This document discusses the difference between primary and secondary source documents. It begins by defining primary sources as first-hand accounts that were created by someone present during the event being documented. Secondary sources are accounts created after the fact that may include analysis or interpretation of original events or information. Understanding the difference is important because primary sources provide direct windows into the past, while secondary sources can contain opinions and interpretations. The document provides examples like diaries, photographs, or government records as primary sources, and textbooks or biographies as secondary sources. It emphasizes the need to critically evaluate secondary sources for author bias.

1. Primary & Secondary Source Documents
Making History Come Alive
Adapted from: Better Lessons, and from Learning NC 1

2. Learning goals
 The learning goals for this unit are:
 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and
secondary sources.
 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary
source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior
knowledge or opinions.
In order to reach your goals you first need to know what a primary
source document and a secondary source document are.
Adapted from: Better Lessons, and from Learning NC
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3. Your focus questions
1. What are primary source and
secondary source documents?
2. Why do I need to know the
difference between primary
and secondary sources?
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4. What is a primary source
document?
 Primary sources provide first
hand evidence of historical
events. The authors of primary
sources were actually present
during the event.
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5. For instance…
 The information your friend
provides to the principal would
be considered a primary
source because she was
present during an argument on
the playground.
 However, if you went to the
principal to explain what you
learned about the fight from
other people, your explanation
would be considered a
secondary source.
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6. Why is this important to
my learning?
 Because they are first-hand
accounts of life in the past,
primary sources provide you
with windows into the past — a
chance to catch a glimpse at
the world you’re trying to
understand through the words,
pictures, artwork, and objects
of the people who lived in it.
Adapted from: Better Lessons, and from Learning NC
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7. What is a secondary
source document?
 A secondary source is a
source that relates or
discusses information originally
presented elsewhere.
 Secondary sources involve
generalization, analysis,
synthesis, interpretation, or
evaluation of the original
information.
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8. Still confused?
 Secondary sources in history
and humanities are usually
books or journals, from the
perspective of a later
interpreter.
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 Secondary sources are at least
one step removed from original
events or topics. Examples
include textbooks,
encyclopedias, reviews of
research, book reviews,
critiques of art, and
biographies.

9. What about my textbook?
 Textbooks are examples of
secondary sources because
the textbook writers were not
present during the events in
the book.
 They can sometimes add their
own opinions and
interpretations of the events
into the textbooks.
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10. What are some
examples?
 What are some examples of
primary sources?
 A diary entry from Anne
Frank about the Holocaust.
 A fossil found in the desert
from the Ice Age.
 What are some examples of
secondary sources?
 A biography of Harriet
Tubman written by a current
author.
 A textbook chapter about
the Great Depression.
Adapted from: Better Lessons, and from Learning NC
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11.  It is important to understand
the difference between these
two types of sources because
we want to be critical readers
of a text.
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 We need to read secondary
sources more critically because
they may contain opinions or
ideas of the author instead of
the person the event revolves
around.
So what? Why is this important?

12. Still not sure?
 Answering some questions will help you determine whether it
is a primary or a secondary source.
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13. What kind of source is it?
 You’ll want to know what kind of source it is — a newspaper, an
oral history account, a diary entry, a government document, etc.
— because different kinds of sources must be considered
differently.
 Knowing that type of source you’re dealing with can help you
start to think about appropriate questions.
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14. Where did it come from?
 If you found an editorial in a newspaper discussing the
Montgomery Bus Boycott, for example, you would want to know
where the newspaper was published — a newspaper from
Montgomery might be considered very differently from one
published in Boston, Massachusetts, Mobile, Alabama, or
Washington, D.C.
Adapted from: Better Lessons, and from Learning NC
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15. Who created it?
 Knowing something about who
created the source you’re using
can help you determine what
biases they might have had,
what their relationship to the
things they described in the
source might have been, and
whether or not this source
should be considered credible.
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16. Who created it?
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 Keep in mind that someone
doesn’t have to be famous or
need to have played a dramatic
role in history to be a credible
source — in terms of
understanding the experience
of World War I, the writings of a
regular soldier in the trenches
may be as valuable or even
much more so than the
recollections of President
Wilson.

17. When was it produced?
 Knowing when the source was produced can help you start to put it into
historical perspective.
 If you don’t know when a source was written, you can’t start to put it into
its historical context and understand how it connects to historical events.
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18. Some things to consider
 Historians have special ways of
reading primary sources, a
“toolbox” of questions they ask
about each type of source and
methods they use to answer
them. The way we read a
source from the past is
different from the way we’d
read a similar source in the
present.
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19. Other things to
consider…
 When you read historical
primary sources, then, you
have to think about the
assumptions, background, and
context of the people who
created them, and about how
they differed from yours. You
have to read and think about
them, but you also have to
think carefully about how
you’re reading and thinking
about them.
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20. Let’s review…
Now test your learning. This video will help you understand the
difference between primary sources and secondary sources. Can
you answer their questions correctly?
Primary and Secondary Sources
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21. You’ve got it!
 The more you practice, the
more you’ll learn to think like a
historian!
 Try this quick quiz on primary
and secondary sources. See
how well you know the
difference between the two.
Good luck!
 Quiz
Adapted from: Better Lessons, and from Learning NC
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