D1.5.6-8: Choosing the Kinds of Sources an Inquiry Needs

Overview

Lesson Procedure

65-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20-25 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice10-15 minutes
5. Closure10 minutes

1. Warm-Up10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Your class wants to find out whether the water fountains at your school work well for everyone. What would you look at, and whom would you ask? Name at least three different places to get information."

   Collect answers on the board in three columns without naming the columns yet: records (repair logs, a map of the fountains), things you can observe (test each fountain), and people (students, the custodian, the principal). Then name the columns and point out that each kind of source answers a different part of the question. Ask: "If we only asked the principal, whose view would we miss?" This is the move students make today: before they search, they decide what kinds of sources a question needs, and whose points of view those sources will carry.

2. Direct Instruction20-25 minutes

   Part 1: Two kinds of questions. An inquiry is an investigation that starts from a question and uses sources to answer it. A compelling question is a big question that is worth arguing about and has more than one reasonable answer. A supporting question is a smaller question that helps answer it, usually one with an answer you can find in sources. Today's compelling question is: "Did Rome's water system serve everyone in the city?" Rome is a vehicle for the skill: the same planning works for any inquiry. A source is anything that gives information about the past: a document, an object, a map, a building. A primary source was made at the time by someone who took part or saw the events; a secondary source was made later by someone studying them. Archaeology is the study of the past through the objects and remains people left behind, and an archaeologist is a person who does that work.

   An aqueduct is a channel that carries water over a long distance, often underground and sometimes on tall stone arches. A conduit is a channel or pipe for water, and a reservoir is a tank where water is stored. A point of view is the position a source speaks from: who made it, what that person's job or interests were, and what the person wanted readers to think.

   Kinds of sources an inquiry about Rome's water could use

   Kind of source	What it is good for	What it cannot do well	Example on this page
   Official report or record	Numbers, rules and plans, written by people in charge	Show how ordinary people felt; it speaks for the government	Sources 1 and 2 (Frontinus)
   Expert's handbook	How things were built and what experts of the time worried about	Show what really happened in a given place and year	Source 3 (Vitruvius)
   General book by a writer of the time	What educated people admired or argued about	Give exact, checked figures; the writer may be praising	Source 4 (Pliny)
   Physical remains (archaeology)	Where the channels ran and how they were built	Explain why people built them or who benefited	Source 5, Item C
   Map	Routes, distances and which places the water reached	Show who used the water at each place	Source 5, Item B
   Modern scientific study or history	Testing old claims with new tools; bringing many sources together	Replace the sources it is based on	Source 5, Items D and F

   Part 2: Points of view in the sources. For every source, ask three questions: Who made it? What was the maker's job or interest? Who is not speaking? Frontinus was Rome's water commissioner, the official in charge of the water supply. He wrote, he says, to "guide me in my administration" (Source 1, paragraph 1). Vitruvius was an engineer writing advice for builders. Pliny the Elder wrote a long book about the natural world and human works; in this passage he asks readers to "admit that there is nothing to be found more worthy of our admiration" (Source 4, paragraph 2). None of the four sources speaks in the voice of the people who carried buckets, ran shops or worked on the water crews.

   One more note: all four sources were written in Latin. Students read English translations, versions put into English by modern scholars in 1857, 1914 and 1925. A translation is close to the original, but the exact words are the translator's.

   Part 3: Read the sources. Students read Sources 1-4 with one task: in the margin next to each paragraph, write the supporting question that paragraph could help answer. Key words: subterranean (underground), substructures (stone walls or platforms that hold a channel up), elevation (height), edicts (orders from an emperor), landed proprietors (landowners), water-basins (public basins where people collected water), wholesome (healthy), pallor (paleness), praetorship and aedileship (two Roman government offices), sesterces (Roman coins).

   1[...] Observing, therefore, the practice which I have followed in many offices, I have gathered in this sketch (into one systematic body, so to speak) such facts, hitherto scattered, as I have been able to get together, which bear on the general subject, and which might serve to guide me in my administration. [...]

   2And lest I seem to have omitted anything requisite to a familiarity with the entire subject, I will first set down the names of the waters which enter the City of Rome; then I will tell by whom, under what consuls, and in what year after the founding of the City each one was brought in; then at what point and at what milestone each water was taken; how far each is carried in a subterranean channel, how far on substructures, how far on arches. Then I will give the elevation of each, [the plan] of the taps, and the distributions that are made from them; how much each aqueduct brings to points outside the City, what proportion to each quarter within the City; how many public reservoirs there are, and from these how much is delivered to public works, how much to ornamental fountains (munera, as the more polite call them), how much to the water-basins; how much is granted in the name of Caesar; how much for private uses by the favour of the Emperor; what is the law with regard to the construction and maintenance of the aqueducts, what penalties enforce it, whether established by resolutions of the Senate or by edicts of the Emperors.

   1Another variance consists in this, that one measure is used at the intake, another, considerably smaller, at the settling-reservoir, and the smallest at the point of distribution. The cause of this is the dishonesty of the water-men, whom we have detected diverting water from the public conduits for private use. But a large number of landed proprietors also, past whose fields the aqueducts run, tap the conduits; whence it comes that the public water-courses are actually brought to a standstill by private citizens, just to water their gardens.

   [...]

   2It remains to speak of the maintenance of the conduits; but before I say anything about this, a little explanation should be given about the gangs of slaves established for this purpose. There are two of those gangs, one belonging to the State, the other to Caesar. The one belonging to the State is the older, which, as we have said, was left by Agrippa to Augustus, and was by him made over to the State. It numbers about 240 men. The number in Caesar's gang is 460; it was organized by Claudius at the time he brought his aqueduct into the City.

   1Clay pipes for conducting water have the following advantages. In the first place, in construction:--if anything happens to them, anybody can repair the damage. Secondly, water from clay pipes is much more wholesome than that which is conducted through lead pipes, because lead is found to be harmful for the reason that white lead is derived from it, and this is said to be hurtful to the human system. Hence, if what is produced from it is harmful, no doubt the thing itself is not wholesome.

   2This we can exemplify from plumbers, since in them the natural colour of the body is replaced by a deep pallor. For when lead is smelted in casting, the fumes from it settle upon their members, and day after day burn out and take away all the virtues of the blood from their limbs. Hence, water ought by no means to be conducted in lead pipes, if we want to have it wholesome. That the taste is better when it comes from clay pipes may be proved by everyday life, for though our tables are loaded with silver vessels, yet everybody uses earthenware for the sake of purity of taste.

   1But let us now turn our attention to some marvels which, justly appreciated, may be truthfully pronounced to remain unsurpassed. Q. Marcius Rex, upon being commanded by the senate to repair the Appian Aqueduct, and those of the Anio and Tepula, constructed during his prætorship a new aqueduct, which bore his name, and was brought hither by a channel pierced through the sides of mountains. Agrippa, in his ædileship, united the Marcian with the Virgin Aqueduct, and repaired and strengthened the channels of the others. He also formed seven hundred wells, in addition to five hundred fountains, and one hundred and thirty reservoirs, many of them magnificently adorned. Upon these works, too, he erected three hundred statues of marble or bronze, and four hundred marble columns; and all this in the space of a single year! In the work which he has written in commemoration of his ædileship, he also informs us that public games were celebrated for the space of fifty-nine days, and that one hundred and seventy gratuitous baths were opened. The number of these last at Rome, has increased to an infinite extent since his time.

   2The preceding aqueducts, however, have all been surpassed by the costly work which was more recently commenced by the Emperor Caius, and completed by Claudius. Under these princes, the Curtian and Cærulean Waters, with the New Anio, were brought from a distance of forty miles, and at so high a level that all the hills were supplied with water, on which the City is built. The sum expended on these works was three hundred and fifty millions of sesterces. If we only take into consideration the abundant supply of water to the public, for baths, ponds, canals, household purposes, gardens, places in the suburbs, and country-houses; and then reflect upon the distances that are traversed, the arches that have been constructed, the mountains that have been pierced, the valleys that have been levelled, we must of necessity admit that there is nothing to be found more worthy of our admiration throughout the whole universe.

   Part 4: Model the planning move. Think aloud through the four examples. For each supporting question, name the kinds of sources that fit, point to the evidence that the source can answer it, and say whose point of view the source carries and whose it leaves out.

   • Supporting question about routes (geography)

     Where did Rome's water come from, and how did it travel into the city?

     Result: Helpful kinds of sources: an official record of the routes, a map, and the physical remains of the channels and arches. Source 1 shows that the water commissioner planned to record "how far each is carried in a subterranean channel, how far on substructures, how far on arches" (Source 1, paragraph 2), so an official report fits. A modern map (Source 5, Item B) and an archaeologist's notes on the standing arches (Item C) let students check the report against the land itself. Point of view: an official's record plus physical evidence, which has no point of view of its own but is described by a modern expert.

   • Supporting question about who received water (civics)

     Who decided who got water, and how much went to the public?

     Result: Helpful kinds of sources: official records and laws. Frontinus planned to record "how much is delivered to public works" and "how much for private uses by the favour of the Emperor" (Source 1, paragraph 2), and a Roman water law (Source 5, Item E) shows the rules. Point of view: both come from the government. To hear from people who used the water, an inquiry would also need another kind of source, such as letters or poems by ordinary Romans, which this source set does not include.

   • Supporting question about health (history and science)

     Did the pipes that carried the water harm people's health?

     Result: Helpful kinds of sources: an expert's handbook from the time and a modern scientific study. Vitruvius, an engineer, warns that "lead is found to be harmful" and that water should "by no means" be carried in lead pipes "if we want to have it wholesome" (Source 3, paragraphs 1-2). A modern article that tested old pipes (Source 5, Item D) adds a different point of view from a different time, which helps students see whether the ancient warning holds up.

   • Supporting question about the workers (history)

     Who did the work of keeping the water flowing?

     Result: Helpful kinds of sources: official counts and descriptions, plus any source that shows the workers themselves. Frontinus reports two "gangs of slaves," one of "about 240 men" and one of "460" (Source 2, paragraph 2). That is the official's count, written by the man who directed them. The workers' own point of view is missing from every source on this page, so the plan should say so and look for other kinds of evidence, such as an archaeologist's study of the work sites, while noting what that still cannot tell.

   Contrast: a weak plan says "I will look it up online." A strong plan names the kind of source, explains why it fits the question, and names the point of view it carries.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs read Source 5, the Source Shelf. For each item they write three things on a sticky note: Kind (primary or secondary, and what type), Best supporting question (from Part 4 or their own), and Point of view (whose view it carries). Two of the items are weak sources for this inquiry. Pairs must find them and explain why.

   1An invented school library set out eight items for a class studying Rome's water. The items are invented examples of real kinds of sources.

   2Item A: An English translation of Frontinus's report on the aqueducts, written by the official in charge of Rome's water (Sources 1 and 2 come from it).

   3Item B: A modern map that shows the routes the aqueducts followed from the hills into the city.

   4Item C: Photographs of the stone arches of an aqueduct that still stand today, with an archaeologist's notes on how they were built.

   5Item D: A modern science article that reports tests for lead in the remains of ancient pipes.

   6Item E: A Roman law about who may take water from the public channels, printed in an old collection of laws.

   7Item F: A history book written in 2015 by a historian who studied the ruins and the ancient writers.

   8Item G: A website about Rome for young readers that names no author and lists no sources.

   9Item H: A novel, a made-up story, about a boy who works on an aqueduct crew.

   Teacher key: Item A is a primary source (an official's report); it fits the questions on routes and on who received water, and it carries the government's view. Item B is a secondary source (a modern map) for the routes question. Item C is physical evidence described by a modern expert, for the routes question. Item D is a secondary source (modern science) for the health question, from a modern scientific point of view. Item E is a primary source (a law) for the question on who decided, from the government's view. Item F is a secondary source that brings many sources together; check which sources it used. Weak items: Item G names no author and lists no sources, so students cannot tell whose view it carries or check it. Item H is a novel: it can help students imagine a worker's day, but its events are made up, so it cannot serve as evidence of how workers lived or felt.

4. Independent Practice10-15 minutes

   Each student writes a source plan for the compelling question "Did Rome's water system serve everyone in the city?" The plan has three supporting questions. For each one the student names (1) two kinds of sources that would help, at least one from Sources 1-5; (2) why each kind fits the question; and (3) the point of view each source carries. The plan ends with one sentence that names a point of view missing from the whole source set and one kind of source that might help fill the gap.

   Success criteria: every supporting question has a matching kind of source; at least two different points of view appear; the missing voice is named honestly, without pretending a source speaks for people it does not.

5. Closure10 minutes

   Exit ticket: On an index card, answer: "Name one supporting question from today. What kind of source would you look for first, and why? Whose point of view would that source leave out?"

   Teacher note on the sources: Sources 1-4 are quoted exactly from public-domain translations (Bennett, 1925; Morgan, 1914; Bostock and Riley, 1857), with omissions marked. Frontinus took office in AD 97 under the emperor Nerva (Book II, section 102). The 1914 preface to Vitruvius dates him to the time of the emperor Augustus. Pliny's figures, such as "three hundred and fifty millions of sesterces," are his own claims and are not checked here. Source 2, paragraph 2, describes enslaved workers as Frontinus counted them; treat it as a documented fact about Roman society and analyze the document. Do not ask students to imagine or act out the workers' lives. Sources 5, 6 and 7 are invented for this page.

   Quiz passage. Questions 12-14 of the quiz use Source 6, three invented student source plans. Some of the plans are deliberately weak, for students to evaluate.

   1Three students in an invented seventh-grade class wrote source plans for the compelling question "Did Rome's water system serve everyone in the city?" Some plans are stronger than others. As you read, ask two things about each plan: do the sources fit the supporting question, and does the plan name its points of view honestly?

   2Maya: My supporting question is "Who received water from the aqueducts?" I will use Frontinus's report (Source 1) and Pliny (Source 4). Both are Roman writers, so I have two points of view.

   3Dev: My supporting question is "Did lead pipes harm people's health?" I will use Vitruvius (Source 3), an engineer who lived in Rome, and a modern science article that tested old pipes for lead. That gives me an ancient view and a modern one.

   4Lena: My supporting question is "How did the workers on the water crews feel about their work?" I will use Pliny (Source 4), because he wrote the most about the aqueducts. His view is the workers' view.

   Homework passage. The homework uses Source 7, an invented town's decision about a water tower.

   1Oak Hollow is an invented town. For many years, families carried water home in buckets from one well in the town square. In 1905 the town council voted to build a water tower and lay pipes to homes, paid for by a new monthly water fee.

   2Not everyone agreed. Shop owners on Main Street wanted the tower, because running water would help them fight fires. Farmers just outside town objected, because the pipes would cross their fields. Some families said the fee was more than they could pay.

   3Today the Oak Hollow museum keeps six items from that time and after: (1) the council's meeting notes from 1905; (2) a newspaper article praising the tower, written by the newspaper's owner, who also owned a store on Main Street; (3) a letter of complaint from a farmer; (4) the engineer's plan, with a map of the pipes; (5) the town's account book listing every household that paid the water fee; and (6) a short history of the town, written in 1980 for its 150th birthday.

   4A class wants to answer the compelling question "Did Oak Hollow's water tower serve everyone in town?"

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A student's supporting question is "How many wells, fountains and reservoirs did Agrippa add to Rome's water system?" Which source on this page answers it?

   ASource 1, paragraph 2 BSource 4, paragraph 1 CSource 2, paragraph 1 DSource 3, paragraph 1

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which of these is a compelling question rather than a supporting question?

   AIn what year did Frontinus become water commissioner? BHow many men worked in Caesar's water crew? CShould a city's water go to public fountains first? DWhat material did Vitruvius prefer for pipes?

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Read Source 1, paragraph 2. Which supporting question could this report not help answer?

   AHow much water went to ornamental fountains? BWhat penalties enforced the water laws? CHow far was each water carried on arches? DHow did shopkeepers feel about their water?

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 3, paragraph 2, Vitruvius writes that "everybody uses earthenware for the sake of purity of taste." What kind of evidence is this?

   AA count taken from the city's records BA test done with measuring tools CA law passed by the Roman Senate DAn everyday habit he has noticed

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Pliny gives the cost of the Claudian aqueduct as "three hundred and fifty millions of sesterces" (Source 4, paragraph 2). What would most strengthen a source plan that uses this figure?

   AA second source, such as a record, to check it BQuoting more of Pliny's praise for the aqueducts CReading a novel about the building of the aqueduct DLeaving the figure out of the plan entirely

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Suppose a stone carving on an aqueduct arch names the emperor who paid to repair it. How should a source plan describe this source?

   AA secondary source written by a modern historian BA primary source with the government's view CPhysical evidence that has no point of view at all DA private letter from one Roman to another

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 2, paragraph 1, Frontinus blames landowners who "tap the conduits." Which kind of source would best add the landowners' own point of view?

   AA second report by a later water commissioner BA map of the aqueduct routes near the city CA landowner's letter or a court record DPliny's description of Agrippa's fountains

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which pair of sources gives the least variety in points of view?

   ASource 1 and Source 2 BSource 2 and Source 3 CSource 3 and Source 4 DSource 1 and Source 4

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 4, Pliny exclaims, "and all this in the space of a single year!" What does this tell a planner about Pliny's point of view?

   AHe doubts that Agrippa's figures can be true BHe is writing an official count for the emperor CHe is warning builders about rushed work DHe is amazed and wants readers amazed too

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which supporting question would a map help answer most?

    AWhich hills did the water cross to reach Rome? BWhy did Vitruvius prefer pipes made of clay? CWhat did Frontinus think of the water-men? DHow many men were in Caesar's water crew in all?

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 1 includes the words "as the more polite call them." Who chose these exact English words?

    AFrontinus, writing in English in Rome BBennett, translating the Latin in 1925 CPliny, describing the city's fountains DThe emperor Nerva, in an official order

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Read Source 6. Whose plan uses a source that does not fit the supporting question?

    AMaya's BDev's CLena's DNone of them

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Maya writes, "Both are Roman writers, so I have two points of view." Which response is best?

    ABoth speak from above; add water users' voices BShe should drop Pliny and keep only Frontinus's report CShe is right, because two authors always give two views DShe needs no sources, since the answer is well known

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    What is the main strength of Dev's plan in Source 6?

    AIt uses only sources written in ancient Rome BAn ancient warning checked by a modern test CIt relies on one source so it cannot conflict DIt answers the compelling question by itself

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write a new supporting question about Rome's water that is not on this page. Name two kinds of sources that would help answer it, and explain why each fits.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    The 1914 preface says Vitruvius wrote in the time of the emperor Augustus. Using Sources 2 and 4, explain why Source 3 is limited for a question about the aqueduct that Claudius completed.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Besides the water crews, name one group whose point of view is missing from Sources 1-4. Name a kind of source that might show something about that group, and say what that source still could not show.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Why is an official report, however careful, not enough on its own to answer the compelling question "Did Rome's water system serve everyone in the city?"

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Frontinus says water was taken from the public conduits "just to water their gardens" (Source 2, paragraph 1). Write a supporting question about water theft and name two kinds of sources you would use, each with a different point of view.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Rewrite Lena's plan from Source 6 so that it fits her supporting question and is honest about points of view.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to D1.5.6-8: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.