I'm only new to this extension thing and I am having my difficulties as well. I, like most others it seems, have started with the "what is history" question and used the source book and some other "stuff", but when, in planning, I get to the case study I feel like I'm floundering.
I have chosen to tackle the War of Independence as my case study as I did it at uni (which until I re-looked at it, I thought was recently!) and I have a bit of interest in it. I am using Edward Countryman "The American Revn" and hoping to get my hands on Bernard Bailyn "Ideological Origins etc.". I have access to a number of general American History texts such as "The comparative approach to American History", "A History of the United States" and "The Making of America" (all of which are rather dated!) But what do I do with these things!?!??
If anyone out there has taught the Revolution as a case study I would be most interested in hearing from them (re: resources, planning of the course etc.).
I can't wait until the Extension PD in March (I'm in Albury - so it will be a bit of a jaunt to Sydney too!)
My knowledge of the American Revolution is limited to the Gibson/Ledger work in this area, so my comments are very general. What you do with the texts is, I think, essentially the same regardless of the topic. With the women convicts which my class does, we isolate a number of areas of debate; look at the range of source material for these areas; and then consider how a range of historians have used these sources to produce quite different interpretations. Our focus is on the historians themselves - use the "Who are the Historians" questions on page 12 in the syllabus - and their methodologies.
In your own case study, you will need to be familiar with a range of texts that cast some light on the focus questions and areas of debate in the syllabus. These are very open in your case study and allow for a great deal of freedom in the teaching and learning. A couple of points are worth making, though: ensure you include a range of opinions - debate is essential - from various time periods; place your historians in a specific context of time and place and use this to assist in accounting for their interpretations; and ensure you include recent historiography.
And one last point: give your students plenty of context for the topic. Their background knowledge is probably quite limited. I assumed my own students had a reasonable grasp of Australian history when starting the women convicts. Wrong!
If you have access to a university database log on to JSTOR - you will find many many article on this topic. Its also likely some of them will deal with the development of historigraphy on the American Revolution. You'll probably need to move away from narrative histories such as Penguin Hist of the United States and find some more theoretical texts. My supervisor has just published a book on Humanism and America - I don't know if it deals with the revolution as it mostly covers the early modern period but it would certianly be a good example of the currenrt thinking on this period. . Have you read The Radicalness of the American Revolution? - authors name eludes me but its quite good. Bailyn is excellent but its somewhat dated. You might also like to place look at writing which deals with the the theory of historical revolutions generally. Steve Pincus at Yale has published a new monograph with quite a radical re-interpretation on the Glorious Revolution - Im sure he will have some interesting remarks towards historians approach to the study of revolutions generally.
BTW - I am not a history teacher I'm a PhD student at Sydney University. 'Im having a read of these posts because I have to teach some first year tutorials and I want to get an idea of the sorts of things students and teachers are thinking about. But im not sure of the precise requirements of the course.
