Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects that were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance of time or place. Bringing young people into close contact with these unique, often profoundly personal, documents and objects can give them
a sense of what it was like to be alive during a long-past era. Helping students analyze primary sources can also prompt curiosity and improve critical thinking and analysis skills. Primary sources expose students to multiple perspectives on significant issues of the past and present. In analyzing primary sources, students move from concrete observations and facts to questioning and making inferences about the materials. Interacting with primary sources engages students in asking
questions, evaluating information, making inferences, and developing reasoned explanations and interpretations of events and issues. Successful student interactions with primary sources require careful primary source selections and lesson planning.
Engage students with primary sourcesPrimary sources help students relate in a personal way to events of the past and promote a deeper understanding of history as a series of human events. Because primary sources are incomplete snippets of history, each one represents a mystery that students can only explore further by finding new pieces of evidence. Ask students to observe each primary source.
Encourage students to think about their response to the source.
Promote student inquiryInquiry into primary sources encourages students to wrestle with contradictions and compare multiple sources that represent differing points of view, confronting the complexity of the past. Encourage students to speculate about each source, its creator, and its context.
Ask if this source agrees with other primary sources, or with what the students already know. Assess how students apply critical thinking and analysis skills to primary sourcesPrimary sources are often incomplete and have little context. Students must use prior knowledge and work with multiple resources to find patterns and construct knowledge. Questions of creator bias, purpose, and point of view may challenge students’ assumptions.
Offer students opportunities to demonstrate their learning by writing an essay, delivering a speech taking a stand on an issue in the primary sources, or creating a museum display about a historical topic. For more follow-up activity ideas, take a look at the general or format-specific teacher's guides. Sources of information are often categorized as primary or secondary depending upon their originality. Primary SourcesA primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources provide the original materials on which other research is based and enable students and other researchers to get as close as possible to what actually happened during a particular event or time period. Published materials can be viewed as primary resources if they come from the time period that is being discussed, and were written or produced by someone with firsthand experience of the event. Often primary sources reflect the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer. Primary sources can be written or non-written (sound, pictures, artifacts, etc.). In scientific research, primary sources present original thinking, report on discoveries, or share new information. Examples of primary sources:
Secondary SourcesSecondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate, summarize, and process primary sources. A secondary source is generally one or more steps removed from the event or time period and are written or produced after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. Secondary sources often lack the freshness and immediacy of the original material. On occasion, secondary sources will collect, organize, and repackage primary source information to increase usability and speed of delivery, such as an online encyclopedia. Like primary sources, secondary materials can be written or non-written (sound, pictures, movies, etc.). Examples of secondary sources:
Primary Sources on the web:https://www.sccollege.edu/Library/Pages/Primary-Sources.aspx What two factors should you consider when selecting sources for use in a research report?As you examine each source, it is important to evaluate each source to determine the quality of the information provided within it. Common evaluation criteria include: purpose and intended audience, authority and credibility, accuracy and reliability, currency and timeliness, and objectivity or bias.
What role do primary sources usually play in research assignment that requires analysis?How can primary sources help you complete a research assignment that requires analysis? you can analyze them as evidence for your claim. Why should you look at images, films, and audio sources as you read for a research project? People now consume information in many different ways.
How do the research projects and assignments in college courses differ from what younger high school students are asked to do quizlet?How do the more advanced research assignments in high school and college differ from what younger students are asked to do? They require you to analyze information and draw your own conclusions. In most cases, which part of a web address reveals most about its reliability as a source of information?
How are secondary sources typically used in a report that analyzes a trend or change quizlet?How are secondary sources typically used in a report that analyzes a trend or change? They suggest ways of looking at the topic that complement or support the report's overall claim.
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