The second supporting question, “who was Dorry Shaw?” helps students use sources to unwrap the context of the time and topic being examined. Dorry Shaw was born Llewellyn Dorrington Shaw on September 20, 1904. He was the second child born to William (Will) and Beata Austad Shaw of Enderlin. Will’s parents had emigrated from Scotland and went first to Ontario. Beata’s parents had emigrated from Norway to Iowa where they married, and then to Enderlin where they homesteaded. Will became a railroad conductor on the Soo Line which often took him out of town. Dorry had an older brother Russell, and a younger brother, Curtis, who appears in the diary. He also had a sister Helen who was just three when Dorry kept this diary for a school assignment. The household also included a servant, Ida Helberg.
Dorry kept this diary as part of an English class assignment, and it coincides with the last part of the school year. He wrote a detailed account of one month of his daily life, revealing to us how a 14-year-old boy spent his time in 1919. The excitement of the recently concluded Great War (World War I) was still infecting the boys of Enderlin. Dorry tried to assert his independence by setting up a tent in the backyard to live in through the cold and wet spring. He pushed the onset of summer by swimming though the pond water was still cold. He earned money from various activities with a goal of buying a bicycle in mind. The street fights Dorry and others participated in served to settle differences among the boys of Enderlin.
As an adult, Dorry served in the U.S. Army for thirty years. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel and spent the rest of his life in Florida, though he often returned to Enderlin to hunt. He died in Florida in 1974. This diary was originally published in North Dakota History (42.3:18-26).
Facilitate a class discussion on the time period and context of the world he lived in. Students will need to use library and internet sources to build an understanding of what was going on during that time period. What activities did teenagers participate in? What kind of jobs did they get? How much did they get paid? How did they socialize with their friends? What was school like? What were the clothing styles like? Did they play sports, read books, or listen to music? What were the major news stories of the day? Use the internet to find out more about the movies and books that Dorry and his friends enjoyed. How did their gender, time period, and location influence or reflect their interests? Complete the following task using the sources provided to build a context of the time period and topic being examined.
Formative Performance Task 2
Read the featured source and do independent research to create a context of the world Dorry Shaw lived in. Write a summary or create a graphic organizer that provides some context for what the world was like when Mae Roberts was a teenager.
Featured Sources 2
| Source A |