Eyewitness:

Primary Documents from the Internet

History is….

The STORY of People
The LONGEST running soap opera
REAL people in REAL situations

Recovering History

ASCD article Winter 2001
http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/cupdate/2001/win01story1.html
Why do students today have a notion that history is dry and dusty?
How can history be offered in a more interesting way for our students?

Why use Primary Sources?

From kindergarten to grade 12 students are required to gather material from both print and non-print sources
From grade 4 to grade 12 students are tasked to identify and interpret artifacts and primary and secondary source documents to understand events in history
Finally, students have to interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives

Definitions

Primary Source

Source created by people who actually saw or participated in an event and recorded that event and their reaction to it immediately after the event
Diary, letter, map, cartoon, poster, picture, recording, video, newsreel, movie, TV footage, photograph

Secondary Source

Source created by someone either not present when the event took place or removed by time from the event
Books, interviews, novels, text

Students as Historians

Using primary sources
Allows students to participate in the process of historical work
Gives students direct access to the tools of the historian
Encourages analysis and evaluation skills
Allows them to begin to conduct research
Requires them to recognize that everything written by humans has a point of view or bias

Textbooks: The Source of History Most Students Know

Students see history as a textbook full of

Facts
Dates
Events
Even the famous have only a few lines in the textbook

Primary sources offer another interpretation of history

Eyewitness accounts
Photographs
Documents
Reports

Why not look at what people wrote? Why not read about their lives?

Fiction
Biography
Short stories
Diaries

Why not get students involved?

Reading fiction

Reenacting

Role-playing

Why not use fiction when appropriate?

· Why do history teachers avoid using fiction?

· Why not take advantage of the opportunity to teach fact vs. fiction?

· Why not explore all the wonderful comparisons and contrasts between fact and fiction?

Primary Sources are

Real
Personal
Human
Touching
Emotional
Value and attitude laden
Interpretations of historic events

Why not provide visual stimulus to foster memory?

Benefits

Develops cognitive and analytical skills
Helps student to analyze contemporary events
Helps them to recognize bias and different points of view
Helps them to recognize contradictions and limitations in sources
Helps students to begin to analyze sources rather than accept at face value

Why not visit the Internet as an integral part of instruction?

American Memory
History Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It
National Archives and Records

How to do it?

Bring the documents to the students
National Archives and Records

Over one million primary source documents digitized on the web
Many linked to lesson plans developed by teachers
Documents include maps, posters, photographs, charts, drawings, official correspondence as well as the documents of American history

http://www.nara.gov

Ideas to use

Political cartoons
Photographs
Paintings
Songs and music
Movies (American Memory collections of historic film clips)
Letters
Diaries
Historical fiction
Non-fiction books

How do you start?

Find the resources

Search engines for specific information
Images
http://www.google.com click on the image tab

Bring them into your classroom
Have students examine the sources carefully

What do these sources tell us about the individuals and the society in which they live?
How might historians use these sources?
Using the records available, what generalizations can you make about this time in history?

Consider personalizing primary sources

Have students think about the primary sources of their life (school, employment, medical, and family records)
What generalizations about the 21^st century student’s life might be made based on these sources?

Why not look at the people themselves?

Millions of photographs on the web
Access to paintings, video, newsreels, and photographs

Let the people in the pictures speak

According to Bloom, how would they speak?

A picture is worth a thousand thoughts: Bloom and Photographs

How can we ask the right questions to get our students to think about primary documents? How will I know that I have asked a question that challenges students to think to higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Knowledge

Level 1. Knowledge

When was this picture taken?

Where was this picture taken?

Question Cues: List, Define, Tell, Label

Comprehension

Level 2. Comprehension

What is happening in this picture?

Why are these boys dressed like this?

Question cues: Describe, Name, Identify, Discuss

Application

Level 3. Application

How would you describe the photograph to others?

What caption would you write for this photograph (in a newspaper)?

Question cues: Modify, Solve, Change, Explain

Analysis

Level 4. Analysis

Why are these boys here and not in school?

What do you know about their lives based on this photo?

Question cues: Analyze, Separate, Compare, Contrast

Synthesis

Level 5. Synthesis

What might these boys say about their work in an interview setting?

What might they say about their future?

Question Cues: Create, Construct, Plan, Role-play

Evaluation

Level 6. Evaluation

What is the significance of this photo for the time period depicted?

Compare this photo with one of three boys from today of the same age. How are their lives similar? How are they different?

Question Cues: Give opinion, Criticize, Discriminate, Summarize

Technology: Better Access: How to convert for use?

Scanners

Print resources can be scanned into the computer for

Handouts
PowerPoint Presentations
Transparencies

Internet

Wide range of resources available

Photographs
Sounds
Movies

So Easy: How do I get them from the Internet?

Find the resource
Point your cursor at the item
Right click
Select

Photograph—Save Image As
Sound—Save Target As
Movie—Save Target As

Locate place on your computer
Click Save

Why not make history a living breathing part of their lives?

Using primary sources will make history…

More real for students
More visual

Images are key to learning
Primary source images allow students to get in touch with life in the past

Less dependent on reading alone to foster understanding

The combination of image and text is very powerful for learning
Primary sources such as sound recordings, movies and photographs provide much needed support to text

The web is a rich resource for primary sources. Take a few minutes and find them, then use the documents to enrich your classroom-learning environment.

Sources