Revisiting Primary Sources

June PreszlerTIE

Outcomes

Identify various types of primary sources applicable to content areas

Locate (free) primary source materials via the Internet

Consider ways primary sources might enhance classroom content

Select one document, photograph or artifact that could be used within individual content areas

Is It Primary?

Primary sources are the "materials on a topic upon which subsequent interpretations or studies are based, anything from firsthand documents such as poems, diaries, court records, and interviews to research results generated by experiments, surveys, ethnographies, and so on.“

Primary sources are records of events as they are first described, without any interpretation or commentary. They are also sets of data, such as census statistics, which have been tabulated, but not interpreted.

From Hairston, Maxine and John J. Ruszkiewicz. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers. 4th ed. New York : HarperCollins College Publishers, 1996, pg. 547.

Or Is It Secondary?

Secondary sources, on the other hand, offer an analysis or a restatement of primary sources. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources. Some secondary sources not only analyze primary sources, but use them to argue a contention or to persuade the reader to hold a certain opinion.

Examples of secondary sources include: dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, and books and articles that interpret or review research works.

From Hairston, Maxine and John J. Ruszkiewicz. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers. 4th ed. New York : HarperCollins College Publishers, 1996, pg. 547.

Primary Secondary

Original artwork Slave diary

Poem

Ft. Laramie Treaty

Videotape of a theatrical performance

Critique of artwork Book about Underground

Railroad Treatise on the poetry

genre Essay on Native

American land rights

Biography of the playwright

http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/infosrv/lue/primary.html

Which It It?

Mountains of History Video by TIE Media Services

Women Behind the Carving http://vs.moorecast.com/vmem08/1007

6/women_behind_the_carving.wmv

In the News

3-minute pause Identify and reflect on some of the

primary source documents that have made headlines in the last two weeks

Why Use Primary Sources?

Develop critical thinking skills…

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company

Collection. The Close of a Career in New York

Why Use Primary Sources?

Understand all history is local Acquire empathy for the human

condition Consider different points of view

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cwar:@field(NUMBER+@band(ppmsc+00168))

Understand the continuum of historyhttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(mcc/024))

American Memory from the Library of Congress

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/index.html

Authentic History

http://www.authentichistory.com

Exploratorium

The Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception

http://www.exploratorium.edu/index.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/

http://www.exploratorium.edu/educate/index.html

Journey North

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/

Kathy Schrock’s Content Area List http://kathyschrock.net/navigating/

Mathematical Possibilities

Eye Spy Math in American Memory

http://lcweb4.loc.gov/learn/educators/handouts/EyeSpyFiles/EyeSpyMathFeb05.ppt#1

CIESE: Real Time Data Projects

http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/popgrowthproj/

The Music Within Us

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/community/cc_music_kit.php

http://www.authentichistory.com/civilwar.html

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/lyrical/tools/

National Archives

http://www.archives.gov/education/

Central Plains Region:http://www.archives.gov/central-plains/

Putting It All Together

Learning Page Professional Developmenthttp://lcweb4.loc.gov/learn/educators/index.html

Learning Page Evaluating Primary Sourceshttp://rs6.loc.gov/learn/educators/workshop/primary/index.html

Creating and Using Primary Source Sets http://memory.loc.gov/learn/community/using.pdf

Recreating American Memory Materials for Off-Line Use

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/educators/summer_institute/docs/makeit_takeit.doc

From EduPlace

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/primary.html

Primary Source Hotlist

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listdocumentpa.html#cat1

Primary Source Pathfinder

http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/primary.html

Primary Source Repository

http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html

University of Berkeley

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/PrimarySourcesOnTheWeb.html

Using Historical Resources in Math http://www.math.nmsu.edu

/~history/#discrete

Using Primary Sources on the Web http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/

History/RUSA/

Voyages of Discovery

http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/primary.html

What Could You Do?

Consider the various forms of primary sources that we’ve identified and looked at today.

What is one way you could use primary source materials in your classroom before the school year ends?

We Want Them to Think

We want our students to question and think, to inquiry and imagine the worlds of yesteryear and possibilities of the future. But what happens when we don’t give our students the opportunity to think, reflect, imagine?

Seinfeld, the high school history teacher, provides a glimpse of a classroom without primary sources and without inquiry in this clip from SNL.