As educators, we know it is important to use primary sources to teach history. We know our students need to learn historical thinking skills. We want our students to develop disciplinary literacy in Social Studies. ‘Disciplinary literacy’ is just a fancy way of saying we want students to learn to do what historians do.
But actually using primary sources to teach history can be a challenge. And, teaching our students how to analyze a primary source can be even a bigger challenge.
tackling THESE challenges to using primary sources to teach history
With these tips, you can tackle and overcome some of the challenges that prevent us as Middle School Social Studies teachers from using more primary sources with our students.
CHALLENGE: NOT ENOUGH TIME
Lack of time is likely holding you back from using primary sources with your students. So, to find more time, you need to find places to swap, not add to what you are already using in your lessons.
When you are getting ready to teach a particular topic, swap a relevant primary source for teacher lecture, copying notes from the board, or asking your students to read and answer questions from a secondary source on the topic. Your students can and will gain content knowledge from a primary source with a little background provided.
CHALLENGE: FINDING THE RIGHT PRIMARY SOURCES TO USE
There is no one go-to site for primary sources. It will sometimes take a little time to find what you are looking for. But it is worth it, especially when you can use the primary sources from year to year.
Some great places to look are local or state curriculum guides, your textbook and the supplements that come with it, the Library of Congress website, museum websites, and general web searches. Also, don’t forget that photographs and print ads are primary sources. It doesn’t always have to be text heavy!
One tip is at the beginning of the school year, create a folder on your computer, your Google Drive, Google Keep, or whatever works best for you entitled Primary Sources. Within that, create a folder for each unit you teach. As you come across a primary source that might work for that unit, drop it in the folder. It will be there and ready to use when you get to that unit. Better yet, share your folders with colleagues who teach the same course and work together to collect primary sources.
CHALLENGE: PRIMARY SOURCES ARE TOO LONG
Keep the primary sources you use as accessible as possible by only using short excerpts of challenging texts. You don’t have to use the whole primary source or even the whole excerpt you find. It still is valuable to have students read and analyze only a small portion of a primary source. And, primary source images are valuable too!
CHALLENGE: TEACHING STUDENTS TO ANALYZE
It is normal to worry about your students’ struggling with analyzing primary sources. But with patience, guidance, and time, they will learn. These three tips will help you develop your students’ ability to analyze primary sources:
1 – It is important to talk about and show primary sources in your classroom A LOT – several times a week – even if it is just to show a source on the board, let them know it is a primary source, and ask students to turn and talk about one question you give them for a minute or two.
2 – Take the time to model primary source analysis for students. When modeling this skill, be sure to explain your thought process out loud and/or ask students to share their thought process out loud for classmates.
3 – Use a set of generic questions with students to help them analyze. This way, over time, they will be able to ask these questions on their own when looking at a primary source. Actually, students can use these same questions with any text or news article. The generic set of questions is SO VALUABLE to the development of this skill. Understanding they have a set of familiar questions to use any time they encounter a text, chart, or image helps your students develop their analysis skills. And, it will also save you time writing new questions for every primary source! Grab your FREE list of questions at the end of this post.
Ready to use more primary sources to teach history?
Task cards or digital slides are easy to use for primary source analysis. Check out these task cards or these digital slides you can use with your students. And, if you are looking for a set of easy-to-use questions that you can ask your students about ANY primary source, CLICK HERE for a free list of questions perfect for your middle school Social Studies lessons or complete the form below to get your free list of easy-to-use questions.
Want to read more about using Primary Sources in Middle School Social Studies? Check out this post about mindset shifts to help you use more primary sources.
