TEACHING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES

What’s a secondary source?

What are primary sources?

Why should I use primary sources?

Engage students

Help students relate in a personal way Promote deeper understanding of history

as series of human events Encourage students to seek additional

evidence First-person accounts bring history to life

Develop critical thinking skills Require critical and analytical reading Lack of context and incomplete nature

requires prior knowledge or pattern finding

move from concrete observations and facts to questioning and inferences

Questions bias, purpose, point of view Challenges assumptions

Construct knowledge

Encourage students to confront contradictions

Comparing multiple sources: different points of view, shows complexity of past

Form conclusions based on evidence Synthesize information from multiple

sources Integrate existing and new information to

deepen understanding

How do I use primary sources?

Engage students

Draw on prior knowledge Encourage close observation Help point out key details Encourage them to think about personal

response

Promote student inquiry

Encourage speculation about source, creator and context

Does source agree with other sources? Does it agree with prior knowledge? Have them find other sources that

support or contradict

Assess critical thinking & analysis Summarize what they’ve learned Ask for reasons and evidence to support

conclusions Identify questions for further

investigation Develop strategies for finding answers

Where can I use primary sources? Social studies Language arts Math Science Arts: music, art,

drama

Manuscripts Maps Motion pictures Music Newspapers/

cartoons/advertisements

Photos Printed ephemera Sound recordings

Language Arts

Social Studies: Geography

Social Studies

Math

Science

Science

Arts: Music

Arts: Art

Where do I find primary sources? Archives Museums Libraries Online

Evaluating primary source websites What domain is it? Who’s the author? Why is the site there? Where did the documents come from? Is the information well organized and

easy to use?

Volunteer Voices

http://www.volunteervoices.org Tennessee's first statewide digital

collection A statewide network of primary

resources accessible to all. Includes materials from the state's

archives, libraries, repositories, historic homes and museums.

Volunteer Voices

Materials are organized by Tennessee’s K-12 Socials Studies Eras in American History, by subject, and are keyword searchable

Lesson plans, hints for teaching with primary sources and student handouts are also available in the Educators section

American Memory

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

Provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music

American Memory

A Teachers Page provides classroom materials, including lesson plans, themed resources, primary source sets, presentations & activities and professional development materials

Collection can be browsed by topic, time period, format (map, photo, etc) and place

World Digital Library

http://www.wdl.org/en/ cooperative project of the Library of

Congress, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and partner libraries, archives, and educational and cultural institutions from the United States and around the world

World Digital Library

Include rare and unique documents – books, journals, manuscripts, maps, prints and photographs, films, and sound recordings – that tell the story of the world’s cultures

Can be browsed by the map, by time, topic, or institution

Smaller, more limited collection

Smithsonian’s History Explorer http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.

edu/ Very interactive site, provides

presentations on various topics Can be browsed by era, grade level or

resource type Provides lesson plans and other

materials for teachers

National Archives

http://www.archives.gov/education/ contains reproducible copies of primary

documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States, teaching activities correlated to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government, and cross-curricular connections.

Further Resources

http://library.belmont.edu/Convos/primarysources.html