In this module, educators will learn 5 different strategies to engage students in reviewing, comprehending, and analyzing primary sources.
What is a Primary Source?
Primary sources are the voices of the past. They are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects which were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience. Documents, letters, posters, film, artifacts, photographs, maps, etc. can be primary sources that tell the story of people, places, an events of the past.
Why Use Primary Sources in the Classroom?
Examining primary sources gives students a powerful sense of history and the complexity of the past. Helping students analyze primary sources can also guide them toward higher-order thinking and better critical thinking and analysis skills (from the Library of Congress).
Using Primary Source Analysis Strategies Helps:
Enrich student understanding of content Build historical thinking skills and context Derive conclusions based on evidence Examine bias, perspective, and POV Reinforce the importance of sourcing
5. Artifact Bag
Artifacts can tell amazing stories about the owners, or location, or the past. This strategy gives students an opportunity to not only build a story about the owner of a bag of artifacts, but to build an artifact bag that tells their story.
This strategy introduces the practice of using primary sources; where to find primary sources, what they are, how to examine them, and how to construct a context to tell more of the story.
Introduction to Personal Primary Sources
Display personal primary source documents and personal artifacts that reflect something important in your own life. Display the artifact and instruct the students to use the Primary Source Analysis Tool to record their observations of the artifact. Before the students begin, select questions from the teacher's guide Analyzing Primary Sources to focus and prompt analysis and discussion.
Some suggestions for personal artifacts are:
- published documents-an official document about you, i.e., driver's license, birth certificate, teaching credential, passport;
- unpublished documents-a letter written to you, diary, journal;
- oral traditions/histories-a family story, and
- visual documents/artifacts-a photograph, drawing, caricature, trophy, locket, or medal.
Student Activity
Ask students to bring their own personal artifacts and display them for their group of three students. Teams of three review each artifact supplied by team members and interpret them to determine information about the owners' personalities and lifestyles. Each team works together to complete the Primary Source Analysis Tool, answering additional questions from the teacher's guide to Analyzing Primary Sources at your discretion.
Sharing the Results
When the groups' Primary Source Analysis Tools charts are complete, the reviewers share their results with the class. The artifact owner constructs the context that reveals more of the story.
Reflect:
- How does the artifact bag strategy illustrate the work of historians?
- What higher order thinking skills might students demonstrate through engagement with an artifact bag?
Source: The Library of Congress - https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/primary-sources-and-personal-artifacts/