A. Anticipate the message of the selected historical document using key words as clues.
B. Read “around” and “in” the document to understand the selected historical document.
C. Read “behind” the document to uncover details about the author’s beliefs and attitudes.
Overview
This critical challenge teaches students to use a set of guiding questions and three “reading” strategies to help them interpret historical documents found in the Chinese Benevolent Association collection. The guiding questions—called R.A.F.T.S. (Role, Audience, Format, Topic, Strong Verb) invite students to consider who created the document, who was the intend audience, and what is the nature of the document, the topic address, and the author’s purpose or stance. This framework is introduced by asking students to speculate on answers to each of the R.A.F.T.S. questions based solely on thirty words that have been extracted from a selected historical document. Students then read “around” the document—looking at the nature of the paper, the headings, any stamps or markings—to help confirm or add to their initial speculations. They also read “in” the document by undertaking the conventional line-by-line interpretation to further test or complement their earlier conclusions. Finally students read “behind” the document looking for language and other textual clues to help uncover the author’s less obvious beliefs and attitudes about the events and the historical context.
