Historical Detective Skills Handbook

Detective In Training: ______________________________

Step 1: A good detective knows the first step in solving a case is to locate witnesses, or sources of information, from which information about the crime/case can be gathered.

Example: If a bank were robbed, the detective would seek to gather information about the crime from sources such as:

Locate Sources of Information

* tellers waiting on people * security guards* customers * bank manager

As a historical detective, you will need to locate sources

of information which can provide you with information about a historical event.

There are two types of sources of information a historical detective can

locateto gather evidence from.

A primary source is a source of information, which was created at the time an event took place. Example: The Declaration of

IndependenceA secondary source is a source of information, which was created after an event took place, and is based on a primary source of information. Example: The American

Nation textbook

Step 2:Just as a detective interviews witnesses and gathers information in order to begin to understand the details of the robbery, the Historical Detective collects facts and details from their primary and secondary

sources about the historical event they are investigating.

Evidence includes things like:

Gather Evidence

* Names * Dates* Quotes * Key Terms* Definitions * Facts/Details

Step 3:the evidence you have gathered from your sources.

Detectives must determine, once evidence has beengathered from witnesses, how the information they havecollected agrees and disagrees with each other.

Just like different witnesses to a bank robbery might give details that aren’texactly the same, primary and secondarysources might contradict each other aboutthe details of a historical event. The HistoricalDetective must recognize how these sourcesof information are similar and different.

Corroborate

Step 4:

Just as the detective investigating the bank robbery needs to understand the order in which events occurred during the crime, the Historical Detective must determine the order in which events took place in a historical event.

Putting events in chronological orderallows the Historical Detective to see whenone event took place in relation toanother.

First ………. Second………Third ……….

Chronology (Chronological

Order)

Step 5:Many times, isolated facts or details make no

sense when they are looked at on their own.

.

Events must always be understood in the contextof which they took place to understand why they

happened.

Putting events in context allows the Historical Detective to understand why things happened and how one event influenced and brought about another.

Putting Events in Context

Consider this statement: Anne Frank, a teenage girl, hid in the attic of a house for many years…..

Why would a teenager and her family ever do this? It sounds strange, until you consider it in context.It was because she and millions of other Jews like her were being hunted down and killed by the Nazi’s in World War II. She and her family were hiding to avoid being captured and killed.

Step 6:

Use gathered facts and details as evidence to make your argument and support your

conclusion.

Coming Soon: Your first historical

mystery to investigate….Did Pocahontas save the life of Captain John

Smith?

State Your Conclusion