Teaching with Primary Source Documents- A Great Tool for Teachers

The National Archive is the archive of the US Archive. It preserves numerous historical documents and materials that cover almost the entire history of the United States. The National Archives Department of Education has many resources to help teachers integrate primary records into the classroom. The two main resources I want to bring to your attention are Working with Primary Resources և DocsTeach.

Working with key sources provides practical letters to use in the classroom to help students analyze key documents. It aims to enable students to develop document analysis skills; to help them "think about primary source documents to understand the context; to extract information to make sound judgments". Worksheets work on a variety of media, including photos, posters, maps, videos, audio recordings, graphics, and more.

Source: archives.gov/education

DocsTeach is an online tool provided by the National Archives to help you search և explore document-based activities for your classroom use. You can search for key sources using keywords և restrict your search by historical period տեսակի document type (e.g. video, audio, map, wallpaper, photo, etc.). Each activity includes instructions on how to use it with students, what level it focuses on, what thinking skills it includes, and more. DocsTeach also offers online tools that teachers can use to create their own lessons. The process is simple և simple. Choose a document, create a lesson, give instructions և share them with your students. Check out this guide to learn more about creating DocsTeach features.

Source: archives.gov/education

Resource activities you can create for your students include:

1- Document analysis

This lesson will help students learn more about the document analysis process and how to use it to analyze the primary resources they work with.

2- Focus on details - topic of discussion

During this activity, you will "display a document, direct a question or instruction to engage students quickly, focus on classroom activities, and start a conversation."

3- Focus on the details. to focus

In this lesson, you will "Show the worksheet, highlight specific sections to engage students quickly, and focus on classroom activities."

4- Watch the story

"Connect primary resources to places on the map to apply spatial thinking to understand the impact of geography on history."

5- See the big picture

"Combine documents related to an event, concept, or historical figure with descriptions, questions, or other documentation to convince students that the whole thing is made up of smaller parts."

6- Weigh the evidence

"Turn primary sources into historical evidence that students classify and evaluate to draw historical conclusions."

7- Data interpretation

"Introduce students to the main sources of historical information և Encourage them to consider the source of the material, the style of presentation և the intended impact."

8- Log in

"List the sources as a series of documents; help students make connections between these documents and the historical events they present."

9- Another search

"Introduce primary sources; ask students to streamline their order based on a thorough analysis of the documents."

10- Focus on the details, compare և compare

"Teach students to use visual cues - context to understand the document"

11- Focus on details: scale / crop

"Write students a specific document, teach them to formulate hypotheses."

For other platforms that provide access to primary source materials, see this collection .

This post originally appeared in Educational Technologies և Mobile Learning (www.educatorstechnology.com).