Now students take the facts from Phase 1 and relate them: mapping benefits against costs, interrogating real primary sources, and building an argument from evidence. Deep learning is where knowledge becomes usable — the bridge to the problem.
Build a class concept map with "Build & control the canal" in the center. On the left, cluster the benefits the U.S. saw; on the right, the costs — to Colombia, to Panama, and to the workers. Then add a third ring: long-term effects — what followed because the U.S. acted as it did in 1903.
| Benefits (U.S. view) | Costs (others bear) | Long-term effects |
|---|---|---|
| faster Atlantic–Pacific naval movement | Colombia loses a province and the canal | U.S. emerges as a world power |
| shorter, cheaper global trade routes | "in perpetuity" concession of sovereignty | decades of U.S. intervention in Latin America |
| prestige, engineering triumph (1914) | ~5,600 worker deaths; segregated labor | Torrijos–Carter Treaties return canal by 1999 |
Talk move: draw an arrow from any benefit or cost to a long-term effect and say the cause-and-effect sentence aloud. This rehearses §113.41(c)(12) and sets up the evaluation in (c)(4)(B).
Give pairs one or two real (district-approved) primary sources — for example Roosevelt's boast "I took the Canal Zone," the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty's "in perpetuity" clause, a "big stick" political cartoon, or photographs of construction and of the West Indian labor force. Use a four-question source routine:
Corroboration check (c)(28)(B): is this a first-hand record or a later opinion? What other source would confirm or complicate it? How do we know?
📚 Primary sources & analysis tools: National Archives · DocsTeach: "I took the Canal Zone" ↗ · LoC · Panama Canal photographs & documents ↗ · LoC · Getting Started with Primary Sources ↗ · PBS · American Experience: The Workers ↗
A low-stakes rehearsal of the reasoning the problem needs. Pose a focused evaluative question and have students take a side with evidence, using a claim–evidence–reasoning frame. Then have them state the other side's strongest point (civil discourse) — this is the evaluate-expansionism move of §113.41(c)(4)(B).
Sentence stems (ELPS support): "My claim is ______." · "My evidence is ______." · "This matters because ______." · "Someone who disagrees might say ______, but ______."
Note: keep this a practice argument about the general question. The specific 1903 decision — with stakeholders in the room — belongs in Phase 3.
Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.41; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX.