightened ideals of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Maybe. But could not the student’s interpretation of “Exploited” and the working poor also fit?
I leave the these words with my students:
The purpose of the assignment AND the link to the Huntington Gardens article is to demonstrate what the Historical Inquiry Process (HIP) is and how historians work.
You began by looking at the painting, analyzing it, and making guesses as to what, why, when, who, and where (perhaps other wh's). In the process of making guesswork, it is likely that you asked questions. Then came your interpretation. Your interpretation likely involved a storyline. And then you wrote about it.
This is the HIP. That's it.