Primary+Sources

If you picked up anything from the Wineburg text, it is that our students (and many teachers) do a poor job of the actually interpretation of historical events, due to a variety of reasons. Emphasis on recall, little discussion on analysis, textbooks which present information largely from the perspective of pure facts; all of these and more are reasons which may have influenced this trend in teaching high school history.
 * Primary Documents**

As a future teacher, what can you do about this? And what exactly is a primary document or a primary source? When we see that term, we often think focused on written historical accounts of events. However, primary documents can be a variety of things: historical maps of battles, actual journal publications in psychology, religious texts, personal journals and diaries (e.g. Diary of Anne Frank), propaganda posters from WWI, videos of interviews, etc... As you can see, a variety of items can be considered primary sources.

As you prepare your lessons into your teaching career, the challenge you will face mainly will be how to effectively utilize primary sources with the limited amount of time you have, as well as designing engaging lessons which are appropriate for the level of development of your students.


 * Strategies**
 * __Primary Source Comparison__** __-__ Give the students two documents which give an account of the same historical event. Give the students directions regarding how to compare the two documents (e.g. having them highlight stuff that is the same, underline what is really unique, take notes, etc...). At the end, have them write a paragraph or explain to a partner what the similarities and differences are between the two sources.


 * __Interview Comparison__** - This strategy is especially useful in Government class, and it helps to show the students a good lesson about party politics and partisanship today. After a law is passed or voted down, play the post session press conference led by the Democrates then play the conference led by the Republicans. Have the students take notes and explain why each side is supporting the position they have taken in light of current party politics and platforms.


 * __Peer Reviewed Journal Comparison__** - Give the students two different peer-reviewed and published journal articles which take two different positions concerning a behavioral pattern in Psychology or Sociology. Have the students read the articles, highlighting key arguments. At the end, have them discuss or write regarding which perspective they agree with more and why.

This helps them to understand that was is often considered "settled" in a discipline is not necessarily shared as true by everyone. In the behavioral side of the Social Sciences, some issues which have recently been "hot-button" topics related to this include causes of Autism, medicalization of deviance and ADHD, the new revisions of the DSM-V, and effectiveness of drug therapy in treating depression.

Links Best of History Sites - The website comprehensive website I have found which includes a variety of links to many tools, including a lot of primary documents, games, interactive resources and so on. DocsTeach Website which has a variety of activities already designed for teachers. Gilder Lehrman Institute - Non-profit institute formed in 1994 which seeks to provide resources for educators to teach American history, including an emphasis on providing primary documents. Dallas Institute - The Dallas Institute provides a 3 week long intensive training session for teachers on how to incorporate primary documents into their curriculum. They also have resources that people can use posted online.