Unit Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: For Teachers: Analyzing Primary Source Documents

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
These student worksheets and activities help students analyze many different types of primary source documents. Life histories, objects, and photographs are all used to engage students.
Professional Doc
Library of Congress

Loc: For Teachers: Classroom Materials Using Primary Sources

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
This excellent teacher resource features lessons that use primary source documents in an engaging way. Included are lesson plans created by teachers, themed resources, primary source sets, presentations and activities, and collections...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Learning Lab: Teaching With Primary Sources

For Students Pre-K - 1st Standards
Five lesson plans, complete with videos, primary sources, and document-based questions (DBQ) to encourage students to utilize primary sources and incorporate thinking and writing into daily learning. Topics include: Artifact &...
Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Primary Source Set: Westward Expansion Teacher's Guide [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
As the United States expanded westward, many cultural groups came into contact with one another, such as Native American tribes, Chinese, and various Europeans. In this set of exercises, students use primary source documents to explore...
Primary
Library of Congress

Loc: Web Guides: Primary Documents in American History

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
An extensive collection of primary source documents of early development of the new United States. Resources include a wide variety of details about the Northwest Ordinance.
Handout
Other

Links to Primary Documents & Classified Transcripts

For Students 9th - 10th
Check out this page for a list of links to primary source documents regarding the last years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, many of which are declassified transcripts of conversations between Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger.
Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: 1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
To better understand the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, this interdisciplinary lesson integrates analyzing historical primary resources with literary analysis. Students work in groups and express themselves...
Lesson Plan
Huntington Library

Huntington Library: Using Primary Sources in the Classroom [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
This lesson provides guidelines for teaching students how to use primary sources such as images, text, or statistics (e.g., maps, census). Includes a document analysis worksheet.
Unknown Type
University of California

Uc Irvine: Distinguishing Between Primary & Secondary Sources

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This site has an online quiz to test your knowledge of primary and secondary sources.
Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Teachers: The Great Gatsby: Primary Sources From Twenties

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Primary source documents, including photos and text, help young scholars understand the time setting of "The Great Gatsby" and, in turn, create their own piece of historical fiction. in the form of a newspaper project.
Activity
US National Archives

National Archives: Bring History to Life

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
How can you actually bring history to life? Here are some tools from the National Archives that allow students to create their own projects using primary-source based activities that develop historical thinking skills. Special historical...
Website
University of California

University of California, Davis: The History Project

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
The History Project is a growing collection of lesson plans, teaching tools, digitized images, and documents for the teaching of history. Includes assignments for having students apply analytical skills to primary sources.
Primary
Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Resource Center Displaced Persons Camps

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Yad Vashem has the largest collection of Holocaust primary sources than anywhere else in the world. Their main objective is preserving all the stories of this time period so it is not forgotten or repeated. They have broken down the...
Primary
Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Resource Center After Liberation

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Yad Vashem has the largest collection of Holocaust resources than anywhere else in the world. Their main objective is preserving all the stories of this time period so it is not forgotten or repeated. They have broken down the Holocaust...
Primary
Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Resource Center the Jewish World and the Holocaust

For Students 9th - 10th
Yad Vashem has the largest collection of Holocaust resources than anywhere else in the world. Their main objective is preserving all the stories of this time period so it is not forgotten or repeated. They have broken down the Holocaust...
Primary
Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Resource Center the Free World and Holocaust Survivors

For Students 9th - 10th
Yad Vashem has the largest collection of Holocaust resources than anywhere else in the world. Their main objective is preserving all the stories of this time period so it is not forgotten or repeated. They have broken down the Holocaust...
Graphic
Made From Media

History Hit: Twentieth Century World War Two

For Students 9th - 10th
This site offers primary sources from World War Two including pictures and articles.
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: Primary Sources: The Census: Who We Think We Are

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
An hour-long professional development workshop on teaching the function and significance of the census through the use of primary source documents. Features experienced teachers. Materials and a complete lesson plan are also provided.
Interactive
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: The Gettysburg Address

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
The National Museum of American History has assembled a collection of resources that underscore the significance of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, including a draft of the speech in Lincoln's own hand, a video of the Lincoln Bedroom,...
Primary
Library of Congress

Loc: American Treasures: A More Perfect Union: Gallery B

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a large site from American Treasures covering primary source documents from the early 1800s through the Civil War and on to Western Expansion.
Primary
Yale University

Avalon Project: The Louisiana Purchase 1803

For Students 9th - 10th
A series of primary source documents all related to the Louisiana Purchase. Includes the text of the final agreement, speeches by Jefferson and others. Great stuff!
Unit Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Walt Whitman Notebooks

For Students 9th - 10th
An amazing site, full of primary source documents, that offers a glimpse into the life and thoughts of American poet Walt Whitman. By paging through Whitman's notebooks, you can see a record of his ideas and witness lines of verse taking...
Lesson Plan
Stanford University

Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Evaluating Sources

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] Are all historical sources equally trustworthy? How might the reliability of a historical document be affected by the circumstances under which it was created? In this activity, students sharpen their...
Lesson Plan
Stanford University

Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian:sourcing Classroom Poster

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] Sourcing asks students to consider who wrote a document as well as the circumstances of its creation. Who authored a given document? When? For what purpose? This poster reminds students before reading a...