Reading sources critically

Lesson plan

3 class periods of about 45 minutes.

1. Day 1 · 45 min

   A witness and his follower

   1. 5 minutes: Pose the unit question: How do we decide whom to believe? Hand out the source worksheet and point to what it asks of every source: who made it, when and for whom, and what it can and cannot tell us.
   2. 5 minutes: Both of today's sources are High intensity. The Plague at Athens, and Pericles Answers the Athenians describes symptoms, unburied bodies and funeral pyres; The Plague at Constantinople describes the deaths of mothers and newborns and bodies piled in towers. Tell students that today's passages are about how the writers know what they say, and that none of them describes the sick.
   3. 15 minutes: Read Thucydides 2.48.2–2.48.3 and 2.54.2–2.54.3. Ask what makes him a strong witness, and what he says about people shaping their memories to fit what they were suffering.
   4. 15 minutes: Read the History tab of Procopius's account, then 2.22.9–2.22.10, 2.23.2 and 2.23.16. Ask which details he likely saw for himself, and which might be borrowed from Thucydides or exaggerated. Point out that historians treat his daily death tolls as round numbers.
   5. 5 minutes: Exit note: one reason to trust Procopius, and one reason to doubt him.

2. Day 2 · 45 min

   A prince and a bishop's man

   1. 15 minutes: Read the History tab of Discourse on Epidemic Qi, and a Brother's Letter (Low intensity), then all nine passages. Cao Zhi was a prince, and the essay survives only in quotations made centuries later. Ask how his brother's letter in [9] changes how we use his claim in [6].
   2. 10 minutes: Read the History tab of The Plague in the Bishop of Rochester’s Household (Low intensity: deaths listed, nothing graphic). Note whose side the writer took, and which of his facts historians can check: the dates of the three archbishops' deaths.
   3. 15 minutes: Pairs read passages 8, 10, 12 and 15. Ask how the writer's side might shape the line in 15 about the prior having plenty, and how a historian could check it.
   4. 5 minutes: Exit note: one fact in either source you could check elsewhere, and one you could not.

3. Day 3 · 45 min

   Building a checklist

   1. 20 minutes: Groups take one of the More sources for this unit and read its History tab and a few passages with the worksheet: Aelius Aristides's account of his illness (Medium intensity: a near-death fever and two children's deaths, without graphic detail), Zhang Zhongjing's preface (Low), or Cyprian's sermon (Medium: a vivid list of symptoms in 14.1). Each group answers its source's reliability question from the For teachers tab.
   2. 10 minutes: Each group reports who made its source, why, how long after the events, and one reason to trust or doubt it.
   3. 5 minutes: From the groups' findings, the class builds a short checklist for deciding whom to believe: eyewitness or not, how long after, for whom, and whether later copies changed the text.
   4. 10 minutes: Students answer the unit question in a paragraph, applying the checklist to at least two of the unit's sources and citing passage numbers.

Read these sources

The sources the lesson plan uses, in its order. Each opens in Hearth Library with the original beside plain English, and a History tab on who made it and how far to trust it.

1. 1

   The Plague at Athens, and Pericles Answers the Athenians

   Thucydides, 430–400 BCE. Moderate.

   Plain language; Pericles's argument needs context.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   oracle

   a shrine where a god was believed to answer questions, or the answer given there

   contagion

   the spread of disease from person to person

   pyre

   a pile of wood for burning a dead body

   Assembly

   the meeting of Athenian citizens that made the city's decisions

   general

   one of ten elected officials who led the Athenian armies and much of the city's politics

   envoy

   a messenger sent to bargain with another state

   tyranny

   rule by one person who took power without a legal right

   humors

   the body fluids (later fixed as four, blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) that doctors believed had to stay in balance

   1. Comprehension Trace the course of the disease in one sufferer, from the first signs to death or recovery. What happened to many who survived?
   2. Analysis Thucydides says people stopped fearing the gods and the law. What reasons does he give, and do they follow from what he has described?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Thucydides says he had the disease himself. How does that make his account stronger, and what might a survivor leave out? He also says he wrote the speeches in his own words, keeping as close as he could to the general sense of what was said. How should that change the way we read Pericles's defense?
   4. Connection Procopius, in The Plague at Constantinople, modeled his account on this one. Compare how the two writers describe what happened to burial customs, and what each says about the gods.

   Activity Hold the Athenian Assembly of 430 BCE. Half the class argues for sending envoys to make peace with Sparta; half defends Pericles's policy. Each side may use only evidence from the text. Vote, then read 2.65 to compare with what the Athenians actually did.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

2. 2

   The Plague at Constantinople

   Procopius, 550–551. Moderate.

   Plain words in long, careful descriptions; the court, the factions, and Procopius's debt to Thucydides need context.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   bubo

   a painful swelling of a gland in the groin, armpit, or neck; the mark of bubonic plague

   carbuncle

   a hard, dark, inflamed lump in the flesh

   contagion

   the spread of disease from person to person

   delirium

   a state of wild, confused thinking, often with frightening visions, brought on by illness

   demon

   an evil spirit; many Christians of Procopius's time believed demons could cause illness

   faction

   a rival group within a community; in Constantinople, the Blues and the Greens, clubs of chariot-racing fans

   providence

   God's care for the world and plan for what happens in it

   sophist

   a learned speaker or teacher; Procopius uses the word for clever people with empty explanations

   1. Comprehension How did the disease begin in a person, according to Procopius, and what different courses could it then take? What sign gave a sick person the best hope of recovery?
   2. Analysis Procopius says the plague's cause can be traced only to God, yet he also says it seemed to spare the wickedest people. What, if anything, does he think the plague teaches? How does his own answer differ from those of the theorists he mocks in 22.1?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Procopius was in Byzantium when the plague arrived, but he wrote years later and modeled his account on Thucydides. Which details seem most likely to come from what he saw for himself, and which might be borrowed or exaggerated? Look closely at the daily death tolls in 23.2 and at the comment on the survivors in 23.16.
   4. Connection Thucydides (The Plague at Athens, and Pericles Answers the Athenians) was Procopius's model. Thucydides saw the disease pass to those who nursed the sick (2.51); what does Procopius say about whether it passed from person to person (22.23), and what evidence does he give? Where else does his account follow Thucydides, and where does it part from it?

   Activity You are Theodore, the official Justinian put in charge of burying the dead. Using only details from the text, write a one-page report to the emperor on what you found, what you did, and what you still need. Then compare reports with a classmate and discuss what an official report would leave out that Procopius puts in.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

3. 3

   Discourse on Epidemic Qi, and a Brother's Letter

   Cao Zhi, 217–218. Accessible.

   Very short and plain; needs only the notes on qi and yin and yang.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   qi

   the vital breath or energy that Chinese thinkers saw in the body and the world

   yin and yang

   paired opposite forces, such as dark and light or cold and heat; their balance, and the right order of the seasons, was thought to keep the body and the world healthy

   epidemic

   an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly through many people at once

   talisman

   a written charm believed to keep away evil spirits or disease

   commoner

   an ordinary person, not a noble or an official

   clan

   a large extended family sharing one surname and ancestors

   sable

   the dark, costly fur of a small animal related to the weasel

   1. Comprehension According to Cao Zhi, who died in the epidemic of 217, who seldom fell sick, and what caused it?
   2. Analysis Cao Zhi rejects one explanation and offers another. What evidence does he give for his own explanation, and what does he leave unexplained?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Cao Zhi was a prince, and his essay survives only in quotations made centuries later. Compare his claim that few of the rich fell sick with his brother's letter. How should the letter change the way we use the essay as evidence?
   4. Connection Read Zhang Zhongjing's Preface to the Treatise on Cold Damage. Cao Zhi says the epidemic of 217 struck mostly the poor, while Zhang, writing of the decade after 196, says he lost two of every three members of his large clan, most of them to Cold Damage. These are different epidemics and different families. What does each account suggest about who died, and why might two writers of the same era place the blame so differently?

   Activity Students stage a short hearing set in 217. One team argues, as Cao Zhi does, that disordered seasons caused the epidemic; a second team argues for ghosts and spirits, as the people he mocks did. A panel of judges asks each team what evidence it has, including Cao Pi's letter, and who might disagree, then writes a one-paragraph verdict on which team used evidence better.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

4. 4

   The Plague in the Bishop of Rochester’s Household

   William Dene, 1349–1350. Moderate.

   Short entries in plain language, but full of church offices; the notes explain the few that matter.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   bishop

   the leader of the Christian church in a city and its region

   chronicle

   a record of events set down year by year

   chaplain

   a priest without a parish of his own, paid to say Mass or to serve for another priest

   parish

   the district served by one church and its priest

   abbess

   the woman in charge of a community of nuns

   manor

   a lord’s estate, with its fields, buildings, and tenants

   1. Comprehension List the ways the plague touched the bishop’s household, the clergy of his diocese, and his estates.
   2. Analysis The chronicle never describes a sick person. What does the writer record instead, and what does that suggest about who he was and what he cared about?
   3. Analysis (reliability) The writer took the bishop’s side against the prior. How might that shape the line about the prior having plenty while the monks threshed their own grain? How could a historian check it?
   4. Connection Read The Plague as a Test: A Bishop's Sermon at Carthage, which Cyprian preached during an epidemic in the third century. What does each source suggest a church leader was expected to do in an epidemic, and what problems could he not solve?

   Activity Half the class drafts the bishop’s order of June 27, 1349, to the chaplains, in plain words, explaining why they must serve for the old pay. The other half drafts the chaplains’ reply. The class then discusses whose case was stronger, and why the king and the bishop sided as they did.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

More sources for this unit

• The Plague at My Country House, and a Life for a Life Aelius Aristides, 170–175. Moderate. For teachers
• Preface to the Treatise on Cold Damage Zhang Zhongjing, 200–206. Moderate. For teachers
• The Plague as a Test: A Bishop's Sermon at Carthage Cyprian, 252–253. Moderate. For teachers

To finish

Come back to the question: How do we decide whom to believe? Ask students to answer it with evidence from at least two of the sources, and to say which source they trust most and why.

Standards

Every source asks how its writer's position, purpose, date and survival in copies limit it, and activities require arguing only from the text.

Go further

Other units

Who gets blamed? · The healer's burden · Governments, quarantine, and consent · Explaining disease before germs · Faith and catastrophe · After the plague · Case study: smallpox

Encyclopedia

The Black Death

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Word for Word

Collection

Every source in Once in a Lifetime