1. Bellwork Vocabulary Card On the blank side of the card:
Write “V4” in the upper right corner
Write “Context” near the center of the card
Leave room for an illustration
On the lined side of the card write, “the situation in which something happens; the conditions that exist where and when something happens”
Keep your vocabulary cards neatly stored together with a rubber band, box, envelope, etc.

2. Set Up Number page 18 Title page 18 “Lunchroom Fight II”
Page 19 will be a handout
Table of Contents:
page 18
Lunchroom Fight II

3. Q&A
Corroboration?
Reliability?
Sourcing?

4. How can context help us better understand history?
Lunchroom Fight II

5. Contextualization
When we did the first Lunchroom Fight activity, we focused on sourcing.
You wondered how two accounts of the same event could be different if no one was lying, and
you considered why some accounts might be more reliable or trustworthy than others.
Today you’re going to receive evidence from eyewitnesses and others connected to the fight in the lunchroom.
Your job is to figure out who should get suspended for starting the fight.
In order to figure that out, you’re going to need to source, contextualize, and corroborate.
In other words, you’re going to need to read and compare multiple pieces of evidence in order to figure which are more reliable and how they all fit together to fill out the story of what happened in the lunchroom that day.

6. Evidence Target (p. 19) TOWN
What’s been happening at school that might help explain the fight?
What’s been happening in town that might help explain the fight?
SCHOOL
CAFETERIA
What happened in the cafeteria?

7. Check for Understanding
What is context?
How can context help us better understand this fight?
Which witnesses did you find the most reliable? Why?
Which witnesses did you find the least reliable? Why?
Who do you think started the fight? Why?

8. Context
It is likely that Max, Justin, their parents, and Max’s friend are all unreliable because they are clearly aligned with one side
Jamie, the cafeteria worker, and the bystander seem to be reliable because, as far as we know, they don’t have a vested interest in either side
Max’s girlfriend and the English teacher present some interesting situations
We would predict the girlfriend would side with Max, but she says that he has been mean recently
WE would predict that the English teacher would be neutral, but his comments suggest that he feels for the boys whose parents lost their jobs, and he might have turned a blind eye to their teasing of Justin

9. Context
The important point here is the role that context plays in painting a full picture of what happened in the lunchroom.
If we simply throw out the unreliable evidence, we would lose some critical context information
that Justin moved around a lot
that Max’s friends think Justin is weird).
It would be difficult to paint a full picture of what happened using only the information in the “reliable” evidence, because bystanders typically see the events from a distance.
Even if you believe a source is mostly unreliable, it may still contain some useful information.

10. Suspension Report (p. 18) Write and answer the following questions
What happened in the cafeteria? (Please identify your sources.)
In my judgment, the following student should be suspended: __________. My reasoning is as follows: __________.
Sign and date the bottom of the page.
If you can, try to make it look like a real suspension report.

11. Ticket Out the Door On the blank side of an index card:
Write “T4” in the upper right corner
Write “CR” in the upper left corner (means “constructed response”)
Write this question “Are sourcing, contextualization, and corroboration useful in history class? Why?”
Write your answer on the lined side
Keep your Tickets Out the Door neatly stored together with either a rubber band, box, envelope, etc.