Primary Sources

In social studies, teaching with primary sources refers to using historical artifacts (writing, objects, cartoons, etc.) as evidence for understanding and interpreting history.

When used effectively, primary sources can open a world of possibilities in the classroom. When students have opportunities to approach sources as historians do, history becomes an art and a mystery — rather than a series of lifeless facts. This collection of materials offers ideas for integrating primary sources into your teaching, shares best practices, models the process of historical inquiry, and provides a selection of exemplary lesson plans.

Historical sources and evidence are incorporated into the National Standards for the Social Studes (C3) on Page 48.

An excellent resource for teaching with primary sources is the Stanford History Education Group (https://sheg.stanford.edu/). The National Archives and the book "Vital Witness" by Newman, which can be found in the UVEI library, are also helpful.

The following model for reading primary sources is drawn from the Stanford History Education Group and is aligned with the C3 Standards for Historical Sources and Evidence (DS.His.9.9-12 through DS.His.13.9-12)

In examining primary sources, students should be taught to "read like a historian," by close reading, answering the questions:

  1. What claims does the author make?

  2. What evidence does the author use?

  3. What language (words, phrases, images, symbols) does the author use to persuade the document’s audience?

  4. How does the document’s language indicate the author’s perspective?

  5. How does the document address the inquiry question?

Along with close reading (before, during, or after), students should learn to put sources in context by considering:

Sourcing:

  • Who wrote this?

  • What is the author’s perspective?

  • When was it written?

  • Where was it written?

  • Why was it written?

  • Is it reliable? Why? Why not?

Contextualization:

  • When and where was the document created?

  • What was different then? What was the same?

  • How might the circumstances in which the document was created affect its content?

Corroboration:

  • What do other documents say?

  • Do the documents agree? If not, why?

  • What are other possible documents?

  • What documents are most reliable?