As a culminating activity for our year long study of the Industrial Revolution, all the students were asked to develop an essay evaluating its positive and negative effects. Many historical documents, photos, journal entries, cartoons, were studied and discussed. The class sorted these documents into positive and negative piles, and of course some didn’t belong in either, but somewhere in the middle. Our hope was that discussing these historical documents would provide specific examples that could be used to support their thesis. We developed a graphic organizer for the students to use to collect their ideas before starting their essay. Many children did additional research, searching for additional support of their thesis.