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We are just struggling with "original material"


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I know we are suppose to be reviewing "original or primary source" materials this year. We started doing it a little at the beginning of the year. I even received some great tips and worksheets from the wonderful ladies on this board. But, alas. We haven't kept up with it. I feel so stupid and helpless when we are discussing the documents. Like there is suppose to be some meaning or deeper discussion opportunities with the material. I never did this in school, so I don't know what else to dicuss. I can't further the information or prompt a discussion. Ugh. So it keeps getting "skipped". I know its important. I have read the difference between secondary versus primary sources. I have discussed this information with my ds. But my ability to do much more than that has ceased!

 

What should I do?

 

Hot Lava Mama

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Does anyone know of a source that "hand holds" until I get comfortable with it? That asks AND answers questions to source materials?

Thanks

Hot Lava Mama

 

I'm not sure if this is too simplified for what you're looking for, but I'm considering using this with my rising fifth grader as a gentle introduction. I'm not big on workbooks at all but this one sounds better than most.

 

Voices from Primary Sources

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I know we are suppose to be reviewing "original or primary source" materials this year. We started doing it a little at the beginning of the year. I even received some great tips and worksheets from the wonderful ladies on this board. But, alas. We haven't kept up with it. I feel so stupid and helpless when we are discussing the documents. Like there is suppose to be some meaning or deeper discussion opportunities with the material. I never did this in school, so I don't know what else to dicuss. I can't further the information or prompt a discussion. Ugh. So it keeps getting "skipped". I know its important. I have read the difference between secondary versus primary sources. I have discussed this information with my ds. But my ability to do much more than that has ceased!

 

What should I do?

 

Hot Lava Mama

 

I will try to look in some of my files, but in the meantime here is a site that has printable analysis sheets that your students could use, filling in whatever info. they can deduce on their own and then possibly discussing what they miss with you etc... They also have lesson plans to help acclimate you to the process. I have discovered it is one thing to have the ability to do something myself and quite another to be able to transmit that knowledge/understanding to someone else.

 

ETA: Here is another form that might help, and here is a site that looks like it has some great materials for varying ages along with teaching ideas.

Edited by Gratia271
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I find I want the answers myself too! I just bought IEW's Teaching the Classics. In it, there is a huge list of socratic questions to use in discussing literature. However, as a teacher I must work though it first before discussing with my student. That gives me pause as I am CERTAIN I will miss the deeper meanings, connections and so much more.

 

I have to remind myself that it's okay to miss some of the subtleties in a work since my student is only 11. She's too immature to have enough life wisdom to see it all when she reads. For example, subtle sexual innuendo will totally go over her head. No need discussing how that emotional conflict is affecting a character. heehee

 

I think this is why classics remain classics. As we grow and mature, we gain new understandings of the work. The works are so deep that it's like peeling the layers of an onion, only you peel it by reading through eyes that have wisdom gained through life experiences.

 

Thanks for letting me work through my thoughts on this. Lots of though provoking posts the last 48 hours!

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One thing we do with primary sources is get excited about the fact that we are holding something (well a copy anyways!) that is x years old and was handled by x person. That's pretty incredible in itself and if you can pass that awe onto your children, well, that's pretty great!

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I will try to look in some of my files, but in the meantime here is a site that has printable analysis sheets that your students could use, filling in whatever info. they can deduce on their own and then possibly discussing what they miss with you etc... They also have lesson plans to help acclimate you to the process. I have discovered it is one thing to have the ability to do something myself and quite another to be able to transmit that knowledge/understanding to someone else.

 

ETA: Here is another form that might help, and here is a site that looks like it has some great materials for varying ages along with teaching ideas.

 

Great! Thank you.

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I'm not sure if this is too young for your purposes, but I was delighted to see that there are quite a few examples of primary source material in A Child's Story of America by Christian Liberty Press. The book itself is in story format, but it does have boxes inserted in the text that contain, for instance, some things that Christopher Columbus himself wrote from "Book of Prophecies," Sebastian Cabot's "Rules of the Ship," the Mayflower Compact, etc. It's not completely riddled with them, but there are certainly more than I've ever seen in a textbook, and they pretty much do the explaining for you in the story part.

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I know we are suppose to be reviewing "original or primary source" materials this year. We started doing it a little at the beginning of the year. I even received some great tips and worksheets from the wonderful ladies on this board. But, alas. We haven't kept up with it. I feel so stupid and helpless when we are discussing the documents. Like there is suppose to be some meaning or deeper discussion opportunities with the material. I never did this in school, so I don't know what else to dicuss. I can't further the information or prompt a discussion. Ugh. So it keeps getting "skipped". I know its important. I have read the difference between secondary versus primary sources. I have discussed this information with my ds. But my ability to do much more than that has ceased!

 

What should I do?

 

Hot Lava Mama

 

What time period(s) are you doing?

 

Remember that primary source doesn't have to be a written document drafted by men thinking of legal or political ramifications.

 

We had a great discussion once reading newspaper ads from a Seattle paper targeting those headed to the Alaska gold fields. I pulled those from this University of Washington digital collection. The collection also has lots of other ads, that might be worked into other time periods or discussions.

 

When we were reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; we went through a couple hundred photos from Depression Era southern states from the Library of Congress photo collection. There were all kinds of things we noticed, from the ads in store windows, to the tools used in fields, to the traveling barber, to the woman delivering laundry, to the mule drawn carts driving along side early automobiles.

 

Posters and print advertising and political cartoons can be a good entry to analysis. You can find these at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, state historical collections or in real life in the prints sections of an antiques store. There are a couple WWII ads that bring tears to my eyes just to think of them. (I think one of them was ultimately a Goodyear Tire Company ad, but it was all about being forward deployed and missing home and it just go me.)

 

I recently discovered a site from the Smithsonian that has some classroom activities for primary sources. One that particularly caught my eye was using a college yearbook, with the various farewell inscriptions written in 1860. Other lesson plans are here.

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I like this site ...

 

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

 

Although not a primary source, we are fond of these books http://www.christianbook.com/highlights-in-history-1900-1939/1561750999/pd/736463?event=WL&item_code=WW

 

I have looked at this one with great interest https://www.triviumpursuit.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16172&cat=258&page=1

 

I've found these sites recently http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook.html Look to the top for med and mod links.

 

Things to do with a primary source http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/hst300q3.htm

 

From our national archives, teaching with documents ... http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/

 

Prentice Hall sample lesson and how-to http://www.phschool.com/eteach/social_studies/2000_11/essay.html

 

Anyway, I have a ton more. :) I think these are great for you to get going.

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primary sources. I guess I wasn't clear. We seem to be fine in the "finding" primary sources area. The problem comes when we try to "evaluate" it. I have a few worksheets that ask about the writer's bias, what the time period is, what else is going on during the time period, etc. I feel like a 1st grader looking at this stuff. I get the open-mouthed "Duh" look. I don't know how to further the discussion. I don't know what to point out to discuss. I don't know how to further anything other than reading the piece. We kind of just look or read it, fill out the form with all the "questions" to evaluate it, then we are done. It doesn't feel like we are doing anything other than filling out the form. Does that make sense? I need to learn how others look at something, read their thoughts and evaluation and observations, etc. Then maybe I can figure out how to reproduce something like that. So I either need a class that teaches this, or some original sources with the accompanying evaluation and thought about it.

Hot Lava Mama

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primary sources. I guess I wasn't clear. We seem to be fine in the "finding" primary sources area. The problem comes when we try to "evaluate" it. I have a few worksheets that ask about the writer's bias, what the time period is, what else is going on during the time period, etc. I feel like a 1st grader looking at this stuff. I get the open-mouthed "Duh" look. I don't know how to further the discussion. I don't know what to point out to discuss. I don't know how to further anything other than reading the piece. We kind of just look or read it, fill out the form with all the "questions" to evaluate it, then we are done. It doesn't feel like we are doing anything other than filling out the form. Does that make sense? I need to learn how others look at something, read their thoughts and evaluation and observations, etc. Then maybe I can figure out how to reproduce something like that. So I either need a class that teaches this, or some original sources with the accompanying evaluation and thought about it.

Hot Lava Mama

 

What grade and what historical period are you trying to do this with? This will help other posters give you suggestions that are focused.

 

I tend to ask my kids questions about what is in the document, and then futher ask them why this and not that type questions. I think it's important for them to realize a couple of things. 1) that life in the past had many similarities (same needs for food, shelter, clothing, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, fears and joys), 2) that life in the past was also very different (scientific understanding, technology available, religious viewpoints, expectations of social mobility, expectations for people based on class, gender and race), 3) that people with opposing viewpoints will both think they are right and try to influence others to that view.

 

I think that it can be hard to think of people in the past as real people, who ate and drank and loved and fought and were joyful and were grieving. It is easy to get into the trap where we think that our era is the most - whatever. Most depraved, most chaotic, most swamped by technology, most insightful, most caring about others beyond our own family. But you can find evidence of both evil and sacrifice in the documents of the past.

 

This beginning activity, from Archives.gov, starts a student out with some document or artifact from their own life. They analyze it as if it were a historical document (and it is). For example, our family might look at a birth certificate that listed a county instead of a city and talk about how that child was born on a military base, which being federal land was not part of the city that surrounded it. Or we might look at the expired passports my kids have and talk about why they needed to have them so young (and look at some of the cool stamps and visas in them). Or we might look at the Crossing the Line certificates that dh and I have and talk about the difference between "slimy polliwogs" and "trusty shellbacks" and how the Crossing the Line ceremony has not only not changed much in hundreds of years, but also inspired much of the symbolism in Pirates of the Carribean. And so on.

 

There are some analysis sheets that can be a jumping off point. I have done a lot with the type of questions on the poster and political cartoon sheets from archives.gov. If you don't feel up to doing this with a historical document from a period you're less familiar with, then use it to talk about contemporary documents. Look at a political ad and talk about the imagery in it (why, for example does a politician show flag backgrounds or shots of military or firefighters or nurses or teachers or children?) We used to get The Economist and about once a month there would be a cover that used symbolism to get a point across, so we'd talk about that.

 

FWIW, the idea of viewpoint and bias is something we talk about a lot here. Especially with advertising and consumer merchandizing. We point how how things are arranged to make someone feel a certain way or want to spend more money on an item. I think that also flows into the discussion of documents.

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