Analyzing Primary Sources: Strategies & Activities

When first starting out teaching with primary sources, we recommend trying out the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool (see Analyzing Primary Sources: Tools & Guides). Below, we have compiled a rich list of primary source analysis strategies and activities developed by the Library, TPS Consortium partners, and teacher pros in the field.

Library of Congress

• 10 Ways to Enrich Your Classroom with Primary Sources – Part 1
• 10 Ways to Enrich Your Classroom with Primary Sources – Part 2
• Creating Ripples of Change with Primary Sources from the Library of Congress revising writing based on new information
• Primary Source Activities for the K-2 Classroom
• Using Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) with Primary Source Analysis
• What’s It All About? Capture the Heart of a Primary Source in a Headline

Primary Source Nexus

• 3D Pyramid created by Historica Canada
• Analyzing Primary Sources for Scientific Thinking & Organization guest post from Tom Bober
• Bloom’s Taxonomy Image Writing Prompts
• Determining the Main Idea of a Text guest post from Glenn Jensen
• Event Happenings
• Frozen Living Pictures
• Image Analysis Choice Boards
  • Early Elementary
  • Later Elementary
  • Middle School
• Image Questions & Responses
• Image Sequencing Activities
• Journalistic Analysis
• K-5 Image Writing Prompts & Activities
• Let’s Recap & Primary Source Analysis guest post from Heather Klos
• Post-It App & Primary Source Analysis guest post from Tom Bober
• Predicting & Inferring with Primary Sources & Literature guest post from Kimberly Heckart
• Primary Source Analysis using Google Forms Kelly Grotrian
• Primary Source Thinking Triangle Activity
• Question Cubes
• Sensory Exploration
• Shake & Source Newspaper Game guest post from Ruth Ferris
• Using Primary Sources with 21st-Century Learners guest post from Heather Klos
• Using Skitch & Evernote to Analyze Images guest post from Kerry Gallagher
• Zoom-in to Primary Source Analysis guest post from Patti Winch

TPS MTSU

• 25 Questions to Ask Your Primary Source
• Analyzing Multiple Perspectives Worksheet
• E-S-P Analysis Worksheet
• Fishbowl Analysis Activity
• Graphic Organizer Worksheets
• HIPPO Analysis Worksheet
• Image Analysis Form
• Primary Source Investigation
• Synthesizing Sources
• T-Chart Worksheet
• Text-Context-Subtext
• Text-Context-Subtext in 3 Columns
• Thinking Like a Historian checklist
• Venn Diagram Worksheet
• Writing from Documents Worksheets

State Historical Society of Iowa

• Guided Inquiry
  • Guided Inquiry Instructions
  • Guided Inquiry Example
• Instructional Videos
  • Primary vs. Secondary Sources
  • What is Inquiry?
  • Gallery Walk
  • Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
  • Analyze That!
• Grade-level strategy suggestions
  • K-1
  • 2-3
  • 4-5
  • 6-8: Gallery Walk
  • 6-8: Question Formulation Technique
  • 6-8: Analyze That! 

TPS UArts Teacher Guides

• A is for Everything: How Typography Shapes our Language and Culture
• Amplifying Our Voices Through Music
• The City as a Primary Source
• Cross-Pollination: Botanical Illustrations
• Igniting Inquiry: Using Compelling Arts-based Primary Sources to Inspire Student Writing Across Disciplines
• Look Back, See Further: Studying photographs and drawing connections between primary sources from the Library of Congress and local collections.
• Pictures Worth Reading: A Teacher’s Guide to Comics
• The Power of the Poster: Connecting WPA Posters from the Library of Congress to Local Collections
• Roaring Twenties Redux: A Survey of the Arts of the 1920s
• TPS-STEM to STEAM

TPS SIUE Resources

• 15 Things You Can Do with Narratives
• Analyzing Narratives Activity – Topic: Lincoln’s Assassination Elementary/Middle School
• Fishbowl Analysis with Primary Sources – Topic: Poetry/Complex Primary Sources
• Mind Walk Elementary/Middle School
• Museum Gallery Walk – Topic: Woman Suffrage Elementary
• Primary Source Strategies and Books – Topic: “Fairness” Elementary
• Teaching Ideas with Historic Newspapers

C3 Teachers Inquiry Design Model 

• Building Inquiries in Social Studies
• IDM At a Glance (.pdf)
• Three Supporting Question Template (.docx)
• Four Supporting Question Template (.docx)
• Focused IDM Blueprint Template (.docx)
• IDM’s Using Library of Congress Resources

Collaborative for Education Services: Emerging America

• Accessibility Resources & Tools
• Assessment Strategies
• Engagement Strategies
• Quadrant Analysis Emerging America

Maryland Public Television

• Analyzing Primary Sources: Insights and Inquiry self-paced online lesson
• Case Maker civics-related primary source analysis challenges
• Inquiry Kits Elementary, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History

Stanford History Education Group

• Historical Thinking Chart
• History Assessments of Thinking

TPS Rockford University Videos

• Creating a Traveling Primary Source Bulletin Board 3:02
• Using Primary Sources to Teach Hometown History 2:57

TPS Civics Interactives 6 digital learning platforms with a variety of lessons/activities analyzing primary sources

TPS Western Region

• Brain Movers 47 ready-made primary source analysis activities

Right Question Institute

• Question Formulation Technique with Primary Sources

Minnesota Historical Society: Inquiry in the Upper Midwest

• Culturally Relevant Pedagogy with Primary Sources videos

University of South Alabama

• Applying Project Zero’s “Artful Thinking” Routines to Visual Images from the Library of Congress webinar recording 34:24