Primary Source Learning: What Are Primary Sources?

This definition from the Library of Congress provides a basic answer to the question above. “’Primary sources’ 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.”

To learn more, take a look at the videos below from the Library and the Minnesota Historical Society, a TPS Consortium partner. Then, dig deeper with blog posts from Teaching with the Library of Congress and TPS Connect from the TPS Western Region to consider how sources could be labeled as primary or secondary in different contexts. Next, review a professional development activity to consider the kinds of primary sources that we create every day and a classroom activity relevant to the grade band you teach. After, think about how you can best convey what primary and secondary sources are to your students.

Videos

 

Blog posts

• What Makes a Primary Source a Primary Source? Teaching with the Library of Congress
• What’s the Difference Between Primary Sources and Secondary Sources? TPS Connect Metropolitan State University of Denver, TPS Western Region

PD activities

• Leaving Evidence of Our Lives
• Primary or Secondary Source Sort | Padlet version

Classroom Activities

• What Are Primary Sources? KidCitizen interactive episode (early elementary)
• Mind Walk SIUE Teaching with Primary Sources (later elementary/middle)
• Using Primary and Secondary Sources Thinkport Research Learning module (high school)
• Exploring Primary Sources by Creating Classroom Archives Teaching with the Library of Congress (any grade)

Questions to consider

• How has your understanding of primary and secondary sources evolved based on the resources you reviewed above?
• Reflecting on your students’ unique lived experiences, how might you adapt the professional development activity and/or one of the classroom activities for use with them?

Related teaching resources

• Analyzing Primary Sources strategies and guiding questions for different primary source types
• Selecting Primary Sources tips and strategies
• Connecting to the Standards strategies for using primary source learning to meet national standards that foster critical thinking skills
• Teaching Now news, research and examples from educators who are teaching with primary sources
• Finding Sources tips for finding primary sources on LOC.gov
• Using Sources instructions for accessing and presenting Library primary sources
• Tech Tools guidance and strategies for using tech tools when teaching with primary sources
• Integrating Tech ideas for integrating technology into teaching with primary sources