Using Primary Source Documents in the Classroom

Primary source documents provide unique opportunities for the past to be explored. Eyewitness accounts provide a richer and more descriptive explanation of the past that cannot be reproduced in textbooks. By allowing students to examine primary sources, students can begin to see history as more than a subject with just dates and names that are to be memorized for the next test and then quickly forgotten.

A partnership between the Archives/Library and Education Divisions of the Ohio Historical Society, funded through OVIL, has placed over 2,000 pages of primary source documents on the Internet to assist teachers in their ability to disseminate information.

All of the sources are either published in Ohio or directly relate to Ohio. Due to copyright restrictions, all of the publications are dated prior to 1912.

Lesson Plan
The following lesson plan is meant to be used as an introduction for teachers and students using primary source documents for the first time.

Objectives: The learners will:

1. examine copies of primary source documents.
2. determine the document's value to a researcher.
3. analyze and evaluate the document for bias or contradiction.
4. know the difference between a primary and secondary source.

Definitions: Primary source - source created by people who actually saw or participated in an event and recorded that event or their reactions to it immediately after the event.

Secondary source - source created by someone either not present when the event took place or removed by time from the event.

Materials needed:
Primary source document (could be a diary, letter, map, cartoon, poster, picture,...)

Directions:

1. Have students examine primary source documents from the Internet.
2. Have students examine the document and answer the following questions:
   • What type of document is it?
   • What is the date of the document?
   • Who created the document?
   • Why was the document created?
   • Any distinguishing marks or features on the document (date stamps, someone else's notes in the margin,...)?
3. Consider the following questions:
   • What does the existence of this document say about whoever created it?
   • What does this document say about American (Ohioan) life in this era?

• Ask students if they believe the document is an accurate representation of what was happening.
• Why do they believe that?
• Do students think that outside events could influence what a person might write or record about an event?
• Do students think that outside events could influence the way that they are interpreting the document?
• What questions are left unanswered by the document? If you could ask the author of the document a question, what would you ask?
• Have students exchange documents and answer the questions about their new document.

Follow-up activities:

1. Suggest to students that they have primary source documents at home (driver's license, birth certificate, report card, yearbook, letter, diary,...).
2. Ask students to bring in a document that they would be willing share with the class and analyze the documents.

You're invited to explore the past using the following resources...

Library/Archives Resources || Material Culture/Artifacts || Historic Sites || Using Primary Sources