Using Primary Sources in the Elementary Classroom

In many states and districts, teachers and their students are preparing to meet guidelines and take examinations that require close attention to single documents. The educational benefits from such an approach can be numerous: students learn to read closely, to interpret documents in historical context, to ground argument in concrete evidence, and to explicate large historical meanings from primary sources. But perhaps above all, such documents can be a stimulus to the imagination. They can “humanize” history. And once the imagination is engaged, there is no limit to learning.

James G. Basker, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. (2004)

 

Primary sources are the direct evidence of a time and place that you are studying – any material (documents, objects, etc.) that was produced by eyewitnesses or participants in an event or historical moment under investigation

Secondary sources, in contrast, are interpretations – often generated by scholars – that are based upon the examination of multiple primary sources.

…about Primary and Secondary Sources

Mdk12 website – Historical Investigationshttp://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/social_studies/instruction.html

Maryland Historical Societyhttp://www.mdhs.org/education/teachers/primary-source-worksheets

Declaration of Independence

Constitution

The Emancipation Proclamation

Documents – official or public record of events in the lives of individuals businesses, communities, and institutions.

Examples:deedswillsbirth certificatesdeath certificatescensus data

…deeds, wills, birth certificates, death certificates, census data

What does the document say? Does the document order action?

By whom? To whom? Is the document sworn to or legally

binding?

DiariesLettersPictures

Questions to ask? Who wrote the material or

took the picture? How likely was the author to

know the facts? Are any facts present or does

the writer present only conclusions?

What other sources agree with the facts or views?

What words might indicate a bias or lack of objectivity?

What does this document help me understand?

An artifact is an object created by humans, usually for a practical purpose, and especially one that is remaining from a particular period.

When you use artifacts as primary sources, you've added material culture to your research. Artifacts can be an important complement to text-based primary sources because they provide a concrete, tangible dimension to your evidence.

Let’s revisit the first part of our original question?

What are primary sources?

Primary sources provide a window into the past—unfiltered access to the record of artistic, social, scientific and political thought and achievement during the specific period under study, produced by people who lived during that period.

Bringing young people into close contact with these unique, often profoundly personal, documents and objects can give them a very real sense of what it was like to be alive during a past era.

1. Engage students

2. Develop critical thinking skills

3. Construct knowledge

Primary sources help students relate in a personal way to events of the past and promote a deeper understanding of history as a series of human events.

Because primary sources are snippets of history, they encourage students to seek additional evidence through research.

First-person accounts of events helps make them more real, fostering active reading and response

Many state standards support teaching with primary sources, which require students to be both critical and analytical as they read and examine documents and objects.

Primary sources are often incomplete and have little context. Students must use prior knowledge and work with multiple primary sources to find patterns.

In analyzing primary sources, students move from concrete observations and facts to questioning and making inferences about the materials.

Questions of creator bias, purpose, and point of view may challenge students’ assumptions

Inquiry into primary sources encourages students to wrestle with contradictions and compare multiple sources that represent differing points of view, confronting the complexity of the past.

Students construct knowledge as they form reasoned conclusions, base their conclusions on evidence, and connect primary sources to the context in which they were created, synthesizing information from multiple sources.

Integrating what they glean from comparing primary sources with what they already know, and what they learn from research, allows students to construct content knowledge and deepen understanding.

(National Archives website)

Let’s revisit the second part of our original question?

Why should we have students use them?

K- Informational TextIntegration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.7With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.9With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

Grade 5- Informational TextIntegration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.7Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.9Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

KindergartenTopicD. Acquire Social Studies InformationIndicator1. Identify primary and secondary sources of information that

relate to the topic/situation/problem being studiedObjectivesa. Gather and read appropriate print sources, such as journals,

textbooks, timelines, and trade books c. Locate and gather data and information from appropriate non-

print sources, such as music, maps, graphs, photographs, and illustrations

Grade 5TopicD. Acquire Social Studies InformationIndicator1. Identify primary and secondary sources of information that

relate to the topic/situation/problem being studiedObjectivesa. Gather and read appropriate print sources, such as textbooks,

government documents, timelines, trade books, and web sites c. Locate and gather data and information from appropriate non-

print sources, such as music, artifacts, charts, maps, graphs, photographs, video clips, illustrations, paintings, political cartoons, interviews, and oral histories

C3 College, Career & Civic Life for Social Studies State Standards

DIMENSION 3 includes the skills students need to analyze information and come to conclusions in an inquiry. These skills focus on gathering and evaluating sources, and then developing claims and using evidence to support those claims.

Dimension 3, Gathering and Evaluating Sources

By the End of Grade 2 By the End of Grade 5

INDIVIDUALLY AND WITH OTHER, STUDENTS…

D3.1.K-2. Gather relevant information from one or two sources while using the origin and structure to guide the selection.

D3.1.3-5. Gather relevant information from multiple sources while using the origin, structure, and context to guide the selection.

D.3.2.K-2. Evaluate a source by distinguishing between fact and opinion.

D3.2.3-5. Use distinctions among fact and opinion to determine the credibility of multiple sources.

Read the information from the text (Maryland Adventure) and list what you

learned about indentured servants.

What I Learned About Indentured Servants

From a Text Book (Secondary Source)

Indentured servants…

Now read a primary source and list what you learned about indentured servants.

What I Learned About Indentured Servants

From a Text Book (Secondary Source)

What I Learned About Indentured Servants

From a Primary Source

Indentured servants… Indentured servants…

Kindergarten Historians: Primary Sources in an Early Elementary Classroom

March 12, 2013 by Cheryl LederleThis post is co-authored by the Library of Congress Teacher in Residence, Earnestine Sweeting and a

Library of Congress 2011 Summer Teacher Institute participant, Teresa St. Angelo.

If you’ve ever wondered how early elementary students develop historical thinking skills, check out this lesson with a group of kindergarten historians. The Class of 2025 demonstrated their educational readiness while engaged in analyzing primary sources from the Library of Congress…

Collecting Mailhttp://www.loc.gov/item/00564547

Train taking mail baghttp://www.loc.gov/item/00564551

Who wrote the material or took the picture?How likely was the author to know the facts?Are any facts present or does the writer present only conclusions?What other sources agree with the facts or views?What words might indicate a bias or lack of objectivity?What does this document help me understand?

http://www.tenement.org/education_lessonplans.html

Political Science Preamble to the ConstitutionGeography Original maps or charts (Ex: John Smith

Map 1607)Economics Bank notes, stocks, bonds, financial

agreements

http://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/social_studies/instruction.html

http://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/social_studies/ind_serv.html