Blog Post #2 - Introduction to Primary Source Reading in American History
Hi everyone! Happy Fall!
The topic I've been looking into is primary sources and how they are used in the teaching of American History. I chose this topic because it is relevant to my student teaching experience this year. I am in a sophomore U.S. History class, which lends itself super well to using primary sources and looking deeper into the topic. Primary sources are super important to the understanding of history, they give us significant context on certain events from people who actually lived in the time. I want to show how students’ interaction with primary sources allows them to gain a whole new level of understanding of history.
Q: What do you already know about the topic?
I know a lot about primary sources. As I have previously mentioned, primary sources are sources that originate from the time period in question. For example, if we had a letter from the revolutionary war between a husband and wife in Connecticut, that would be a primary source since it originated from the time period. Another thing that I know for sure is that primary sources allow us to understand how people in certain periods felt and interacted with their environment.
When it comes to things I want to know, I want to know how we can better teach primary sources so that students feel more comfortable with them. I want to look into strategies that will enable students to confidently interact with them in a scholarly way. I want to see what resources help break down primary sources in a way that students feel like they can understand them and even possibly connect to them. Further, I want to see how we can connect these primary sources to experiences in their own lives, maybe through showing them primary sources from events that happened during their own lifetime to make that connection. I think I want to show students that primary sources can be a lot more interesting than they seem.
Further, I want to look into why students tend to find primary sources confusing and what I can do as educator to change that perception about the idea of primary sources. Rather, I want my students to see primary sources as a tool that allows us to learn more about the past.
Places where students will be able to find primary sources:
DocsTeach (Great for American History specifically)
Links that will be helpful in my research:
Eight Ways to Teach With Primary Sources - gives great ideas on how to integrate primary sources into the history classroom.
How To Engage Students with Primary Sources - gives teachers guidelines to help them get students interested in primary source analysis.
5 Ways to Teach with Primary Sources - gives teachers tips on how to teach primary sources to their students.
Examples of Primary Sources:
Hi Maverick,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your topic as I think primary sources offer a great perspective into the lives of people during a specific time period. I think sometimes the word "primary source" is really difficult for students to hear because they know it is an advanced reading assignment. I know I was someone who was not good at finding the deeper meaning and needed it told to me straight; but primary sources didn't offer that. I think finding ways to help students analyze primary docs is a great way for students to begin to use this as a resource!
Hi Maverick! I always enjoyed primary sources in school, but felt intimidated by them for a variety of reasons. I sometimes felt that I couldn't understand the old language and terms, or I didn't have the full context, or it was too difficult to read. I like that you are working to learn how to take these fears away and to make the sources more accessible to your students. Primary sources can help to provide a personal point of view and develop feelings of empathy that lead to a deeper understanding. You mentioned that you want the students to be able to connect the sources to their own lives and experiences. What kind of experiences are you trying to get them to connect to? Will these be abstract thoughts rather than literal translations?
ReplyDeleteMaverick,
ReplyDeleteI think many of us are so familiar with primary sources that the moment we were introduced to them is nearly blurred. I can't recall the first time I read a primary source, but I know that the earlier they are introduced, the easier they are to understand. You emphasize the importance of working with them to lessen the "scary" factor the name may induce, as well as how connections between content and student can better meld the importance of a lesson and understanding. You make some really great points (and the graphics and links are awesome!). I can't wait to see how you apply this to future blog posts because I think this topic will be helpful for many of us!
Hi Maverick!
ReplyDeleteI like the topic you picked for your blog. I think that primary sources are important to understand becuase it helps us understand what kind of sources we are looking at. I think the last time I talked about primary sources was in English 102 my freshman year, when we talked about the information cyle. I look forward to your research and I am excited to read more about primary sources in regards to American History
Hey Maverick,
ReplyDeleteI am super interested to follow your projects on primary sources this semester because I too ponder some of the same questions that you have addressed in your post. Why is it that we have such a hard time relating primary sources to our students? How can we make these resources more understandable to our students? These particular questions I find very interesting in that these primary sources are quite literally the closest we can get to these histories. However, sometimes the language and or experience is hard to find connections with. And we cant quite translate and or modify the source because then we defeat the purpose of the account. All in all, I am excited to see what you can find to make primary sources better perceived by students.
-Keegan Marifern
I'm drawn to your focus on primary texts as a type of text you want to collect for students to read/view/interpret. I'm sure there will be no shortage of primary documents. It may be interesting to focus on a specific time period or event, or on a specific type of primary document such a personal letters. Finding primary documents that have high student interest could be a very strong set of texts to bring out and compare along side others. I look forward to seeing what multimedia texts you gather from this type of tex
ReplyDelete