Picturing+Your+Thoughts

=Unit 12: Picturing Your Thoughts=

Key Words

 * **collage:** an artwork made by gluing pieces of paper, fabric, photographs, and other objects to a flat surface
 * **inquisitor:** one who examines or investigates
 * **juxtaposition:** the placing together of two or more contrasting things for the sake of effect
 * **thesis:** the focus or main idea of an essay. A thesis states what the essay will prove.

Lesson Objectives
• Review knowledge gained in the Age of Democratic Revolutions and the Revolutions in Arts, Industries, and Work units. • Conduct research on examples of progress and hardship in the period from 1700 to 1900. • Support a thesis statement visually. • Write a thesis statement based on research.

Read, Browse, Peruse
You have written essays before. Often, an essay proves something by presenting factual evidence to support a thesis. Sound familiar? You are about to review Part 3 of the textbook, choose a topic, do some research, and prepare to write a thesis. But instead of supporting your thesis in writing, you are going to make a collage—a carefully arranged collection of images, graphs, charts, short quotations, drawings, maps, and so on. The collage will support your thesis, perhaps as well as a thousand words would. Let’s get started by answering some questions you might have.


 * What’s a thesis statement?


 * Your thesis statement comprises the sentence or two that tells the reader (and you) what your essay is going to prove.
 * What will the thesis be about?
 * Your thesis will be about progress and hardship during the period from 1700 to 1900.
 * What does a thesis look like?

Let’s use an example from a time period you've studied earlier in the course. Here’s a thesis statement related to progress and hardship during the Age of Exploration in the 1500s:

Spanish settlement in the Americas during the 1500s brought wealth and new products to many Europeans, but Native Americans suffered death and the loss of wealth and land.

Are there facts and evidence to support this statement? Sure. You could find a lot of information in your text and in other sources. Now, could you support the statement with images instead of paragraphs? Could you use pictures, drawings, statistics, quotations, and maps instead of words?

So, how will you get started?

Review the contents of Units 10 and 11, which correspond to Part 3 of the textbook. As you do so, think about particular examples of progress and hardship during the period from 1700 to 1900.

This may seem like a lot of ground to cover (in the textbook, Part 3 runs from pages 348–515). However, that’s where the words browse and peruse come in. Look at the illustrations and their captions, pay attention to the chapter subheadings, and scan the text. But you should only read text about subjects that relate to the topic of progress and hardship. Pay particular attention to the review lessons at the end of Units 10 and 11.

Make a list of topics that fit the theme of progress and hardship. Was there both progress and hardship as a result of the American or French Revolution? Was there both progress and hardship during the Industrial Revolution? What other topics fit the theme?

Once you've identified several examples, you’re ready to move on to the next stage.

Doing the Research
Using online and printed sources, begin to research two or three of the topics you have identified that exemplify progress and hardship during the period from 1700 to 1900. As you do so, think about which example you would like to develop further.

The kinds of facts you should try to find include:
 * quotes from relevant parties
 * visuals such as paintings, portraits, or maps
 * facts, figures, and statistics

During your research, narrow your focus to the example that you think works best.

Write a Thesis
Now it’s time to write your thesis—the focus or main idea of an essay. Remember, a thesis states what the essay will prove.

Write a short statement about the topic you selected on Day 1 (try to get it down to a single sentence). The statement should answer the question: in what way was there both progress and hardship in this area? Make sure your thesis is a strong one that addresses both the progress and the hardship.


 * Re-Research**

Now continue with your research, this time to gather information (visual and statistical as well as written) in support of your thesis.

Look at the same types of information you did during yesterday’s research. In other words, collect supportive visual and statistical information as well as written information. Collect quotes from people at the time that back up your thesis. Find relevant excerpts from laws, declarations, or other official documents. Make notes of statistics that seem to add weight to your views. Create graphs, charts, or other ways to represent information. Think about visuals that will provide a little context or color. Either draw them yourself or print images from the Internet. For example, if you were working on the sample thesis (“Spanish settlement in the Americas during the 1500s brought wealth and new products to many Europeans, but Native Americans suffered death and the loss of wealth  and land”) you might gather the following:


 * Quotations from explorers, kings, merchants, and so on.
 * Drawings of the gold and silver the explorers found in the Americas.
 * Magazine pictures of products that went to Europe such as potatoes, tomatoes, squash, and so on.
 * Advertisements in Europe about going to the Americas.
 * Statistics about wealth in Europe.
 * Statistics on the decline of Native Americans because of European diseases.
 * Maps of land claims before and after colonization.
 * Pictures of the Spanish taking gold and silver.
 * Government documents from the time.
 * Letter from Bartolome de Las Casas about the abuse of Indians.

You could handwrite the quotes or find them on the Internet and print them out. Illustrations, maps, paintings, diagrams, and so on can be drawn and colored by you, photocopied from the textbook or other sources, or printed from the Internet. Create charts and graphs to quickly and effectively represent facts, figures, and statistics.

Picture This!
A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. Now’s your chance to prove it. Rather than writing an essay about the issue in your thesis, you’ll use the images, quotes, graphs, and other things that you gathered yesterday. Glue them on a large sheet of paper to form a collage that supports your thesis statement.

Think carefully about the layout of the collage. Consider the following:


 * Should the collage be divided in two, perhaps to show things “before” and “after” or to compare the progress with the hardship?
 * Is the thesis statement featured prominently?
 * Should the content of the collage move chronologically from left to right or from top to bottom?
 * Should you use arrows to show a progression of events?
 * Do you want to use labels?
 * What is the best way to juxtapose different elements? (For example, to support the exploration thesis, include a painting showing the wealth of the conquistadors next to one illustrating the enslavement of the Native Americans.)

Presentation
You should finish up your collage and then present it to a member of your family and explain its meaning. Be ready to answer questions and to provide clarifications.