Creating Wonder in the Introductory History Survey: Tuning Rare Books Assignment Design

First-year college students benefit from History "lab" experiences that engage them with rare books and manuscripts. Opportunities to handle and work extensively with archival objects made content more relatable which in turn made the knowledge more "sticky" than did text- and discussion-based learning. With careful scaffolding, integration of archival objects into the introductory classroom can produce increased levels of comprehension and critical thinking.Students initially approach interaction with rare objects with a healthy dose of fear and intimidation — fear that they might inadvertently damage an object and intimidation that they are not yet qualified to handle such objects. Clear guidelines that introduce students to material objects, to discussion of the objects, and written analysis of the objects scaffolds the learning process and offers students a step-by-step guide to acquiring skills, understanding, and knowledge they need to succeed and to build confidence in working with primary source material. In this presentation, Jennifer Duncan (Rare Books Librarian) and Susan Cogan (Historian) will offer examples of successful assignment design that tune the introductory history classroom to three of the core competencies and learning outcomes of the AHA's Tuning projects: building historical knowledge, developing historical methods, and creating historical arguments and narratives.