By Victoria Karakasis

This presentation is designed to provide information to librarians and teachers on ways to incorporate Primary Source Documents into library and classroom work, to inspire research and invigorate students to think in new ways and use techniques to think like historians. All information presented here is based on training received from the week long 2013 Summer
Teacher Institute in Washington D.C. and all credit goes to the great staff at The Library of
Congress. www.loc.gov

• http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelop ment/selfdirected/introduction/index.html
Primary Source Definition: The raw materials of history – original documents and objects which were created at the time under study

Digital versions of historic primary sources
Letters – Photographs – Maps – Drawings -
Sheet Music – Advertisements -
Recordings - Political Cartoons.
Primary Source Sets, Lesson Plans,
Presentations, Activities and more.
You can find classroom activities that meet
State Standards.

Activity One: Categorizing Primary Source
Documents
• Select one primary source document from the display table and examine it for clues as to what it is about.
• Compare your findings with others in the room to find those who seem to have a document with something in common with yours.
• Seat yourselves in groups according to the presumed theme.
• Compare what the documents have in common and select an overall theme.
• Small group sharing: Have one person write the agreed upon theme on the paper provided.
• Whole group sharing: One person will stand and share the group’s theme, giving examples from the documents. (Example: Our group’s theme is World War II because all the documents seem to be from 1940-1945)
• Tape your group’s theme on the wall.

• Women’s Suffrage
• Baseball Across a Divided Society
• Japanese/American Internment During
World War II
• Children/Child Labor
• Symbols of America

Activity Two:
Analyzing a Primary Source Map
Individual Activity
.
http://www.loc.gov/item/90683459

• This primary source analysis tool asks the participant to Observe, Reflect and
Question.
• http://www.loc.gov/teachers/primarysource-analysis-tool/

Step One: Observe
• Observation is an important step in analyzing a primary source.
• In this photo, what do you observe?
• Have students identify and note details.

• Reflection is another step in analyzing a primary source.
• Looking again at the photo, what do you think you know?
• Encourage students to generate and test hypotheses about the source.

Have students ask questions to lead to more observations and reflections.
What do you wonder about…
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

• Each document has a bibliographic record that can be accessed through the website.
About this Item tab: The title, contributor names, created/published, the subject headings, notes, medium etc. are made available to the viewer.

The maps in the Map Collections materials were either published prior to 1922, produced by the United States government, or both
(see catalogue records that accompany each map for information regarding date of publication and source). The Library of Congress is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes and is not aware of any U.S. copyright protection (see Title
17 of the United States Code) or any other restrictions in the Map
Collection materials.
Note that the written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

• Pass out one piece of a complete map to each participant sitting at a group table.
• Individually examine your map piece and make observations. Jot your ideas on a Post It Note of your observations, then compare ideas with people in your group.
• As a culminating activity, use sticky tape to piece the map together on the wall. Pass out bibliographic record of map for further discussion and reflections.

Help students to identify questions appropriate for further investigation, and to develop a research strategy for finding answers.
What questions do you have? How will you find out?
http://www.loc.gov/teachers for more tips on using primary sources