COPY_COPY_Using Primary Sources with Middle and High School Students
Using primary sources will give your lesson depth and help your students develop valuable critical thinking skills. Graphic organizers are a great tool for guiding students through primary source analysis.
DASH Graphic Organizer for use with text sources:
Image Analysis Graphic Organizer:
Teacher’s Guide to Image Analysis: The Teacher’s Guides can also be used by students who miss the lesson in class or need extra cues when working independently.
Other Graphic Organizers and Analysis Worksheets:
National Archives: The National Archives has developed a number of source specific analysis worksheets.
Worksheet for analyzing multiple related images
Lesson Plans and Best Practices:
Cropping Tools: Lesson plan from teachinghistory.org on how to analyze images using “cropping tools” Excellent lesson that combines good critical thinking with kinesthetic learning
Think Aloud: Excellent guide for doing a think aloud on a primary source from teachinghistory.org
Primary Source Adaptation: Guide for adapting primary sources to make them more accessible for students including examples for middle and high school students
Read Aloud/Think About: Best practices lesson from teachinghistory.org on using read aloud/think aloud
Class Discussion: Best practices lesson from teachinghistory.org on leading a class discussion based on documents
Engaging Strategy: Strategy for engaging students with primary sources through written comments
Connection Stategy: Strategy for helping students make connections with text based sources
Other useful links for students:
Learner Game: Online game on analyzing sources
Primary Sources Introduction: Introduction to primary sources for students