Selecting Primary Sources
Keep these best practices in mind as you select primary sources to use in your lesson plans and for your local history project.
- Jump in the Middle of the Action
- Make it Personal
- Connect to Prior Knowledge
Jump in the Middle of the Action
Primary sources that depict exciting events are intrinsically more interesting for students. The idea is to really have an impact and to draw students in by making them curious. If students look at a source that makes them wonder, they’ll investigate further.
Sometimes it can be more motivating for students to have a primary source that poses a puzzle or mystery to be solved. This can mean not starting at the beginning, but in the middle of the action. Look at crime dramas on TV; they often start with the crime being committed or a body being found. The crime draws you in, making you want to understand what happened; finding out the story and how the crime was committed is the mystery that takes up the rest of the episode.
Make it Personal
Personal stories are another way to make primary source lessons relevant and engaging for students. What is more likely to be interesting to students: a textbook description of the dust bowl’s effects on farmland, or a vivid first person description of being in the middle of a dust storm?
Different periods in history can become more “real” for students if they can relate to individual stories. Examining what life would have been like for someone of the same age during a specific time and place can help students identify with and relate to those experiences.
Connect to Prior Knowledge
Primary sources should be connected to what’s relevant to students’ lives. Take students from the past to the present. Connect a historical source to what students know now.
Sometimes this can be done with a series of sources. For example, you could use the original Orson Welles War of the Worlds radio broadcast as an initial “hook” for a lesson. This could be followed up with primary sources of letters or reactions from the time of the initial broadcast. The original broadcast could be compared with the recent movie based on the story.