D1.5.9-12: Planning Sources by Point of View, Availability and Use
In plain English: D1.5.9-12 is the C3 Framework inquiry indicator for grades 9-12 that asks students to determine which kinds of sources will help answer compelling and supporting questions, weighing the points of view in the sources, the types of sources available and how each source could be used. Students plan an inquiry before gathering evidence.
Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration multiple points of view represented in the sources, the types of sources available, and the potential uses of the sources.
C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 1: Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries · Determining Helpful Sources · Official standard
Students plan an inquiry before they gather evidence. For a compelling question and its supporting questions they decide which kinds of sources will help, weighing three things the indicator names: the points of view the sources carry, the types of sources available, and the potential uses of each source.
The vehicle is the Texas cattle drives that began in 1866, seen through a cattle dealer's book (McCoy, 1874), a federal statistician's report (Nimmo, 1885) and a trail hand's memoir (Nat Love, 1907). Students find that the surviving sources favor some groups, and they plan how to reach the others.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Match supporting questions to the kinds of sources that can answer them, and explain why
Identify the points of view sources carry and plan sources that add missing points of view
Explain how the types of sources available for a topic depend on who kept and published records
Distinguish a source's strong and weak potential uses, including using a biased source as evidence of its bias
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Determining helpful sources and considering multiple points of view D1.5.6-8
Explaining how supporting questions contribute to an inquiry D1.4.9-12
Citing evidence with attention to the date and origin of the information RH.9-10.1
"A historian in 2125 wants to know how teenagers in your town lived in the 2020s. What kinds of sources will exist, who will have made them, and which teenagers' lives will be easiest and hardest to find?"
List the sources students name and sort them by maker: schools and governments, businesses, teenagers themselves, families. Ask which groups leave the most records and which leave few. Introduce today's three planning questions: Whose points of view will my sources carry? What types of sources are available for this topic? What could each one be used to show?
Direct Instruction20-25 minutes
Part 1: The inquiry. From 1866, Texas ranchers and dealers drove herds of cattle north to Missouri and Kansas, and later to northern ranges (Source 1, paragraphs 1-2; Source 3, paragraph 1). The compelling question for today is "Who gained and who lost from the Texas cattle drives?" The drives are a vehicle for the skill; the planning moves apply to any inquiry.
A source's point of view is shaped by the maker's position and interests. The types of sources available depend on who kept records, who published, and what survived. A source's potential uses are the different things it can serve as evidence of: events, quantities, the maker's own beliefs, or a check on another source. A biased source is often good evidence of the bias itself.
Three planning lenses, applied to the sources on this page
Source
Point of view
Type, and why it survives
Strong potential use
Weak potential use
Source 1: McCoy, 1874
A cattle dealer and promoter of the trade
A book printed in Kansas City in 1874 and kept by libraries
How traders saw prices, risks and opponents
The motives of the farmers who opposed the herds
Source 2: Nat Love, 1907
A trail hand looking back at the end of the range
A memoir the author published in 1907, decades after the drives
How one worker remembered and explained change
What most trail hands experienced
Source 3: Nimmo, 1885
A federal statistician, drawing partly on letters from cattlemen printed in the report's appendices
A government report, printed and kept in libraries
Estimated numbers and values across years
How the trade felt to people who did not profit
Source 4, Items A-C
Kansas lawmakers, local editors, the Cherokee Nation's government
Laws, newspapers and tribal records, kept by governments and libraries
The views of groups Sources 1-3 describe from outside
Events far from where they were made
Part 2: Read the sources. Students read Sources 1-3 and, beside each paragraph, note (a) whose point of view it carries and (b) one thing it could be used to show. Key terms: bullock and beeves (beef cattle), drover (a person who drives a herd to market), Red river (a river on the northern edge of Texas, which the herds crossed going north), matured (raised to full size), scions (young members of a family).
1Many ranchmen entirely neglected their stock, for they were regarded as not worth caring for. Stocks of cattle were, in certain sections, offered at prices ranging from one to two dollars per head, and that often without finding a purchaser. The effect of the war on the cattle interest and supply in the North was the very reverse of what it was in Texas, for at its close the bullock -- a select, matured animal, worth five or six dollars in Texas -- was worth in the Northern markets more than ten times that amount. This vast difference constituted a wide and tempting field to the cattle speculator -- a field that he was not slow to attempt to occupy. During the winter and spring of 1865 and 1866 large herds of beeves were gathered in Texas preparatory to driving North the following summer. To give an idea of the value of cattle in Texas at this time, we will here state that an intimate friend, then in the trade, went to a herd of 3,500 head of beeves and purchased 600 head of his choice at $6 per head; then for the next 600 head, his choice, he paid $3 per head; making his purchase of 1,200 head cost on an average $4.50 per head, or something near forty cents per hundred pounds gross weight. At that price beef could hardly be called an expensive luxury, or its production a very profitable business.
2We have heard the number of cattle that had crossed Red river during 1866 put down as high as 260,000 head. We believe these figures approximate the number, If not exactly correct. We call readily believe that the bright vision of great profits and sudden wealth that had shimmered before the imagination of the drover, leading him on as the subtle mirage of the desert does the famishing traveler -- nerving him to greater hardships, and buoying him up In many a wild, stormy night, whilst he kept silent vigil over his herd -- were shocked, if not blasted, by the unexpected reception given him in Southern Kansas and Missouri by a determined, organized, armed mob, more lawless, insolent and imperious than [...]
Joseph G. McCoy, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest, chapter II (Source 1: a cattle dealer on the drives of 1866) (1874). Public domain (published 1874). Source text.
1With the march of progress came the railroad and no longer were we called upon to follow the long horned steers, or mustangs on the trail, while the immense cattle ranges, stretching away in the distance as far as the eye could see, now began to be dotted with cities and towns and the cattle industry which once held a monopoly in the west, now had to give way to the industry of the farm and the mill. To us wild cowboys of the range, used to the wild and unrestricted life of the boundless plains, the new order of things did not appeal, and many of us became disgusted and quit the wild life for the pursuits of our more civilized brother. I was among that number and in 1890 I bid farewell to the life which I had followed for over twenty years.
2It was with genuine regret that I left the long horn Texas cattle and the wild mustangs of the range, but the life had in a great measure lost its attractions and so I decided to quit it and try something else for a while. During my life so far I had no chance to secure an education, except the education of the plains and the cattle business. [...]
Nat Love, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love, chapter XVII (Source 2: a trail hand on the end of the open range) (1907). Public domain (published 1907). Source text.
1During the last twenty years another movement from Texas has sprung up and has attained great commercial importance, viz, the driving of young cattle north, to stock the newly opened ranges of the vast Northwestern Territories, including also the Indian Territory, New Mexico, and Colorado. It is estimated that the total number thus driven north, composed mainly of yearling and two-year-old steers, has, since the beginning of the movement, amounted to about 3,000,000.
2The opening of these new and enormous commercial possibilities to the cattle-owners of Texas has developed a vast amount of wealth, and has, of course, greatly stimulated the cattle industry of that State. Cattle which about the year 1868 were worth only $4.50 a head advanced in value to $15 and $18 per head. The lands of Texas also greatly appreciated in value, and the general prosperity of the State attracted to it hundreds of thousands of immigrants from other States and from foreign countries. The opportunities for gain and the wild fascination of the herdsman's life have also drawn to Texas many young men of education and of fortune in the Northern States, and even scions of noble families in Europe. This has also been the case throughout the entire range and ranch cattle area of the United States.
3Not only is Texas a great breeding ground for cattle, but vast herds are also matured and shipped direct to market from that State. The northern and northwestern portions of the State are well adapted to the maturing of cattle. It is estimated that during the year 1884 about 300,000 cattle were driven from Texas to northern ranges, to be there matured for marketing, and that about 625,000 beef cattle were shipped from Texas direct to the markets of Kansas City, Saint Louis, Chicago, and New Orleans.
Joseph Nimmo, Jr., Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department, Report in Regard to the Range and Ranch Cattle Business of the United States, pages 4-5 (Source 3: a federal statistician on the Texas trade) (1885). Public domain (published 1885). Source text.
Part 3: Model the planning move. Work through the five examples. For each supporting question, name the kinds of sources, the points of view they carry, what is available, and what each could and could not be used to show.
Supporting question on causes (economics): two types of source that check each other
Why did Texans start driving cattle north in 1866?
Result: Kinds of sources: a participant's account and federal statistics. McCoy, a cattle dealer writing in 1874, reports that a bullock worth "five or six dollars in Texas" was worth "more than ten times that amount" in the North, and that a friend's purchase of 1,200 head cost "on an average $4.50 per head" (Source 1, paragraph 1). Nimmo's 1885 Treasury report gives the same starting value, cattle "worth only $4.50 a head" about 1868 (Source 3, paragraph 2). Potential use: McCoy's story shows what traders believed and did; Nimmo's figure, from a government office with a different purpose, lets students check it. Both carry the view of people who profited from the trade.
Supporting question on labor (history): what types survive from workers
What did the end of the drives mean for the people who did the work?
Result: Kinds of sources: memoirs, interviews and payroll records. Nat Love's 1907 memoir gives a trail hand's view: "With the march of progress came the railroad," and "the new order of things did not appeal" (Source 2, paragraph 1). Types available: this page has only one trail hand's memoir, so a plan should look for other types, such as interviews recorded later (Source 4, Item F). Potential use: Love's memoir is strong evidence of how one worker remembered and explained the change; it is weaker evidence of what most trail hands experienced, and he wrote it seventeen years after leaving the range.
Supporting question on conflict (civics): a hostile source and the missing side
How did people in southern Kansas and Missouri respond to the herds of 1866?
Result: Kinds of sources: laws, local newspapers and petitions, alongside the drovers' accounts. McCoy describes "a determined, organized, armed mob" (Source 1, paragraph 2), the view of a cattle dealer. Elsewhere in the same chapter he says farmers' fear of "Spanish fever," a cattle disease, was used as a "pretext." Potential use: Source 1 is good evidence that there was organized resistance and of how drovers saw it, but not of the farmers' reasons. The farmers' own point of view calls for types such as state laws (Item A) and farm-county newspapers (Item B).
Supporting question on Native nations (civics and geography): whose records exist
How did Native nations whose lands the trails crossed take part in or respond to the drives?
Result: Kinds of sources: tribal government records, federal records and drovers' accounts. McCoy mentions a drover who turned east "to avoid paying an arbitrary tax to the Cherokee Indians" (chapter II, not printed here). The word "arbitrary" is the drover's judgment; the Cherokee Nation's own records of the fees (Item C) would show the same payment as a charge set by a government over its own land. Potential use: comparing the two shows how a source's point of view changes the meaning of one fact.
Supporting question on change (economics and geography): numbers that answer a question words cannot
Were railroads already replacing the long drives by the mid-1880s?
Result: Kinds of sources: federal statistics and shipping records, plus participants' memories. Nimmo estimates that in 1884 "about 300,000 cattle were driven from Texas to northern ranges" while "about 625,000 beef cattle were shipped from Texas direct to the markets" (Source 3, paragraph 3), more than twice as many. Nat Love's memoir explains the change in his own words (Source 2, paragraph 1). Potential use: the statistics measure the shift; the memoir shows what it meant to one worker. Railroad shipping records could check Nimmo's estimate, though Item D counts only cars leaving Kansas towns, not shipments direct from Texas.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Pairs read Source 4, the Archive Catalog. For each item they write: the point of view it is likely to carry, the supporting question it fits best, one strong potential use and one weak one. Then pairs choose the two items that would add the most to Sources 1-3 and defend the choice.
1An invented research library lists these holdings for a class studying the Texas cattle drives. They are invented entries, but each is a kind of source that exists for many topics in American history.
2Item A: Kansas state laws passed between 1867 and 1885 about driving Texas cattle into the state.
3Item B: Newspapers from Kansas cattle towns and farm counties, 1867-1885.
4Item C: Records of the Cherokee Nation's government about fees charged for herds crossing or grazing on its land.
5Item D: Railroad company ledgers listing the number of cattle cars shipped from Kansas towns each month.
6Item E: Photographs of trail crews, cattle pens and cattle towns.
7Item F: Interviews with former trail hands, recorded fifty or more years after the drives.
8Item G: An economic history of the cattle industry written in the 1990s, with footnotes to the records it used.
9Item H: A Hollywood western film made in the 1950s about a cattle drive.
SVHS (invented scenario written for this page), The Archive Catalog (Source 4: an invented list of available sources for Activity 1). Original passage written for this page.
Teacher key (accept other well-argued choices): Items A, B and C add points of view that Sources 1-3 describe only from outside: lawmakers and farmers in Kansas, and the Cherokee Nation's government. Item D gives counts that can test Nimmo's estimates. Item E shows people and places but needs captions and dates to be used as evidence. Item F adds trail hands' voices, recorded long after the events, so memory is a limit. Item G is a secondary source useful for overview and for its footnotes. Item H is a weak source for the 1870s: it can be used only as evidence of how the drives were imagined in the 1950s.
Independent Practice15 minutes
Each student writes a one-page source plan for the compelling question. It names three supporting questions; for each, two or more kinds of sources from this page or the catalog; the point of view each source carries; and one sentence on its potential use. The plan ends with a paragraph on what types of sources are likely missing, and how that limits the answer.
Success criteria: each source fits its question; at least four points of view appear across the plan; each source has a stated use; the plan admits at least one gap in the available record.
Closure10 minutes
Exit ticket: "Name one source on this page that is biased but still useful. What exactly would you use it to show?"
Teacher note on the sources: Source 1 is quoted from the Kansas Collection transcription of McCoy's 1874 book. The excerpt omits a slur against Native Americans that appears in the original, at the end of paragraph 2; the omission is marked. McCoy's language about the farmers who opposed the drives is hostile, and that is part of what students analyze. Source 2 is quoted from a scan of the 1907 first edition; Nat Love's title page calls the book "a true history of slavery days, life on the great cattle ranges," "based on facts, and personal experiences of the author." Source 3 is quoted from a scan of the 1885 Treasury report, with reading errors in the scan corrected and listed in the source details. The figures in Sources 1 and 3 are the writers' estimates and are not checked here. Sources 4, 5 and 6 are invented for this page.
Quiz passage. Questions 11-13 of the quiz use Source 5, two invented research proposals. One is deliberately weaker, for students to evaluate.
1Two students in an invented eleventh-grade class wrote proposals for the compelling question "Who gained and who lost from the Texas cattle drives?" One proposal is weaker than the other.
2Jordan: I will answer with Sources 1 and 3, because they have the most numbers. McCoy shows the price difference and Nimmo shows the growth of the trade. Together they prove that everyone gained. I do not need other sources, since these two agree.
3Priya: My supporting questions are "Who made money from the drives?", "What was the work like for trail hands?" and "How did Kansas farmers and the Cherokee Nation respond?" For money I will use Nimmo's statistics and the railroad ledgers (Item D). For the work I will use Nat Love (Source 2) and the later interviews (Item F), checking each against the other. For farmers and the Cherokee Nation I will use the Kansas laws (Item A), farm-county newspapers (Item B) and the Cherokee records (Item C), because Source 1 shows these groups only through a cattle dealer's eyes. I will use the 1950s film (Item H) only to discuss how the drives were remembered.
SVHS (invented scenario written for this page), Two Research Proposals (Source 5: invented student work for the quiz). Original passage written for this page.
Homework passage. The homework uses Source 6, an invented city's decision about a public beach.
1Brookport is an invented lakeside city. In 1921 its city council voted to turn a stretch of shoreline used by fishing families into a public beach with a bathhouse, paid for by a city bond.
2The decision divided the city. Hotel owners and the Chamber of Commerce wanted the beach to bring summer visitors. Several fishing families, who had kept boats and nets on that shore for decades, lost their landing place. Some residents of the city's crowded east side said the beach would give their children a place to swim; others said they could not afford the streetcar fare to reach it.
3The Brookport Historical Society holds: (1) the council's minutes and the bond vote totals; (2) a Chamber of Commerce booklet advertising the new beach to tourists; (3) a petition against the beach signed by 43 fishing families; (4) the bathhouse's ticket sales by month, 1922-1930; (5) photographs of the beach on its opening day; and (6) a 1971 newspaper series in which older residents recalled the beach's early years.
4A class asks the compelling question "Who benefited from Brookport's public beach?"
SVHS (invented scenario written for this page), The Brookport Beach Decision (Source 6: an invented scenario for the homework). Original passage written for this page.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a planning organizer with four columns: Supporting question, Kind of source, Point of view, Use
Pre-sort the Archive Catalog into "adds a new voice" and "adds numbers or records" before pairs work
Provide the frame: "I would use ___ to show ___, but not to show ___, because it was made by ___."
For Advanced Students
Compare McCoy's "$4.50 per head" with Nimmo's "$4.50 a head": is this corroboration, or might one source rest on the other? What would you need to know?
Plan how to find the views of Mexican and Mexican American vaqueros (cattle workers), whom none of Sources 1-3 quotes, and name the types of sources you would search for
Explain how the purpose of a government statistics office could shape what Source 3 counts and leaves out
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Strong plans tie each source to a specific supporting question, name the point of view it carries, and state a precise use ("evidence of how drovers saw farmers" rather than "evidence about farmers"). The strongest plans also notice which groups left few records and choose types of sources, such as laws, tribal records or interviews, that reach them. Watch for plans that treat agreement between two sources from the same side as proof, or that reject a biased source instead of finding its proper use.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Archive Auction
15-20 minGroups of 4
Each group has a budget of 10 points to "buy" items from the Archive Catalog (Source 4) for the compelling question. Items cost 2 points each, so a group can buy five. Groups must explain every purchase with a supporting question, the point of view the item adds and its potential use, then present their collection to the class.
Rules
Every purchase must answer a different supporting question or add a different point of view.
At least one purchase must add the view of a group that Sources 1-3 describe only from outside.
For each item, write one thing it could be used to show and one thing it could not.
Answer Key for the Teacher
Strong collections usually include at least one of Items A, B and C (new points of view), Item D or G (numbers and an overview with footnotes) and Item F (workers' voices).
A group that buys Item H should state its narrow use: evidence of how the drives were remembered in the 1950s, not of the drives themselves.
Five purchases at 2 points each use the whole budget of 10, so every choice has a cost: buying H means giving up another item.
Discussion
Ask: which group's collection would let it hear from the most points of view? Did any group spend points on two items that carry the same view?
2
The Uses Ladder
15 minPairs
Pairs take one passage from Sources 1-3 and climb a four-step ladder of uses, writing one sentence on each rung: what the source can show about events, about numbers, about the maker's beliefs, and as a check on another source.
The Four Rungs
Events: what happened, according to this source?
Numbers: what does it count or estimate, and how could the figure be checked?
Beliefs: what does it show about what its maker thought or wanted?
Checks: which other source could it confirm or challenge?
Answer Key for the Teacher (Source 3)
Events: herds were driven north to stock the northern ranges (paragraph 1).
Numbers: about 3,000,000 driven north in all, and the 1884 estimates (paragraphs 1 and 3); railroad ledgers could check them.
Beliefs: the report speaks of "the wild fascination of the herdsman's life" and "the general prosperity of the State" (paragraph 2), a hopeful view of the trade.
Checks: its value of $4.50 a head about 1868 can be compared with McCoy's average of $4.50 (Source 1, paragraph 1).
Variation for a Short Period
Assign only rungs 3 and 4 and have each pair report one belief and one check.
3
Missing Voices Plan
10-15 minIndividuals, then whole class
Students list groups affected by the drives whose own words do not appear in Sources 1-3: for example, Kansas farmers, the Cherokee Nation and other Native nations, Mexican and Mexican American vaqueros, and the families of trail hands. For one group, each student names two types of sources that might exist, where they might be kept, and what they could and could not show.
Model
Group: Kansas farmers. Types: state laws on Texas cattle (Item A) and letters to farm-county newspapers (Item B), kept by state archives and libraries. Could show: what farmers demanded and why. Could not show: how many farmers agreed, since those who wrote or lobbied may not speak for all.
Discussion
Ask: if a group left almost no written records, should the class change its compelling question, or answer it and state the gap? Defensible arguments exist for both.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
1 diagrams
Diagram 1: The Gap Between the Events and the Sources
Each pale bar shows the years a source describes; each dark dot shows when the source was made. The dashed line is the gap between them. Dates come from the sources: McCoy describes drives from 1866 and published in 1874; Nimmo's estimates cover "the last twenty years" up to 1884 and his report is dated 1885; Nat Love left the range in 1890 after "over twenty years" and published in 1907. Nat Love's bar starts at 1869, twenty-one years before 1890, as one reading of "over twenty years."
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
D1.5.9-12 Homework: Planning an Inquiry into the Brookport Beach
Directions: Use Source 6 (the Brookport Beach Decision, printed in the Closure section). Brookport and its records are invented. Answer in complete sentences and name each record by its number. You will be scored on the quality of your planning, not on who you think benefited.
Part 1: Questions, Points of View and Availability (Problems 1-3)
Write three supporting questions for the compelling question "Who benefited from Brookport's public beach?" Each should point to a different group named in Source 6.
For records 2 and 3, name the point of view each is likely to carry and explain how you can tell from Source 6.
Which group in Source 6 has no record of its own in the Historical Society's list? Name two types of sources that might exist for that group, where each might be kept, and why such records might be scarce.
Part 2: Potential Uses and the Plan (Problems 4-6)
Give one strong and one weak potential use for record 4 (ticket sales by month). Then explain what record 4 could not show about who used the beach.
Record 6 was written fifty years after the beach opened. Explain one way this record could be useful and one way its date limits its use. Name another record on the list that could check it.
Write a source plan of six to eight sentences: match each of your supporting questions to at least one record or other type of source, name its point of view and its use, and end with one sentence about the gap your sources leave.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Questions and fit
Supporting questions reach different groups and each is matched to a fitting source
Questions overlap, or one source does not fit
Missing or unanswerable
Points of view
Names each source's point of view with a reason from Source 6
Names points of view without reasons
Missing
Types available
Identifies a missing group and realistic types of sources, with why they may be scarce
Names a missing group without types, or types without the reason
Missing
Potential uses
States precise strong and weak uses, including the limits of numbers and late memories
Uses are vague, such as "shows information"
Missing
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Questions 1-10 use Sources 1-4 (Sources 1-3 are in the Direct Instruction section; Source 4 is in Guided Practice). Questions 11-13 use Source 5, two invented research proposals (in the Closure section). Questions 14-20 may use any source on the page. For each multiple-choice question, choose the best answer. For short-answer questions, write three to six sentences.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A supporting question asks, "How many cattle cars left Kansas towns each month in the busiest years?" Which item in Source 4 would answer it most directly?
Answer: D
The ledgers list cattle cars "shipped from Kansas towns each month," which is exactly the count the question asks for. Photographs (A) show scenes, not totals; interviews (B) give memories; the film (C) is a later story.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
McCoy compares the drover's hope of profit to "the subtle mirage of the desert" (Source 1, paragraph 2). What is this phrase best used to show?
Answer: B
A mirage is a false vision, so McCoy pictures the drovers as hopeful men whose dreams were "shocked, if not blasted." That makes the phrase evidence of his point of view. It gives no profit figures (A) and no herd size (D), and it says nothing of the farmers' reasons (C).
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Nimmo's report says that "the wild fascination of the herdsman's life" drew young men to Texas (Source 3, paragraph 2). What does this show about the report as a source?
Answer: A
Even an official report full of estimates includes judgments, here a romantic picture of ranch life, so it can also be used as evidence of how officials in 1885 saw the trade. B and C throw out a useful source because of one phrase; D misreads the sentence.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Suppose a planner also finds a 1925 magazine story about a stampede on a cattle trail, written by a novelist who never worked on a drive. What is its strongest potential use?
Answer: B
A story written decades later, for magazine readers, by someone who was not there shows how Americans of the 1920s pictured the drives, much as the 1950s film (Item H) shows a later decade's picture. It is weak evidence of 1870s trail life (A), prices (C) or tribal decisions (D), which need sources made at the time by people involved.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Suppose the library also held letters that a trail hand wrote to his sister during an 1871 drive. Compared with the interviews in Item F, which pairing of strength and limit is most accurate for the letters?
Answer: A
Letters written during the drive give a worker's own words at the time, without the fifty-year gap in memory that limits Item F, but they show one man's experience and only what he chose to tell his family. B reverses what letters offer, C gives the letters the interviews' late date, and D forgets that every writer has a point of view.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Suppose the library in Source 4 also held the 1867 diary of a farm woman in a Kansas county the herds crossed. What would it most add to a plan that already uses Sources 1-3?
Answer: A
The diary would let a farm family speak for itself, a point of view Source 1 gives only through a cattle dealer's eyes ("a determined, organized, armed mob," paragraph 2); a careful plan notes that one diarist may not speak for all farmers. B confuses seeing the same events with sharing a point of view. C expects exact statistics from a personal record. D rejects a primary source instead of defining its proper use.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which of these is a compelling question rather than a supporting question?
Answer: C
C asks for a judgment that thoughtful people can argue in more than one way, so it can frame an inquiry. A, B and D each have a single answer that one source can supply, which makes them supporting questions.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student's supporting question is "How did the value of Texas cattle change after the drives began?" What kind of source should come first in the plan?
Answer: D
The question asks about value over time, so it needs figures across years, such as Nimmo's report that cattle "worth only $4.50 a head" about 1868 "advanced in value to $15 and $18 per head" (Source 3, paragraph 2), or price records that could check it. A memoir, a film and a photograph cannot measure change in value.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Nat Love writes that he "had no chance to secure an education" (Source 2, paragraph 2). How does this help a planner think about the types of sources available?
Answer: D
If many working people lacked schooling, fewer of them could write books or letters, so the written record leans toward those who could, such as dealers and officials. A planner should then look for other types, such as interviews. A, B and C draw conclusions the sentence does not support.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 3, paragraph 1, estimates that about 3,000,000 cattle were driven north "since the beginning of the movement." What would most strengthen a plan that relies on this figure?
Answer: A
An estimate is stronger when records made for other purposes, such as railroad ledgers or state inspection counts, can check it. Repeating a figure (B) adds nothing, a film (C) is not evidence of numbers, and dropping figures (D) discards useful evidence.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Read Source 5. What is the main weakness of Jordan's proposal?
Answer: B
Jordan uses only a cattle dealer and a report drawing on cattlemen's letters, then concludes that "everyone gained" because "these two agree." Two sources from the side that profited cannot show who lost. A, C and D describe the opposite of his plan: he uses few sources, no supporting questions, and many numbers.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why does Priya plan to use the 1950s film "only to discuss how the drives were remembered"?
Answer: C
Priya matches the film to its proper use: evidence of later memory. A is too strong, since she does use it; B reverses its reliability for events; D confuses the film with Item C.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Priya plans to check Nat Love's memoir against the later interviews (Item F). What does this step show about her planning?
Answer: D
Pairing one memoir with other workers' accounts lets her see whether Love's experience was shared, a check on the memoir's potential use. A is the error she is avoiding; B and C misdescribe her plan.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Suppose a planner also finds a 2010 encyclopedia article on the cattle drives that names its author but lists no sources. Compared with Item G, what is the article's best potential use?
Answer: C
An article with no listed sources can orient a planner, giving names, dates and terms to search for, but its claims must be checked in sources whose evidence can be seen, such as the footnoted history in Item G or the primary sources themselves. It cannot replace primary sources (A), it cannot speak for trail hands of 1870 (B), and it has nothing to do with the film (D).
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Name two points of view that are missing from Sources 1-3. For each, name a type of source from the Archive Catalog (Source 4) or elsewhere that could add it, and state one potential use.
Model answer: Kansas farmers appear only through McCoy's description of "a determined, organized, armed mob" (Source 1, paragraph 2); farm-county newspapers (Item B) could be used to show the reasons farmers gave in their own words. The Cherokee Nation's view is missing entirely; its government's records of fees for herds (Item C) could be used to show how the Nation set and justified the charges. Rubric: full credit for two missing points of view, a fitting type of source for each, and a precise use; partial credit for missing views without types or uses.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain two different potential uses of Source 3 for the compelling question, one about numbers and one about the maker's point of view.
Model answer: For numbers, Source 3 gives estimates such as "about 3,000,000" driven north and, for 1884, "about 300,000" driven and "about 625,000" shipped (paragraphs 1 and 3), which can show the scale of the trade and the shift to railroads. For point of view, its praise of "the general prosperity of the State" (paragraph 2) shows that a federal office in 1885 saw the trade as a success, which is evidence of an official attitude rather than of how everyone fared. Rubric: full credit for two clearly different uses with evidence; partial credit for one use.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Rewrite Jordan's proposal (Source 5) so that it could fairly answer the compelling question. Keep at least one of his sources.
Model answer: "I will keep Nimmo's report (Source 3) to measure who made money, using its price and shipping estimates. Because the question also asks who lost, I will add Nat Love's memoir (Source 2) for a trail hand's view of the end of the range, and Kansas laws and farm-county newspapers (Items A and B) for the farmers who opposed the herds. Agreement between McCoy and Nimmo will count as a check on prices, not as proof that everyone gained." Rubric: full credit for a revision that adds sources for those who may have lost and states the proper use of agreement; partial credit for adding sources without explaining their use.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Why might the types of sources available for this inquiry favor cattle dealers and officials over trail hands and farmers? Use evidence from at least two sources on the page.
Model answer: The sources that survive in print on this page come from a dealer who published a book (Source 1) and a federal office that printed a report (Source 3), groups with the means and reasons to record the trade. A trail hand like Nat Love says he "had no chance to secure an education" (Source 2, paragraph 2), and his memoir came out only in 1907. Farmers appear only through McCoy. A planner should expect this tilt and search for laws, newspapers, tribal records and interviews. Rubric: full credit for an explanation tied to who made and kept records, with evidence from two sources; partial credit for an explanation without evidence.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
McCoy published his book in 1874, while the cattle trade he wrote about was still going on, and he had worked in that trade. Explain how this affects the potential uses of Source 1.
Model answer: Writing as a participant while the trade continued gives McCoy close knowledge of prices and practices, such as the $6 and $3 purchases in paragraph 1, so his book is useful evidence of how dealers worked. It also means he had an interest in the trade's reputation, which shows in his attack on the "armed mob" (paragraph 2). So Source 1 is strong evidence of dealers' practices and views, and weak evidence of their opponents' motives. Rubric: full credit for linking the date and McCoy's role to both a strength and a limit; partial credit for one of them.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
A classmate writes the supporting question "What happened on the cattle drives?" Explain why it is weak for planning sources, and revise it into two sharper supporting questions, each with a matching kind of source.
Model answer: The question is so broad that almost any source seems to fit, so it does not help choose between them or show which points of view are needed. Revisions: "How did shipping by railroad compare with driving herds by the mid-1880s?" matched with federal statistics such as Source 3 or railroad ledgers (Item D); and "How did Kansas lawmakers respond to herds entering the state?" matched with state laws (Item A). Rubric: full credit for a clear diagnosis and two focused questions with fitting sources; partial credit for revisions without sources.
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06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does D1.5.9-12 mean?
D1.5.9-12 asks high school students to decide which kinds of sources will help answer a compelling question and its supporting questions. In choosing, they weigh the points of view the sources carry, the types of sources that are actually available, and the different ways each source could be used.
How is D1.5.9-12 different from D1.5.6-8?
Both ask students to choose helpful sources and to consider points of view. The grades 9-12 indicator adds two more things to weigh: what types of sources are available for the topic, and the potential uses of each source.
What does "potential uses of the sources" mean?
It means the different things a source can serve as evidence of. One source may show what happened, give numbers, reveal its maker's beliefs, or check another source. A biased source can be weak evidence of events and strong evidence of the bias itself.
Why do the types of sources available matter?
What survives depends on who kept records, who could write and publish, and what archives saved. Planning with this in mind helps students notice which groups are under-recorded and look for other types, such as laws, tribal records, newspapers or interviews.
Should students throw out a biased source?
No. They should define its proper use. A cattle dealer's account is poor evidence of his opponents' motives but good evidence of how dealers saw them, and its prices can be checked against other records.
Does agreement between two sources prove a claim?
Not by itself. If both sources come from the same side, or one depends on the other, their agreement may not be independent. Planning should include sources from different points of view and different types.
Is D1.5.9-12 about research skills or about history?
It is an inquiry skill used in every social studies discipline. This page uses the Texas cattle drives, which touch economics, geography, civics and history, but the planning moves work for any topic.
How is D1.5.9-12 assessed on this page?
Students write source plans, judge invented research proposals and name strong and weak uses of sources. The rubric scores fit, points of view, availability and uses, not a particular answer to the compelling question.
What comes after planning sources?
The next step is gathering and evaluating evidence, described in D3.1.9-12: gathering information from sources with a wide range of views and weighing their origin, authority, structure, context and corroborative value.
What sources does this D1.5.9-12 lesson use?
Three public-domain sources on the Texas cattle drives: Joseph McCoy's Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade (1874), Nat Love's memoir (1907) and Joseph Nimmo's report for the Treasury Department (1885). Invented materials, clearly labeled, supply an archive catalog, two research proposals and a homework scenario.
07
Related Standards
5 standards
These standards connect to D1.5.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
D1.5.6-8Prerequisite
Determine helpful sources for compelling and supporting questions, considering views
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.
