Teaching with Primary Sources

1. TEACHING WITH
PRIMARY SOURCES
LM 531
BY HEATHER THOMAS

2. What are Primary sources?
 Primary sources are original documents and objects.
 According to the Library of Congress, “examining primary sources gives students a
powerful sense of history and the complexity of the past.”
 To use primary sources you should first look at your learning objectives and course
of study in order to locate supportive sources.

3. WHY USE PRIMARY SOURCES?
 Primary sources provide a window into the past—unfiltered access to the record of
artistic, social, scientific and political thought and achievement during the specific
period under study, produced by people who lived during that period.
 Engage students
 Promote student inquiry
 Develop critical thinking skills
 Construct knowledge
 Assess how students apply critical thinking and analysis skills to primary sour

4. HISTORY
• History is a great place to use primary
sources for teaching.
• There are so many historical documents
that you can use in your classroom.
• The use of primary sources exposes
students to
important historical concepts.
• Students use primary sources, they
develop important analytical skills.
• This picture of a crying man was taking
during the Germany occupation of Paris
during World War II. .
• A great place to start with this picture is
to show it to students and let them have
a few minutes to gather their thoughts
and/or questions (SS.11.9).
• This is a great way to incorporate
inferring into your history lesson.

5. SCIENCE
• In the Sciences, primary sources are
documents that provide full description
of the original research. For example, a
primary source would be a journal article
where scientists describe their research
• This image is from Thomas Edison’s
notebook of the Phonograph.
• Using documents such as this can help
students understand the scientific
method (Standard 12. Understands the
nature of scientific inquiry).
• Students will also see the importance of
keeping a notebook when experimenting.

6. LANGUAGE ARTS
 You can incorporate history into your
Language Arts class just by using
primary sources such as this one.
 Analyzing Primary Source Media
 In this self-paced interactive lesson,
students examine primary source
media—specifically, news footage carried
on Boston television students watch news
footage on subjects including the 1979 oil
crisis, the 1974 Boston school
desegregation controversy, and
affirmative action. T
 They practice three steps—observe,
interpret, and question—to analyze the
media.
 * For a final assignment, they select
footage and write an essay or blog post
that contains their analysis and reflects
their understanding of the content in its
historical context. (RL6.12, 6.17)

7. MATHEMATICS
• Analyzing primary sources using mathematical
reasoning can help students quantify historical
changes over time, giving them a concrete
sense of scope and scale, while providing
meaningful historical perspective. This post will
highlight several strategies for helping students
use mathematics to better understand
historical documents and events.
• Introduce this topic by asking students to
examine the Schedule of Mail Deliveries from
Washington, D.C. to New Orleans Mail from the
Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of
Congress. The schedule is dated 1806, just
three years after the Louisiana purchase, at a
time when horse drawn stage wagons carried
the mail over post roads.
• Students can use the information in this
document – along with average distances
between cities found online or estimated
using maps such as this one – to calculate an
estimated rate of delivery in miles per
hour.(Geometry Standard 12)

8. FINE ARTS
• Primary sources can also be used in
Fine Arts to encourage students to use
critical thinking skills.
• Photographs of the same person can
be used to teach students that pose,
setting, clothing, props, and focus all
impact the perception of the viewer.

9. REFERENCES• “
• Analyzing Primary Source Media. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://aptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/bln12.soc.splblog/analyzing-
primary-source-media/#.W4Ly2-hKh1s Accessed 26 August 2018
• C., & Lederle. (2018, January 11). Mathematics and Primary Sources: The Evolving Postal System. Accessed August 26, 2018, from
https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2018/01/mathematics-and-primary-sources-the-evolving-postal-system/
• Feature Article." Feature Article - Teaching with Fine Arts, Fall 2014 - Teaching with Primary Sources | Teacher Resources - Library of
Congress. N.p., n.d. www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/journal/teaching_with_fine_arts/article.html. Accessed 26 August 2018
• Great Historical World War II Photos (60 pics). (n.d.). Accessed August 26, 2018, from
https://izismile.com/2013/09/12/great_historical_world_war_ii_photos_60_pics.html
• Moler, Karen. "Using Primary Sources." Flamingo Fabulous in Elementary. N.p., 05 June 2013.
flamingofabulous.blogspot.com/2013/06/using-primary-sources.html. Accessed 26 August 2018
• Thomas Edison Inventions. (2010, November 29). AccessedAugust 26, 2018, from http://www.edisonmuckers.org/thomas-edison-
inventions/
• "Using Primary Sources." Library of Congress. N.p., n.d. www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/. Accessed 26 August 2018
• "Why Use Primary Sources?" Library of Congress. N.p., n.d. www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/whyuse.html. Accessed 26
August 2018.