In an Information Age, students have more access to primary source material than any previous generation. A primary source can be current or historical. It might include newspaper stories, videoclips, sound recordings, documents, photographs, posters, diaries, and other artifacts that happened at the time of an event or through an eyewitness account. The Internet provides portals to many digitized materials such as the Ohio Historical Society, California Heritage Collection, Denver Public Library, American Memory at The Library of Congress, and the National Archives.

A secondary source is created by someone either not present when the event took place or removed by time from the event. Examples of secondary sources include textbooks, journal/magazine articles, histories, and encyclopedias.

Many of the artifacts on the Internet are in raw format without any supporting information. Since primary sources are fragmentary, students may not relate to these bits and pieces. This is when interrogation techniques can be employed where students ask questions on their own terms and begin to make sense of the artifacts.

There is also a dark side to primary sources that may be offensive. Many lyrics in sheet music of the past depict individuals in stereotypical ways. Documents may contain racial slurs. Photographs can tell biased stories. Examine the examples below. click on the images to see a larger view. Click on the underlined words to view the entire record of the primary source.

From the above illustrations, one can see that primary sources are potential minefields in the K-12 classroom. Many would argue regardless of the source, this kind of material should be off limits to school children. On the other hand, we want students to learn from historical documents. Carefully crafted discussion and analysis are a way to effectively use "difficult" primary resources. Teachers need to teach in context and help students demystify what they see. This is where literacy skills come into play. When students learn to read images and text with a critical eye, they will begin to see other, sometimes-extreme, viewpoints (Jacobson, F. F. (2000). The dark side of primary sources. Knowledge Quest, 29, 35-37.)

As a teacher, you will need to guide this process with your students. There are tools available to assist you in this task.

Discovering American Memory - Library of Congress

Discovering American Memory shows you how to use the American Memory collections, provides activities for understanding primary sources, and offers several analysis guides.

Document Analysis Worksheets - National Archives

The National Archives has developed a series of worksheets to use when studying primary sources such as posters, motion pictures, and written documents.

Assignment:

Select a primary source from one of the sites below. You can choose from a variety of items such as photographs, posters, sound recordings, documents, and motion pictures. Develop a lesson you could use with students in your own class. Follow this lesson plan format: Topic, Grade level, Objective(s), Resources, Process, and Evaluation. You can create your lesson in a word processing document such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Works. Note: Macintosh users need to type a . (period) and the extension like doc for a Microsoft Word document. The filename should be 8 characters or less plus the extension, ex. filename.doc. Post your lesson (file) and the artifact (file) you used under the Log Entries.

California Heritage Collection
Denver Public Library
Library of Congress
National Archives
Ohio Historical Society