Teaching History
with Primary
Sources
Karen Kaemmerling
Colorado Mountain College
Assistant Dean for Online Learning
CCCNS
I. Four general goals integrate history with workplace
skills:
• A. Acquire information from many sources
• B. Break complex and multiple sources of
information down into parts to create clearer
understanding
• C. Understand the impact of time and space on
perspective
• D. Develop narrative structures and arguments based
on evidence
II. Throughout the course, students should be introduced to course content, practice using
course content, and demonstrate they can:
• A. Describe how peoples, groups, cultures, and institutions covered in this course change
over time
• B. Understand the events covered in the course in historical context and recognize how
social, cultural, gender, race, religion, nationality and other identities affect historical
perspective
• C. Communicate orally and in writing about the subject of the course and select and apply
contemporary forms of technology to solve problems and compile information
• D. Use different resources for historical research, including libraries, databases, bibliographies
and archives
• E. Analyze secondary sources and recognize differences in historical interpretation
• F. Identify types of primary sources, the point of view and purpose of their author or creator
• G. Create substantive writing samples which employ critical analysis of primary and
secondary sources, and document those sources correctly
• H. Construct knowledge in the discipline and synthesize historical narratives and timelines
from primary and secondary sources, maps, and/or artifacts and critically analyze, interpret
and evaluate many different points of view to construct historical arguments
Milestone
https://www.milestonedocuments.com
• “The history textbook of the future is not a textbook. It's an affordable,
interactive, digital service with primary sources at the core. The future is
now.”
• Primary Source Database designed for 5 main course types:
– History, American Studies, Political Science, Religious Studies, and Social
Studies (9-12)
• Cost 20 dollars per student
• The Milestone documents include additional information and resources to
help with analysis.
• Helpful, easy to access staff
• Reporting Tools
• Student features (Notes, Highlighting, Sharing)
– 3 used highlighting
– 1 used notes feature
– 5 used sharing feature
Other Content Sources
• http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/p
rog01/index.html (Links to an external site.)
• http://ahp.gatech.edu/
• http://www.loc.gov/
• http://www.archives.gov/
• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
• Other: youtube, Films on Demand, Virtual
Library
Purchase Stats
30
25
Capacity
20
Registered
15
Purchased
Passed
10
5
0
Fall 121
Spring 121
Spring 122
Number of Primary Sources
60
Number of Sources
50
40
Average Visitation of 1
Source
30
20
Average Number of
Sources viewed by 1
student
10
Active Milestone User
Average
0
Fall 121
Spring 121
Spring 122
Fall HIS 121 Stats
• 54% of the students visited John Smith:
Generall Historie of Virginia
• 2 who did not register for Milestone and
remained active in the course passed the class
with a C or better
Spring 121 Stats
• 2 who didn’t register still active and passing
• 65% viewed Virginia Act For Religious Freedom
by Thomas Jefferson
• 1 student viewed no documents.
• 1 student viewed 32 and 1 viewed 1
Spring 122
• 1 who didn’t register still not active or passing
course
• The average visitation for one source was 25%
of the students
• 80% visited Homestead Act
• 0 students viewed no documents.
• 2 students viewed 30 and 1 viewed 1
What did we learn from the data?
• The average primary source visitation of 21%
indicates that there was effective distribution
of the primary sources in our discussions.
• There were some documents that had 0%
visits from students, and these might not be
interesting enough to students and could be
removed or others added.
Assignment/Assessments
• None of the documents were required
• How to Read Primary sources
• HIS 121
– 7 course discussion assignments directly “pushed”
students to use primary resources in their responses.
• HIS 122
– 8 course discussion assignments directly “pushed”
students to use primary resources in their responses.
• Final paper and presentation requires the use of at least 2
primary sources
Content Discussion
• Other sources can be found using your Milestone
Account. Access instructions are in an announcement
and in your syllabus. Use Primary Source: John Smith:
The Generall Historie of Virginia and Articles: English
Beginnings on the Chesapeake (1607–1676) and Native
American Exclusion.
• Compare the methods and messages of Martin Luther
King Jr and Malcolm X. How were they viewed in their
own life times and how has their legacy evolved over
time? A good place to start is Milestone where I have
preselected some materials that might help you better
understand these events.
Primary Source Discussion
• Choose a topic covered between Jefferson's
Presidency to the Antebellum Period
• Choose a song written after WWII and up to
1970.
Although they see dangers of
unemployment and dehumanization,
solid majorities feel that the computer
revolution will ultimately raise production
and therefore living standards (67%), and
that it will improve the quality of their
children's education (68%).
Otto Frederick Time: “The Computer Moves
In”
(1983)
The Great Society is a place where
every child can find knowledge to
enrich his mind and to enlarge his
talents.
Lyndon Baines Johnson: “Great
Society” Speech
(1964)
Experiments in method have been
freely made and have failed or
succeeded after a fair trial.
Robert A. Taft: “The Sound Basis for
Federal Aid to Education” 1947
Few things are more sanctified in
American life than academic freedom. It
would be fatal to attack this as a
principle.
Lewis F. Powell: “Confidential Memorandum:
Attack on American Free Enterprise System
1971
We may falter and
stumble, but we cannot
fail.
Roy Wilkins 1957
A great diversity of thought
should be allowed in
colleges and universities.
Fang Lizhi: “The Social
Responsibility of Today’s
Intellectuals”
(1985)
In America, with education and hard work, it
really does not matter where you came
from—it matters where you are going.
Condoleezza Rice: Address to the Republican
National Convention 2000
Our society and its educational institutions
seem to have lost sight of the basic purposes
of schooling, and of the high expectations and
disciplined effort needed to attain them.
A Nation at Risk 1983
…no ignorance or rusticity is so
disgraceful, as airs of superiority
over those, who have enjoyed no
opportunity for learning, and
whose manners are the misfortune
of birth, and not of their own
choosing.
Horace Mann Common School Journal
1840
We would provide education at the
expense of the states and the United
States for every child, not only through
grammar school and high school but
through to a college and vocational
education.
Huey Long: “Share Our Wealth” Address
(1935)
Contact Information
• kkaemmerling@coloradomtn.edu
Education shall be directed to the full development
of the human personality and to the strengthening
of respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance
and friendship among all nations, racial or religious
groups, and shall further the activities of the United
Nations for the maintenance of peace.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(1948)
United Nations