Primary sources engage all students—elementary, middle and high school. Below are some worksheets to help elementary students, in particular, to analyze primary source images and texts. These worksheets were created in collaboration with master teacher Kimberly Heckart, who teaches third grade at Prairie Ridge Elementary in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Elementary Social Studies Methods at the University…
This is a guest post from Tom Bober (a.k.a. @CaptainLibrary), an elementary librarian at RM Captain Elementary in Clayton, Missouri and frequent contributor to the TPS Teachers Network. Earlier this school year I wrote about an activity in which third grade students analyzed primary sources from the Library of Congress, specifically the notes, diagrams, and…
Lesson objective In this primary source lesson students will gain a better understanding of the meaning and tone of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by completing a scaffolded close reading of the poem using multiple source types (written text, spoken word, music, photos, illustrations and maps) while developing personal, lasting connections to literature by creating their own related…
Have you ever wanted to use a primary source document with students but hesitated because you felt the struggle to comprehend the text would be the focus of the task rather than text analysis? In a TweetChat about teaching with primary sources, middle school social studies teacher Chris Heffernan (@cheffernan75) articulated the dilemma, “This has been a…
Primary source sets & activities American Memory Timeline: Great Depression and World War II 1929-1945, background information with select primary sources & teaching activities American Memory Timeline: Photographing People of the Great Depression Dust Bowl Migration includes teacher’s guide Dust Bowl Songs & Photographs Primary Source Learning: Great Depression & World War II Primary Source Set Teaching Now:…
Use these geographical conversation cards to learn about the geographical history of the United States as well as learn state facts. Lesson prep 1. Print out and cut up state cards and the Question and Answer cards. 2. Separate these into 5 groups of state cards and their accompanying Q&A cards. Because there are missing cards…
Primary sources bring history to life but life can be harsh. Teachers need to be prepared for primary sources that may include, as Library of Congress Educational Resource Specialist Danna Bell wrote in the Teaching with the Library of Congress blog, “material that would shock, anger, disgust, stun, frustrate or annoy”. But they also provide incredible learning opportunities…
If your students need help with asking questions when analyzing primary sources, bring out the question cubes. You can make them from paper or cleaned-out school milk cartons. Each student or student group should get two cubes (see image directly above and below) and roll both to help get those questions flowing. You can also…
This is a guest post by Ruth Ferris, an elementary school librarian from Billings, Montana, and a grantee in the TPS Regional Grant Program. Ruth is sharing the Shake and Source Newspaper Game procedure, instructions, and materials under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. I developed the Shake and Source when I created the lesson “Montana’s State Flower: A…
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) strike a balance between the reading of literature and informational texts and promote the use of a wide range of text types: “Through reading a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational texts in a range of subjects, students are expected to build knowledge, gain…
When completing a research project you will want to include primary sources. Using primary sources is particularly important when creating a history project and required for National History Day (NHD) projects. To get a better understanding of different types of sources, review the post Selecting Primary Sources: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary? Think of primary sources as raw, unfiltered…
When conducting research, you will likely use three types of sources: primary, secondary, and tertiary. While exact definitions may vary by discipline or institution, we hope this post will help you sort out the main distinctions between these types of sources and when to use each in the research process for National History Day (NHD) and other…