APPARTS
A quick and dirty method for analyzing primary source
documents
Objectives
 To define the different components of APPARTS
 To practice the skill of APPARTSing
 To consider how this activity might be useful in your
own classroom
Common Core State
Standards
 CC Reading Standards:
1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text…
2. …Provide an objective summary of the text.
7. Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S.
texts, including the application of constitutional
principals and use of legal reasoning and the premise,
purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy.
Introduction and
Acknowledgements
 Activity borrowed from Matthew Ellington
 About me 
Supplies
 You will need either a piece of paper and a pen or a
word doc.
What do you notice? What do you
see?
What do you notice? What do you
see?
What do you notice? What do you see?
What do you notice? What do you
see?
Analysis Questions
 Who created these woodcuts? How do you know?
 What is their point of view? How do you know?
 Where and when was this source produced? How might this





effect the meaning of the source?
What do you know that would help you further understand
the primary source?
For whom were the woodcuts created? How might this affect
the reliability of the source?
Why were these woodcuts produced at the time they were
produced?
What point is the Document trying to convey?
What inferences can you draw from this document? And ask
yourself ‘so what’ in relation to that.
APPARTS !
 Congratulations you just figured out how to analyze
primary sources
APPARTS
 A = author – who is the speaker?
 P = Place and time – When was this written/said. What else was
going on?
 P = Prior Knowledge – What else was going on? What other events
are connected to this?
 A = Audience – who is the intended audience? Who is being spoken
to?
 R = Reason – What is the purpose? Why was this said/written?
 T = The Main Idea – Summarize the author’s point. What is this
about?
 S = Significance – Why is this important? What impact did it have?
Let’s try it again
 Read through the two lists
 In your table group, APPARTS the documents
1993 DBQ
 Individually, using your notes from APPARTSing the
two lists, create a thesis statement that addresses the
following prompt:
 Although New England and the Chesapeake region
were both settled by people of English origin, by 1700
the regions had evolved into two distinct societies.
Why did this difference in development occur?