Lesson Seven: The 1953 Coup – Creating a historical argument
Texts/Materials
All texts (A-I)
Student Interactive Notebook
Activities
1. Introduction
Your task is to write a historical account of the 1953 coup in Iran, based on the historical documents you have read (Texts A-I). A historical account is one type of an argument in history. Just as historians do, you must provide evidence from this text set for your claims and explain your reasoning. As a historian, you must also provide qualifications about what you don’t know or what you can’t know for certain.
Historians also consider the implications of a particular event that they are studying. To that end, and in view of our essential question, write a final paragraph that explores this question.
- What happened in Iran in 1953?
- How do you know?
Here are some sentence stems you may find useful.
To provide evidence:
- I know this from document ______ where it says… [cite evidence from text].
To provide reasoning:
- This evidence helped me understand ______ because… [explain reasoning].
To evaluate your sources:
- This source is (reliable, credible, biased) because _____________[explain how you know].
To provide qualifications:
- This evidence does not ______.
- In order to be certain about ______, we would need additional evidence, like ______.
- I would want to research ______ to find out ______.
2. Think-write
To get started, write your answer to the prompts below:
What happened in Iran in 1953?
How do you know?
3. Pairs read
Read your partner’s writing. Discuss similarities and differences.
- Where do you agree?
- Where do you disagree?
- Can you resolve any of your differences by providing evidence or reasoning?
4. Individuals
Revise your arguments, if necessary, based on feedback from your partner.
5. Jigsaw Group read around
Read each of the papers written by the members of your Jigsaw Group, noting similarities and differences.
- Where do you agree?
- Where do you disagree?
- Can you resolve any of your differences by providing evidence and/or reasoning?
Get ready to share out parts of your argument to the whole group. You are responsible to present a claim and provide evidence and reasoning for that claim, as well as any qualifications.
6. Whole group: What we think we know
When your Jigsaw group shares out a part of your argument (a claim), make sure to provide your evidence and reasoning, as well as any qualifications. In your interactive notebook, list what we think we know about what happened in 1953.