Working with Sources

Columbus and the legacy of the European Voyages of Discovery

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Learning from the Past - Online CourseLearn how researchers make use of historical sources to understand the past and explain the present

Document Analysis Worksheets

Document analysis is the first step in working with primary sources. Teach your students to think through primary source documents for contextual understanding and to extract information to make informed judgments.

Use these worksheets — for photos, written documents, artifacts, posters, maps, cartoons, videos, and sound recordings — to teach your students the process of document analysis.

Follow this progression:

The first few times you ask students to work with primary sources, and whenever you have not worked with primary sources recently, model careful document analysis using the worksheets. Point out that the steps are the same each time, for every type of primary source:
1. Meet the document.
2. Observe its parts.
3. Try to make sense of it.
4. Use it as historical evidence.
Once students have become familiar with using the worksheets, direct them to analyze documents as a class or in groups without the worksheets, vocalizing the four steps as they go.
Eventually, students will internalize the procedure and be able to go through these four steps on their own every time they encounter a primary source document. Remind students to practice this same careful analysis with every primary source they see.

Don’t stop with document analysis though. Analysis is just the foundation.

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets

Worksheets for Novice or Younger Students, or Those Learning English

Worksheets for Intermediate or Secondary Students