Lesson+Formats+for+Primary+Sources


 * I prepared this rather quickly and will go through and check for dead links on Wednesday.

Lesson Plan format #1 ** Whether it is an image or an artifact or a text document, a lot of the lessons using Primary Sources center on the idea of teaching students **HOW** to look at the resource and, with the use of supportive materials, how to derive more meaning from the it. These materials tend to focus on the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, requiring students to do more than cut and paste, instead examining, considering and evaluating the information contained in the resource.
 * Analysis of the material **

There are several really nice things about this format. First, it supplies students with skills and ideas they can apply across the curriculum and at every intellectual level. Secondly, it is easily adapted to a variety of grade levels and allow for differentiation. Thirdly, it takes advantage of the resources in an easy-to-use format that doesn’t require a great deal of teacher time.


 * Analyzing written documents:** []

Example: Brown vs. Board of education: [] (note that the Dorothy Davis vs. Prince County School Board is an additional Civil Rights suit in which photographs were used as evidence.) []

Reading: David Kobrin. //Beyond the Textbook; Teaching History Using Documents and Primary Sources.// //Portsmouth, NH: Heineman, 2000.//

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 * Analyzing an artifact:** [] or

Example: Deerfield’s Memorial Museum has artifacts from 1704. [] and tools []

Reading: []


 * Analyzing a cartoon:** []

Example: //Herblock’s Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium//: [] and the links page from the Library of Congress: []

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 * Analyzing Maps:** [] or

Example: Lesson plan on analyzing maps: [] History Matters’ excellent site: []

Reading: Anne Kelly Knowles. //Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History.// ESRI Press, 2001. Case studies.

(1) Photographs: []
 * Analyzing Images:**

Example: US Civil War lesson plan with photographs []

Example: Science Images**:** Earth: [] Space: [] Earth science: [] Woods Hole: []

(2) Posters: []

Example: WPA posters []


 * Sound files:** []

Example: Veteran’s Oral History Project: []


 * Motion picture:** []

Example: Review of //Birth of a Nation:// []

Reading: [] []

An additional sources of analysis forms is offered at: [] ** Lesson Plan format #2 ** Frederick D. Drake and Sarah Drake Brown’s article provides us with a base for developing what they call first, second and third order documents (resources) that work together to provide students with context and to help students understand that Primary Sources are not all equal in importance. Readers of their important article will understand the basic idea and apply it to gathering and ordering Primary Sources. []
 * Developing Sets of Sources **

Bruce Vansledright did a fascinating study to see what kids could actually learn, in fifth grade, using Primary Sources. His book is wonderful but here’s a summative article. []

Using the basic ideas of Drake and Brown, you can use some of the astoundingly rich Primary Source sites to develop sets of documents and to order them for maximum teaching effectiveness.

Look at the National History Project site [] and Sam Wineburg’s //Historical Thinking Matters// [] to extend these ideas further. [] A number of universities have developed projects that bring together materials with a single theme or era, sometimes around collections they own, sometimes around departments or schools for which they are noted. //The Medieval Sourcebook// from Fordham is one of these. Listed at the top of the home page are the other sourcebooks Fordham sponsors, //Ancient History, Modern History// etc. When examining such sites, you want to go away with a clear idea of what’s included on the site and how to navigate in it. It’s not about learning everything that’s on a site but becoming aware of what’s there so you can, when you’re working in a curricular area, remember important links. [] The Avalon Project at Yale is another example, one that includes documents in law, history and diplomacy. [] Who or what is carper? Could this be the Wikipedia of primary sources? It’s a gorgeous site and it’s been around quite a while. ([]) PBS has recently revamped some of its pages. It has a nice resource page for teachers in general, [], but most important here are the results when you search for Primary Sources. []. Note this page is actually an unsorted search return. You might actually want to stray over to look at the Professional Development page, [] [] Tudor England. Perfect for English teachers doing Shakespeare. Combine this with PBS’s site [] [|http://www.si.edu/]  The Smithsonian is another excellent source. Their dedicated teacher section offers great search tools. [] In particular their section on African American history and culture is unique. . [] is a New York State teachers’ site with lots of good links. [] Duke, like many major universities has a variety of special collections online. I first used the Bingham collection for Civil War women [] and then used the simple device of cutting off the last part of the URL to get the list of all the special collections. When dealing with Primary Sources located through a search engine, it’s sometimes really productive to look backwards to see what else is located in the same place. Harvard’s Open Collections offers some great and well organized resources. [] [] Virginia Tech’s Civil War materials are especially rich. Together with the Duke materials, they’re a good example of the kinds of materials you can easily locate with a search such as +”Civil War” +”Primary Sources”. Once you’re on the website, you want to click the //Digital Library// link. [] These European documents are notable partly because this collection seems to have some unique sources. It’s important to recognize that many sites simply repeat the same sources while others seem to mine new sources. [] Cornell has done a nice job in this site. There is access, for example, to facsimile pages of Harper’s, an essential periodical of American History. US Gov. portal for teachers: [] ** Lesson Plan format #3 ** The sites listed below, as well as many others, offer teachers a complete package of materials and teacher resources on a single site. Each brings together a number of Primary Sources, images, texts, artifacts and interpretations, and combines them with lesson plans and ideas for use. This makes them one-stop-shopping sites for the busy teacher.
 * Fine Arts: ** Here’s a tidy alphabetical list of art museums and links to their websites. [] You can always search Google’s image area for particular paintings too.
 * Science: ** The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education has some ideas. []
 * Search tip ** : If you don’t see the topic you’re interested in here, you can search any topic using the + sign and the words “primary sources” to locate other available materials. For example +Canada +”Primary Sources”.
 * Using Rich Sites and Their Packaged Teacher Materials **

Examples: Shay’s Rebellion: [] 1704 Raid on Deerfield: [] Famous Trials homepage: [] Boston Massacre [] Triangle Shirtwaist fire [] used together with [] Paul Revere’s ride [] AAM Program: [] Jamestown: [] combined with [] and [] //Doing History// and the Martha Ballard Diary offer a perfect example of the glory and difficulty of using Primary Sources. The site is marvelous but the diary includes rape, murder and premarital pregnancy. No teacher dares to use it without preparing, analyzing. evaluating and doing all the work that Primary Sources entail. Do examine the materials on teaching with the diary. This site reminds that teachers need to **KNOW** site contents before using it in class. []

Starchild: [] NASA: []
 * Science:**

** Lesson Plan format #4 ** “The document based question (DBQ) is designed to enable students to work like historians, analyzing and synthesizing evidence from a variety of sources and media. Students are evaluated on their ability to interpret such factors as purpose, source, bias, date and place of origin, tone, etc. In order to receive a satisfactory score, students must establish and prove a thesis through accurate and sophisticated utilization of the available documents.” []
 * DBQs **
 * D **** ocument **** B **** ased **** Q **** uestions **

Jamie McKenzie offers 5 models [] A very complete introductory web site that includes a clear definition, lots of resources and models. [] Did you know the College Board has included DBQs for over 25 years? The College Board offers guidelines for its questions [|http://home.earthlink.net/~gfeldmeth/DBQ.html] Peter Pappas has done a lot of work with DBQs and has more than one website that will give you ideas and models. [] This is Peter Pappas’ Middle School page [] A New York State example. On this page click where it says CLICK HERE to get to the question and the actual documents. [] and [] Filamentality offers educators a useful, flexible tool for assembling sites. Here are not only some Primary Sources but some DBQs to go with them. [] Historyteacher is generally just a good website. This section is about DBQs. []

Reading: []

** Lesson Plan format #5 **
 * A Sampling of Other Possibilities **

Base Site: []
 * SmithsonianSource**
 * Compare and Contrast:** []


 * Four Corners/Jigsaw:** []


 * Graphic Organizers:** []


 * PERSIA** (Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual, Artistic) []

Washington State has CBAs...a fascinating idea. [] And a toolkit [] Social Studies unit outlines, essential questions etc. []
 * CBAs (C**lassroom **B**ased **A**ssessment)

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 * Jamie McKenzie’s Slam Dunk Models**

Readings: Full text article from ERIC: //Can School District Classroom-Based Assessment Improve Performance on State Tests?// [] Doug Christensen from Nebraska [] Greenwood offers a series of books in their //Professional Guides in School Librarianship Series// that offer original and thoughtful questions with which to engage primary sources, although the links for many sites are now outdated. Topics cover all major subject areas including World Languages, Visual Arts, Mathematics, Science, and, of course, History and Geography and the titles are //Using Internet Primary Sources to Teach Critical Thinking Skills in _.// For example, Kathleen Craver. //Using Internet Primary Sources to Teach Critical Thinking Skills in History.// //Greenwood, 1999.//
 * Bibliography **
 * Recommended Texts: **

Edinger, Monica. //Teaching with Primary Sources in Grades 4-6.// Heineman, 2000. Knowles, Anne Kelly. //Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History.// ESRI Press, 2001. Case studies.

Kobrin, David. //Beyond the Textbook: Teaching History Using Documents and Primary Sources.// //Heineman, 2000.//

//Ritchie, Donald.// //Doing Oral History.// //OxfordUPress, 2003.//

Sharma, Martha B. and Gary S. Elbow. //Using Internet Primary Sources to Teach Critical Thinking Skills in Geography//**.** Greenwood, 2003.

Veccia, Susan H. //Uncovering Our History: Teaching with Primary Sources.// ALA, 2003. Wiegand, P. //Learning and Teaching with Maps//**.** Routledge, 2006. Wineburg, Sam. //Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts.// Temple University Press, 2001. [|Baenen, Nancy] and [| Chuck] Dulaney. //Can School District Classroom-Based Assessment Improve Performance on State Tests?// []
 * Articles:**

Christensen, Doug []

Drake F. and S. Brown. “A Systematic Approach to Improve Students' Historical Thinking.” //History Teacher// [serial online]. August 2003; 36(4): 465-489. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 29, 2009.

Library of Congress’ Learning Page []

Morgan, K. “Using Primary Sources to Build a Community of Thinkers.” //English Journal// [serial online]. March 2002; 91(4): 69. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 29, 2009.

National Archives’ //Teaching with Documents// home page. [] (CAK)