The document discusses using primary sources in the social studies classroom. It provides examples of different types of primary sources like photographs, audio recordings, texts, and objects that can be used. It emphasizes that primary sources encourage high levels of learning. The document provides guidance on developing primary source activities, including starting with the intended learning outcome, scaffolding the activity, and incorporating collaboration. It also lists several online resources where teachers can find primary sources to use in lessons.

1. Primary Sources
in the Social Studies
Classroom
Glenn Wiebe
ESSDACK
glennw@essdack.org

2. sticky ideas

3. primary sources encourage
high levels of
learning

4. there’s lots of stuff you
can use

5. “A morsel of genuine history is a
thing so rare as to be always
valuable.”
Thomas Jefferson
1817

6. With your partner, make some
decisions & place your dots

7. Primary or secondary?
Old history Copy of email
textbook
Journal
New history Blog
textbook
Digital photo
Band of Brothers
Wikipedia
Photo article
Artifact
World Book

8. characteristics?

9. • direct traces of the event
accounts created at the time it
occurred, by firsthand observers
and participants
accounts created after the event
occurred, by firsthand observers
and participants

10. • direct traces of the event
• accounts created at the time it
occurred, by firsthand observers
and participants
accounts created after the event
occurred, by firsthand observers
and participants

11. • direct traces of the event
• accounts created at the time it
occurred, by firsthand observers
and participants
• accounts created after the event
occurred, by firsthand observers
and participants

12. Definitions?

13. Definitions?
Primary sources
• Contemporary accounts of an event,
created by someone who experienced or
witnessed the event in question
• “a first-hand account of an event, person,
or place”

14. Secondary sources
• Materials that interpret, assign value to,
conjecture upon, and draw conclusions
about the events reported in primary
sources
• “An account of an event, person, or place
that is not first-hand”

15. Secondary sources?
• Materials that interpret, assign value
to, conjecture upon, and draw
conclusions about the events reported
in primary sources
• “An account of an event, person, or place
that is not first-hand”

16. Do you need to change any of
your dots?

17. Examines multiple primary
sources to understand point of
view of an historical figure

18. Examines a variety of primary
sources in World history and
analyzes them in terms of credibility,
purpose, and point of view

19. Uses at least three primary sources
to interpret the impact of a person or
event from Kansas history to develop
an historical narrative

20. Compares contrasting
descriptions of the same event in
United States history to understand
how people differ in their
interpretations of historical events

21. Three stage media analysis
See?
Similarities & Differences?
So what?

22. Three stage media analysis
Boston Massacre

35. Paul Revere
1770
Alonzo Chappel
1868

36. Training kids to analyze
“What really happened in Boston
on March 5, 1770?”

37. Historical Scene Investigation
web.wm.edu/hsi

38. 5 W’s and
credibility

39. Who
1st, 2nd or 3rd person?

40. What
format?

41. Why
audience?

42. Where
present?

43. When
date?

44. take advantage of analysis
worksheets

45. Whatcha thinking?

46. Social Studies Central
www.socialstudiescentral.com

47. National Archives & Records
Administration
www.archives.gov/education

48. Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/teachers

49. American Memory
memory.loc.gov

50. Our Documents
www.ourdocuments.gov

52. Making Sense of History
www.primarysourcelearning.org

53. Historical Scene Investigation
web.wm.edu/hsi

54. Browse through lesson plan
archives
Select a lesson you can adapt
How might it look different?
Share what you find!

55. how might chapter nine in
Medina tie into primary
sources?

56. what are these
things?

58. What are some problems with
using primary sources?

60. Time in planning

61. Time in planning
Time in class

62. Time in planning
Time in class
Validity of source

63. Time in planning
Time in class
Validity of source
Training of teacher and students

64. Time in planning
Time in class
Validity of source
Training of teacher and students
Reading level of students

66. Jigsaw:
“Primary Sources in History:
Breaking Through the Myths”

68. Code the text
already know = star
question = ?
aha = !

69. Myths?

71. Primary sources are reliable

72. Primary sources are reliable
Primary sources are naturally
engaging for students

73. Primary sources are reliable
Primary sources are naturally
engaging for students
Evidence can be neatly packaged

74. Primary sources are reliable
Primary sources are naturally
engaging for students
Evidence can be neatly packaged
The more primary sources the better

75. Primary sources are on the state
assessment but . . . other
than that?

76. Students develop critical
thinking skills

77. “I learned that to do history, you have to be
objective and be able to look at a puzzle of
historical events and put them together in
order.”
10th grader

78. Students acquire empathy for
the human condition

79. “When my students read the Whitman letters, I saw a
sheen of tears in their eyes and noted an avid interest
in the soldiers as people, not just historical figures.”
HS teacher

80. Students consider different
points of view

81. “Discovering that two students view a document
differently creates a kind of dissonance that opens up
meaning and creates new understanding in learners.”
MS teacher

82. Students understand
relationships over time

83. “The Civil Rights
Movement finally made
sense to me when I
looked at lynching
postcards from the
1900s and some of the
writings of Ida B.
Wells.”
HS student

84. Some assumptions?

86. History is incomplete & open to
interpretation

87. History is incomplete & open to
interpretation
Use raw evidence as much as
possible

88. History is incomplete & open to
interpretation
Use raw evidence as much as
possible
Activity should be “ill structured”

89. History is incomplete & open to
interpretation
Use raw evidence as much as
possible
Activity should be “ill structured”
Don’t get too involved

91. Use provocative problems

92. Use provocative problems
Provide scaffolding

93. Use provocative problems
Provide scaffolding
Incorporate collaboration

94. Use provocative problems
Provide scaffolding
Incorporate collaboration
Focus on the process, not the
“correct” answer

95. Some other ideas

96. • Footnote
• Digital Vaults

97. Provide some
“velcro”

99. Use analysis worksheets

100. Use analysis worksheets
Use NARA / LOC kits

101. Use analysis worksheets
Use NARA / LOC kits
NCSS lesson plans

103. Images

104. Images
• Select a historical photo,
have kids predict events one
hour before or after

105. Images
• Select a historical photo,
have kids predict events one
hour before or after
• I am poem

106. Images
• Select a historical photo,
have kids predict events one
hour before or after
• I am poem
• Create a “5 senses”
description of an image

108. Images

109. Images
• Use maps to guide questions

110. Kids create tour of US import countries
Tours of explorer routes
List of natural resources
Provide placemarks / good area to settle?
City scavenger hunts

111. Andersonville prison

112. Images
• Use visual DEIs

119. “Backwards” DEI
• Student stands facing class
• Project picture on wall
• Student must ask the
questions

121. Compare Flickr.com
photos of a specific event
or place

122. Let’s go find some

123. Objects
• Keil Hileman

125. Objects

126. Objects
• Trace the development of
specific types of
technology or inventions

127. Objects
• Trace the development of
specific types of
technology or inventions
• Predict what the technology
might look like 50 or 100 years
from now

129. Objects

130. Objects
• Use a spreadsheet program to
document deaths and births
based on tombstone data

131. Objects
• Use a spreadsheet program to
document deaths and births
based on tombstone data
• Predict use of unknown
object / research and present
findings

134. Audio

135. Audio
• Record oral interviews with
family or community members

136. Audio
• Record oral interviews with
family or community members
• Study lyrics of popular music
from WWI, WWII, the Vietnam War,
and Iraq

138. Audio

139. Audio
• Compare transcripts or newspaper
accounts of famous speeches to
the actual speech

141. Text

142. Text
• Analyze advertising of specific
products over time

143. Text
• Analyze advertising of specific
products over time
• Select cookbooks from different
periods

144. Famous quotes -
Age, location, time,
purpose, who?

146. Text

147. Text
• History in a Box

148. Text
• History in a Box
• Read letters to analyze point of
view

149. Document Based Questions
(DBQs)
• Series of short answers or
an essay based on prior
knowledge and a select set of
documents
• Encourages students to think
historically

150. Was Christopher Columbus good or
bad?

151. Did imperialism help or harm colonial
societies?

152. Is it ever okay for the government to
violate the Bill of Rights?

153. Technology?

154. Using the Library of Congress
framework, begin developing
your own primary sources activity
• Start with the end in mind
• Develop an assessment
• Create the activity

156. high levels of
learning
lots of resources &
activities exist
technology is important

157. have more questions?
contact:
Glenn Wiebe
glennw@essdack.org
socialstudiescentral.com
historytech.wordpress.com
View presentations at:
slideshare.net/glennw98