Convocation - Teaching with Primary Sources
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Transcript of Convocation - Teaching with Primary Sources
TEACHING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES
What’s a secondary source?
What are primary sources?
Why should I use primary sources?
Engage students
Help students relate in a personal way Promote deeper understanding of history
as series of human events Encourage students to seek additional
evidence First-person accounts bring history to life
Develop critical thinking skills Require critical and analytical reading Lack of context and incomplete nature
requires prior knowledge or pattern finding
move from concrete observations and facts to questioning and inferences
Questions bias, purpose, point of view Challenges assumptions
Construct knowledge
Encourage students to confront contradictions
Comparing multiple sources: different points of view, shows complexity of past
Form conclusions based on evidence Synthesize information from multiple
sources Integrate existing and new information to
deepen understanding
How do I use primary sources?
Engage students
Draw on prior knowledge Encourage close observation Help point out key details Encourage them to think about personal
response
Promote student inquiry
Encourage speculation about source, creator and context
Does source agree with other sources? Does it agree with prior knowledge? Have them find other sources that
support or contradict
Assess critical thinking & analysis Summarize what they’ve learned Ask for reasons and evidence to support
conclusions Identify questions for further
investigation Develop strategies for finding answers
Where can I use primary sources? Social studies Language arts Math Science Arts: music, art,
drama
Manuscripts Maps Motion pictures Music Newspapers/
cartoons/advertisements
Photos Printed ephemera Sound recordings
Language Arts
Social Studies: Geography
Social Studies
Math
Science
Science
Arts: Music
Arts: Art
Where do I find primary sources? Archives Museums Libraries Online
Evaluating primary source websites What domain is it? Who’s the author? Why is the site there? Where did the documents come from? Is the information well organized and
easy to use?
Volunteer Voices
http://www.volunteervoices.org Tennessee's first statewide digital
collection A statewide network of primary
resources accessible to all. Includes materials from the state's
archives, libraries, repositories, historic homes and museums.
Volunteer Voices
Materials are organized by Tennessee’s K-12 Socials Studies Eras in American History, by subject, and are keyword searchable
Lesson plans, hints for teaching with primary sources and student handouts are also available in the Educators section
American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
Provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music
American Memory
A Teachers Page provides classroom materials, including lesson plans, themed resources, primary source sets, presentations & activities and professional development materials
Collection can be browsed by topic, time period, format (map, photo, etc) and place
World Digital Library
http://www.wdl.org/en/ cooperative project of the Library of
Congress, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and partner libraries, archives, and educational and cultural institutions from the United States and around the world
World Digital Library
Include rare and unique documents – books, journals, manuscripts, maps, prints and photographs, films, and sound recordings – that tell the story of the world’s cultures
Can be browsed by the map, by time, topic, or institution
Smaller, more limited collection
Smithsonian’s History Explorer http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.
edu/ Very interactive site, provides
presentations on various topics Can be browsed by era, grade level or
resource type Provides lesson plans and other
materials for teachers
National Archives
http://www.archives.gov/education/ contains reproducible copies of primary
documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States, teaching activities correlated to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government, and cross-curricular connections.
Further Resources
http://library.belmont.edu/Convos/primarysources.html