Education: Primary Sources/Teaching Resources

Primary sources are first-hand accounts, original manuscripts, or records or documents produced at the time of the event.

• Letters,
• Photographs
• Speeches
• Interviews
• Government documents
• Historical records
• Personal papers
• Artwork
  
• Diaries
  
• Original reports on science experiments
  

are some examples of primary sources.  These may be available in their original form, or they may be reproduced or reprinted in another book or microform collection.

Citing primary sources correctly is an important part of studying primary sources, for a number of reasons.

It is important--and ethically necessary--to provide full credit to the creators and publishers of documents, and to allow future scholars to find the source quickly and correctly. Citing a primary source is also crucial to critical thinking and analysis because it requires that the student think carefully about where the source came from, who made it, and in what context the student first discovered it.

Video from Hartness Library

• Library of Congress – Using Primary Sources
  The Library of Congress offers educators with primary source sets, teacher’s guides, a primary source analysis tool, and other ways to integrate primary source materials into curriculum.
• Library of Congress - Teacher Resources
  Classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the library’s vast digital collections in their teaching.
• Library of Congress - Classroom Materials
  Includes lesson plans, themed resources, primary source sets, presentations and activities, and collection connections.

• National Archives - Teacher Page
  Teachers' resources provided by the National Archives, including lesson plans and activities, school tours and activities, using primary sources, state and regional resources, featured activities and resources, and professional development opportunities.
• National Archives - Teaching with Documents: Lesson Plans
  Includes reproducible copies of primary documents from the National Archives and various teaching activities, including lectures, demonstrations, analysis of documents, independent research, and group work. Materials include subjects such as the American Revolution, Civil War and Reconstruction, the Great Depression, and World War II.
• National Archives - Docs Teach  
  Join the DocsTeach community to create custom activities for the classroom, share activities with students via DocsTeach Classrooms, use lessons that other educators have created, and publish activities to be used by other educators who use this site.