Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
Due to utility work, the intersection of 10th Street and F Street is currently closed and inaccessible to vehicular traffic. The Atlantic Building parking garage can be accessed by turning north on 10th Street from E Street NW. Please use extreme caution when accessing the garage as the block serves 2-way traffic during this closure. Please allow for extra time to arrive at the museum and theatre.
When a museum designs an exhibit, the curators must decide what will be included in or excluded from the display. Imagine you got to design an exhibit about the assassination of President Lincoln. Should the Deringer pistol used by John Wilkes Booth to shoot Abraham Lincoln be displayed in the new exhibit? What do you think?
Four American presidents have been assassinated, all by firearms. Two of the murder weapons are on public display; two are not.
This is a teacher-directed activity. We also offer a student-directed version of this lesson.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
Learning Objectives |
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Guiding Questions |
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Arrange students into small groups. Distribute the 1937 photograph of Edwin Pitts with the artifacts and the Library of Congress primary source analysis tool to each student.
The teacher leads a close reading of the letter with the entire class. Select a student to read aloud a definition from the glossary each time an unfamiliar word or term is encountered.
Now the teacher leads a close reading of the response letter from General Bridges with the entire class.
Imagine you are the curator of Ford’s Theatre Museum and the exhibits are to be redesigned.
Arrange students into small groups. Distribute the 1937 photograph of Edwin Pitts with the artifacts and the Library of Congress primary source analysis tool to each student. Students should work together to observe, reflect and question what they see in the photograph. They should jot down their findings on the back of the sheet. Call on tables to report out on what they found.
Share with them that this is Edwin Pitts, Chief Clerk of the Judge Advocate General’s Office in the U.S. Department of War. In 1937 these artifacts were still in possession of the War Department and were stored in a trunk in Pitt’s office.
The teacher leads a close reading of the letter with the entire class. Select a student to read aloud a definition from the glossary each time an unfamiliar word or term is encountered. Discuss these prompts with the group:
Now the teacher leads a close reading of the response letter from General Bridges with the entire class. Select a student to read aloud a definition from the glossary each time an unfamiliar word or term is encountered. Discuss these prompts with the group:
Imagine you are the curator of Ford’s Theatre Museum and the exhibits are to be redesigned. Your job is to select what will be in the new exhibits. You must decide if the derringer pistol used by John Wilkes Booth to shoot Abraham Lincoln should or should not be displayed in the new exhibits. What do you think?
To complete the below activities you will need the following materials, in addition to pencils or pens and one sheet of paper for each student.