A Primary Look at Primary Sources

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A Primary Look at Primary Sources

• Using primary sources in the primary classroom

• By
• Cheryl L. Best
• 2nd Grade Teacher
• Library of Congress Ambassador
• Bunker Hill,Illinois
• best5_at_madisontelco.com

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Definition

• A primary source is an original source, created
  in a time period of study.

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Examples of Primary Sources

• Newspaper
• Photograph
• Documents/ speeches, receipts
• Diary
• Music
• Art
• Cartoons
• Sound Recordings

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What is NOT one

• Encyclopedia
• Dictionaries
• Biographies
• Textbooks

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Connection to Standards

• Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning
  (McREL) Standards
• http//www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/
• History
• 1. Understands and knows how to analyze
  chronological relationships and patterns
• 2. Understands the historical
• Language Arts
• Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand
  and interpret visual media
• Uses reading skills and strategies to understand
  and interpret a variety of literary texts
• Uses reading skills and strategies to understand
  and interpret a variety of informational texts
• Visual Arts
• Understands the visual arts in relation to
  history and cultures
• IL State Standards, www.isbe.net/ils
• Social Studies
• IL 16.A Apply the skills of historical analysis
  and interpretation

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• Why use primary sources?

• What is history and how can we make sense of it?
  How can we excite our students about the past and
  teach them to think like historians? One way we
  can learn about the past is by examining primary
  sources. They make history come alive. They offer
  different points of view. Students will find them
  engaging. Analyzing them will encourage
  historical thinking. Making connections to the
  past will help them understand the present.

Library of Congress www.loc.gov
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Cartoon can be obtained online at
Rogers, Rob. Tainted Nut. 02/01/09. Post-gazette
NOW, Opinion/Rob Rogers. Pittsburgh Post
Gazette. Retrieved 2/10/09 from
http//www.post-gazette.com/robrogers/default.asp?
id24
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• Look at picture
• Ask questions of
• the picture
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?

So what?
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Library Congress Source Set
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• Compare contrast your family to the family in
  the photograph.

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Library Congress Source Set
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Using a Letter

• Using a letter for information.
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• How?
• Why?

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Library Congress Source Set
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Using a Bill of Sale
Analyze by age, children, adult sex of each
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Library Congress Source Set
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Poetry
Carl Sandburg (18781967). Cornhuskers. 1918.
Illinois Farmer BURY this old Illinois farmer
with respect. He slept the Illinois nights of
his life after days of work in Illinois
cornfields. Now he goes on a long sleep. The
wind he listened to in the corn silk and the
tassels, the wind that combed his red beard zero
mornings when the snow lay white on the yellow
ears in the bushel basket at the corncrib, The
same wind will now blow over the place here where
his hands must dream of Illinois corn.
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Library Congress Source Set
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Using Primary Sources in the Classroom

• Provoke questions
• Give ideas
• Allow for thought
• Teach history
• Spark interest
• Challenge inspire

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it. George Santayana,
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(No Transcript)
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Connecting to Literature

• Books as Hooks handouts created by Gail Petri,
  Education Resource Specialist at the Library of
  Congress
• The Learning Page, Community Center
• Zoom In Activity- Primary Source Learning Web
  site, Northern VA TPS Program

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Teaching with Primary Sources Program
Library of Congress www.loc.gov
Library of Congress CDPresentation Resource CD
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Resources

• Rogers, Rob. Tainted Nut. 02/01/09. Pittsburgh
  Post Gazette. Retrieved 02/10/09 from
  http//www.post-gazette.com/robrogers/default.asp?
  id24
• Donnely, A. The resurrection of Henry Box Brown
  at Philadelphia, who escaped from Richmond Va. In
  a box 3 feet long 2 ½ ft. deep and 2 ft wide.
  Prints Photograph Division, Library of
  Congress. Retrieved 02/10/09 from
  http//lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/PPALL_at_fi
  eld(NUMBER_at_band(cph3g04659))
• Lange, Dorothea. Migrant family looking for work
  in the pea fields. California. American Memory
  Collection, Library of Congress. Retrieved
  02/10/09 from http//memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/
  r?ammem/fsaall_at_filreq(_at_field(NUMBER_at_band(fsa8b2
  7082))_at_field(COLLIDfsa))
• Wright, Orville. Family Papers Correspondence,
  1881, 1888-1898- The Wilbur and Orville Wright
  Papers. American Memory, Library of Congress.
  Retrieved 02/10/09 from http//memory.loc.gov/cgi-
  bin/ampage?collIdmwrightfileName02/02037/mwrigh
  t02037.dbrecNum1
• Auction Sale Of Negroes. 1855. Emergence of
  Advertising in America 1850-1920 Collection,
  American Memory. Library of Congress. Retrieved
  02/10/09 from http//memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/
  r?ammem/eaa_at_field(DOCID_at_lit(eaa000402))
• Carl Sandburg, head-and-shoulders portrait,
  facing left. 1955. Prints Photograph Division,
  Library of Congress. Retrieved 02/10/09 from
  http//memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/ils_at_filr
  eq(_at_field(NUMBER_at_band(cph3c15064))_at_field(COLLID
  cph))