Snapshot impressions #5--fifth class of the Fall 2012 term

I like to joke about this one, saying that "Civil War is coming to the archives." Although misleading, this statement is true.

The American Civil War class has come to the archives annually for more than three years. This is an exciting classroom experience for me. Why? The professor not only sees the value in the archives, and therefore wants to forge deeper connections between the archives and all of his classes, but he uses the archival sources as an opportunity to tease out details from previous lectures. I am always in awe of his ability to do this. I have learned a great deal about the War from these sessions alone.

In the past, the prof has asked me to find connections between the University, the Province, and the Civil War. It was no small task that first year, but I did find a few connections. After listening to the prof talk during that first archives session, I investigated more leads and more even more connections. He wanted more, though; he wanted personal narratives to make that connection. On that front, I am still searching.

This year, I was asked to find sources that gave political, social, and economic context to the War. Again, I set Amber on the trail of sources. We had more than I realized. Amber and I examined each source for that context and chose the best of possible sources. I wanted one source for each student in the class of 45. This time the speed dating exercise would probe deeper into the source, making a direct connection to the course and allowing time for the prof to lecture based on details discovered by the students.

We did four rounds of dating. The first round was short, asking each student to find one, interesting detail. The second round was also short, asking about the purpose of the book. The next two rounds were more probing with questions asking about connections to other events in the states between 1861 and 1865 and if the source gave voice to the North or the South as well as how the source helped with the students' understanding of why the War happened. As each round was completed, the prof made direct connections to the content of his previous lectures. He also prompted the students, drawing out their responses during the discussions.

My observations, with the benefit of hindsight:

• four rounds was too many, given the time we had to do the session and the depth of the questions. The students responded that they wanted more time to examine their source and think about the questions
• directly linking the lectures to the sources makes the archives relevant to the students' needs
• working closely with the prof to deliver the session is very valuable. I need to find ways to do this with more profs