Given a variety of sources, students will be able to correctly identify the source as a primary or secondary source 90% of the time.
Time:
Thirty minutes
Pre-Instructional Activities:
Starter question on SMART Board: Does the author of a source need to be a respected historian in a specific field to make a source useable? With this question I am trying to reconnect with the last lesson, I believe most will answer yes, after our lesson on legitimate sources.
Content Presentation:
Primary and Secondary Sources are specific to history and students may not be familiar with the terms. Take time to discuss the differences between the two with the class.
What exactly is a primary source? Primary sources are original records produced by people who participated or witnessed the event. Primary sources can and often contradict each other as people can have different points of view or opinions or what happened. The most important fact to remember is that primary sources were created by someone with firsthand knowledge of a particular event. Primary sources do not have to just be written documents, primary sources can be: physical artifacts, raw scientific data, face to face interviews, journal entries, oral histories, photographs, film, clothing, tools, pottery, census data, letters, maps, recipes, etc (“Teaching Primary and Secondary Sources”, 2011).
Secondary sources are documents that have been created by someone that did not witness an event firsthand, these often reference primary sources. Textbooks are the prime example of a secondary source, they provide information, but the authors did not witness every event in the textbook. They have based their facts on other sources, some of which are primary sources (“Teaching Primary and Secondary Sources”, 2011).
Learner Participation:
Hand out cards (resources) to volunteers to read to the class, have the entire class stand up and move to one of the walls in the classroom; it does not matter which wall. When the card is read I will say “I think that is a primary source” or “I think that is a secondary source” if you agree then you move to the other side of the room. Neither side of the room is correct, you only move if you agree with the statement that I give. After each card is read and students move, quickly discuss why it is either a primary or secondary source after the students move.
Assessment:
Several examples of sources will be on the SMART Board. Each student must complete the table (resources) listing if the source would be considered a primary or secondary source. I used examples like: Letter, artifact, picture, news highlight, biography, textbook, summaries of written work
Follow-Through Activities:
Homework: Each student needs to find one example of a primary source and one example of secondary source that goes along with their topic that they have picked to write their essay on.