Social Studies Methods:
The Primacy of Primary Sources
Jeni Venker Weidenbenner, MLIS,
MAT, PhD Student
Email: MzWeidster@aol.com
Section web site:
http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/bin/unit_upd
ate.cgi?command=select&xmlfil
e=u14119.xml
Section room: 192 Education
Pair & Share

How has your own past affected
your life today?

Select 1 of the most significant
things that has changed your
life. How would your life have
been different if this event hadn’t
happened?
Why study history?
"The first step in liquidating a people is to
erase its memory. Destroy its books, its
culture, its history, Then have somebody
write new books, manufacture a new
culture, invent a new history. Before long
the nation will begin to forget what it is and
what it was. The world around it will forget
even faster."
(Source: http://www.tntech.edu/history/whystudy.html; Attribution: Milan Kundera,
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting; )
What questions will help
students connect with history?
• Fundamental historical questions (NCSS,
1994)
– Who am I?
– What happened in the past?
– How am I connected to those in the past?
– How has the world changed and how might it
change in the future?
– How do our personal stories reflect varying
points of view and inform contemporary ideas
and actions?
What are some teaching strategies
that can build knowledge?
•
•
•
•
Field trips
Guest speakers
Demonstrations
Lecture/Teacher
presentations
• Games
• Role playing and
simulations
• Discussions
• Reading/writing
activities
• Social Studies kits
• Media
• Learning centers
• Inquiry
• Discrepant events
What are primary and
secondary sources?
• Primary sources
– Firsthand testimony or
direct evidence related
to topic of study
– Can be in the form of a
document or artifact
– Item could be a
primary source in one
investigation but a
secondary source in
another
• Secondary sources
– Accounts or
interpretations based
on the use of primary
sources
– Textbooks are
secondary sources –
but may contain
facsimiles of
photographs,
documents, etc. that
are primary sources
Why use primary sources?
• Beyond the Textbook:
– Expose history through multiple perspectives and
interpretations
• Personal Touch:
– Connect students personally with people from the
past
• Point of View:
– Help students recognize points of view and biases,
including their own, and analyze/evaluate
interpretations
What types of primary sources are
available for classroom use?
• Personal records
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Birth certificates
Social security cards
Passports
Diaries
Photographs
Report cards
Letters
Drawings
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Recipes
Clothes
• Other types of records
– Medical records
– Government records (e.g.
census)
– Newspapers
– Artifacts
– Maps
– Sound recordings
– Motion pictures
– Cartoons
– Posters
– Historical landmarks
What questions can help
evaluate sources?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who created the source and why?
Was it a spontaneous or thoughtful creation?
Was the creator an eyewitness or a voice for others?
What biases, prejudices, values, opinions, or interests
may have influenced the creator?
Who was the intended audience?
Did the author wish to inform or persuade?
Did the author have reasons to be honest or dishonest?
Was the information recorded during the event,
immediately afterwards, or after some time had elapsed?
Can the information be corroborated by another source?
What instructional techniques can
be used with primary sources?
• Evaluate the documents – ask questions to determine
accuracy and reliability
• Translate the documents – paraphrase, interpret
• Examine unexpected, interesting, confusing events
• List recurring topics and events – look for patterns
• Explore the meaning of peculiar vocabulary words
• Create imaginary sources based on the information
found in real sources
• Compare the primary source with the information and
views expressed in the textbook
• Compare the primary source with the information and
views expressed in children’s trade books (fiction and
non-fiction)
What historical thinking skills can
be taught with primary sources?
– Chronological thinking
– Historical comprehension
– Historical analysis and interpretation
– Historical research capabilities
– Historical issues-analysis and decisionmaking
What kinds of activities can foster
chronological thinking?
• Creating timelines
• Tracing changes in opinions, activities
• Identifying how current tools or resources
that would have changed the historical
person’s life (e.g., George Washington
with a cell phone)
• Matching dates in the document with
timelines
What kinds of activities can
promote historical comprehension?
• Conducting interviews/obtain oral histories
of modern events
• Locating historical places, tracing routes
on a map
• Writing narratives of the event from
various perspectives
• Citing evidence from the source that
reveals a creator’s side of a conflict
What kinds of activities encourage
analysis and interpretation?
• Creating Venn diagrams to illustrate
comparisons and contrasts of ideas,
attitudes, behaviors
• Constructing a poster persuading people
to support a certain viewpoint
• Analyzing how the world would be different
today if an event from the past had not
happened – or had ended differently
What kinds of activities strengthen
historical issues-analysis and
decision-making?
• Citing evidence from the sources to support a
particular decision, course of action
• Identifying causes of conflicts
• Analyzing difficulties faced
• Assessing the alternatives that historical figures
faced
• Identifying reasons for people’s actions
• Analyzing impact of events
Pair & Share

Think of a primary source that you could
use in whatever content area you expect to
teach (i.e. math, science, language arts,
health, etc.). Brainstorm possibilities for
using the source in a middle school
classroom to teach each of the 5 thinking
skills in the context of your content area:





Chronological thinking
Historical comprehension
Historical analysis and interpretation
Historical research capabilities
Historical issues-analysis and decision-making
Primary Sources Resources
• Using Primary Sources on the Web
– http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/RUSA/
• U.S. Census Bureau
– http://www.census.gov/
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
– http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/index.html
• Library of Congress
– http://www.loc.gov/teachers/
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History
– http://americanhistory.si.edu/educators/index.cfm
• Eyewitness to History
– http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/