Grosse Ile AP students,
Two good examples of point of view analysis for you.
M
AP World Friends,
Why is the KEY to POV.
An acceptable pov analysis using your example might be:
“Jonathan Sampson, a native American, (attribution, student should site the “he”) appears to dislike Anglo Americans because his family was murdered during the Black Kettle uprising, yet his information has been verified by eye witness accounts both native and soldiers, thus making him a credible source. (doc. 7)
”Miguel Montez’s tone seems angry and resentful, because his ancestor’s land was take by American soldiers during the
Mexican American War. He offers no evidence for his claims, thus his point of view is questionable. (doc.5)”
I caution my students to use “point of view” in analyzing documents, because bias has a negative connotation. And
gently, yet consistently, move my students to “muscle” up the WHY in point of view analysis.
I use MindSparks “World History Unfolding” booklets in my AP World and AP European history classes and Kevin Reilly’s
Comparative Readers to help my students analyze primary sources. Also, I am constantly using newspaper articles, current
events, Television news clips, Presidential press conferences, whatever, to make analogies to whatever World history
unit, region, event we are studying. These analogies always move toward WHY…..”Why did Mitt Romney say what he said
in his Mormon speech?” Why did he add the “minora” alongside the importance of nativity scenes…etc. al.
Why did the Chinese emperor assassinate his admirals and destroy the fleet? Any comparison to cutbacks in the US space
program or move from “heavy” rockets to “space shuttles?”
Why did Hillary Clinton move to support the Bush administration and the surge in Iraq this summer?John Maunu
Grosse Ile High, Mi.Jonathan Burack
Highsmith Inc.Gloria Harrison, I think you raise a very critical question here.
I have a different POV problem to ask readers: I have a student who is excellent at spotting the *bias* (horrid word!) in a document, but consistently doesn’t explain WHY. She writes things like, “he appears to dislike Americans, but in spite of this bias, he seems to present trustworthy evidence.” Am I correct in telling her that if she doesn’t give a good reason why the author might dislike Americans, this is not POV?
I would say you are correct. I often get the sense not enough is done to teach students how to look closely at forms of expression, rhetorical techniques, logical and illogical argument, metaphor choices, stereotyping, selectivity, voice or directionality in the way an author positions himself or herself, etc. As for visual sources, paying attention to the use of color, composition, symbols, expressions, exaggerations, etc., in which bias or perspective is embedded. Perhaps I am mistaken, but it seems to me POV all too often means little more than who the writer or creator of the source is, what his or her group identity is, along with a quick identifying of the text’s content or subject content of the image. Am I wrong? I would be very interested to hear what others think, what else they include in POV and how they teach students to analyze it.
