En Routes: Markers & Makers in 1900s’ Puerto Rico
Main Topic:
The aim is to create a site for history scholars and scholars-to-be to interact with primary and secondary sources that treat the subject of rural Puerto Rico in the first quarter of the 20th century. This platform will provide educators and learners access to a digitized collection, and the tools to examine the social and political issues surrounding the modernization process in Puerto Rico under American rule. In the broader scheme, the historical methods skills acquired through interactions with En Routes collections, will facilitate learners with new ways of thinking and practicing history.
Primary Sources
One of the collections will comprise digitized postcards of Puerto Rico, printed back in the early 1900s. Most of these postcards showcase roads, railroads and factories that transformed the island landscape at the turn of the last century. Permission to make use of these postcards has been granted.
Other primary sources under consideration: paintings, excerpts of canonic and non-canonic literature, and maps.
Intended Audience & Focus
Historical Thinking Practices:
-Learners will be introduced to a variety of historical source types and a diversity of perspectives.
-Learners will work collaborative when they analyze the primary and secondary sources.
-Learners will build historical methods that would help them interact with historical sources
-Learners will practice thinking like historians
-Learners will perceive the interpretive, evolving, dynamic nature of history
-Learners will have the chance to formulate complex and open-ended questions, and determine the most appropriate methods to seek further historical sources
-Learners will develop their own perspectives on how the construction of roads and railroads transformed social relationships among Puerto Ricans and Americans.
Engagement Opportunities:
To entice content-audience engagement, En Routes will create exhibits where users can interact with diverse source types. Learners will also have the opportunity to create reflective annotations of their readings, and provide peer feedback on the annotations written by others. They will also collectively create a timeline based on the sources they discover through the site.
