Do students read "between the lines"? Do they read with thought of finding answers to their own questions? These activities have been designed to teach students how to critically evaluate what is read.

Directions: Using the journalistic approach of Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How, examine one of the documents below. Use the How Does It Read? Guide to describe what you are reading.

apparatus - a set of materials or equipment designed for a specific use, 1628 (date of the earliest recorded use in English)

bivouac - a temporary encampment under little or no shelter, 1702 brigade - group of people organized for special activity, 1637

canon - form of canyon, deep narrow valley with steep sides often with a stream flowing through it (American spelling), 1837

doll up - to dress elegantly or extravagantly, to make more attractive (as by addition of decorative details), 1906

enfranchised - to endow with a franchise as to admit to the privileges of a citizen and especially of the rights of suffrage, 15th century

jollifications - festivity, merrymaking, 1809 Postum - cereal coffee, late 1800's

rudiments - a basic principle or element or fundamental skill, 1548

strychnine - a bitter poisonous alkaloid, used as a poison for rodents, 1819 veritable - capable of being verified, confirmed, 1593

View this clip as Rosemary Plakas, Curator in Rare Books and Special Collections at The Library of Congress tells the story about this pattern for slippers.

Hospital slippers for the sick and wounded soldiers of the Ubion

Click here to see the item in the American Memory Collection.