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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Primary Sources in the Classroom

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Scholars study a historical photograph to make predictions of what happened right after the picture was taken. They research a variety of different topics and use primary sources to answer questions about common food, fashion trends, and...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Primary Source Analysis: 95 Theses Excerpts

For Students 8th - 12th Standards
By reviewing and analyzing these nine selected points from Martin Luther's 95 Theses, your young historians will discern the major tenets of the revolutionary challenge made against the Catholic Church in the seventeenth century. This is...
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Analyzing Primary Sources

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Analyzing primary and secondary sources is a necessary skill for students to attain, and can be learned through interesting activities.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Primary Sources and Personal Artifacts

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Connect historical text to primary sources. Researchers observe and discuss primary sources. Then, historians bring in their own personal artifacts and connect them back to their history.
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Worksheet
1
1
Smithsonian Institution

Engaging Students with Primary Source

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
Young historians learn how to analyze various forms of primary source documents. The colorful packet is packed with all you need to engage kids in this essential skill.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to Primary Sources

For Teachers 1st - 12th
Students explore the usage of primary sources, what they are and how they originate. Artifacts are compared and contrasted as part of this historical inquiry as questions are formulated and conclusions drawn.
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Lesson Plan
National WWII Museum

On Leave in Paris: Maps as Primary Sources

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Primary sources—even those that seem mundane—offer a window into those who experienced history. Using a Red Cross map offered to soldiers stationed in Paris after World War II alongside worksheet questions, scholars consider what life...
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Lesson Plan
National WWII Museum

Life in Auschwitz: Evaluating Primary Sources

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Historians explain what happened during the Holocaust, but only primary sources portray the true horror of places such as Auschwitz. Using accounts from those who survived the camps, as well as a Nazi government official's memoirs, class...
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Lesson Plan
Civil War Trust

Civil War Photography: Photography as a Primary Source

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Can we learn a thing or two about history by looking at pictures from the past? As young historians view 2-D and 3-D primary source photographs, they respond to a series of worksheets that guides them toward unveiling clues about the past. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Communities in Crisis Lesson 1: Primary Source? What is That?

For Teachers 5th - 10th
Distinguish between primary and secondary source documents using the theme of philanthropy. Middle schoolers discuss Anne Frank: The Diary of Young Girl as a way to study the past using a primary source. Then they investigate how to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reading Primary Source Documents: Historical Content

For Teachers 1st - 12th
Why do we read primary source documents? What can they give us that other writings cannot? Provide your learners with any of the primary sources attached here (there are seven), and have them complete the graphic organizer (which opens...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Primary Source Picture Book

For Teachers 4th - 12th Standards
Travel through Europe with ten-year-old Teddy Roosevelt in this writing activity, which uses the picture book My Tour of Europe: by Teddy Roosevelt, by Ellen Jackson. After reading the book, readers compare it to passages from The...
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Lesson Plan
The New York Times

Teaching the Vietnam War with Primary Sources from the New York Times

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Use the New York Times database of primary sources to teach a unit on the Vietnam War. The resource consists of a variety of primary sources as well as a lesson plan showcasing how to teach a lesson using them. Pupils analyze the sources...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Primary Sources to Study the Holocaust

For Teachers 5th - 10th
Engage your middle schoolers with Pastor Martin Niemoller's famous poem that begins, "First they came for the communists." Now that you have their attention, send learners to the various work stations you created to have them explore...
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Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

“Read All About It”: Primary Source Reading in “Chronicling America”

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Can investigative journalism become too sensationalistic and accusatory, or is it vital for the survival of a democracy? Middle schoolers analyze primary source documents from early 20th-century newspapers as well as Theodore Roosevelt's...
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Organizer
mdk12.org

Primary Source Quadrant Cards

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young historians can use this simple graphic organizer to define primary source and list both examples and non-examples of the term. A similar resource can also be constructed for secondary sources!
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Primary Source Activity: Jose Marti

For Students 8th
Analyze a primary source document "Our America" which depicts a Spanish-American point of view. The class answers 3 critical-thinking questions based on the reading and create a time line of Cuba's struggle for independence. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Straight to the Source

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Research famous figures from history through the primary sources they created! Explore how these types of documents can enrich our study of the past with your middle and high school learners. They create picture books to illustrate...
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Organizer
Calisphere

The 6 C's of Primary Source Analysis

For Students 7th - 12th Standards
Arm your class members with the six C's of primary source analysis—content, citation, context, connections, communication, and conclusions—and help them to establish a solid system for analyzing historical sources of information. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Primary Sources

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Materials provided by The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, located in New York City, offer researchers an opportunity to examine primary sources and use these sources to understand the past. Class groups analyze different documents to...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Using Primary Sources: Wide Open Town

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
A picture speaks a thousand words, no matter how old! Scholars use political cartoons from the era of Prohibition and the Temperance Movement to analyze what, a primary document (in this case, a bootlegger's notebook) is telling them...
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Worksheet
3
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Humanities Texas

Primary Source Worksheet: Letter Regarding the Whiskey Rebellion

For Students 8th - 11th Standards
Analyze the federal government's direct response to the Whiskey Rebellion through this fantastic primary source analysis activity worksheet.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and sounds of life...
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Lesson Plan
National WWII Museum

Communities at War: Reading Primary Sources Imaginatively

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Uncle Sam wants you to support the troops. Learners use an engaging lesson plan to analyze primary and secondary sources to discover what life was really like for American citizens at home during WWII. Pupils complete worksheets, group...

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