The Reading Teacher Vol. 65 Issue 8 pp. 584–594 DOI:10.1002/TRTR.01086 © 2012 International Reading Association
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THE POWER AND
POTENTIAL
OF PRIMARY
SOURCESDenise N. Morgan ■ Timothy V. Rasinski
This article describes how infusing primary sources into instruction helps
students develop critical literacy skills as well as more complex
understandings of the world.
P
rimary sources are original textual (e.g.,
letters, diaries, speeches) and nontextual
sources (e.g., photographs, drawings) of
information that are available to learn more
about a time period, person, or particular event.
They are the “raw materials of history” providing
“unfiltered access” into the past (Library of Congress,
n.d.). These differ from secondary sources, which
highlight “accounts or interpretations of events
created by someone without firsthand experience”
(Library of Congress, n.d.).
Although used regularly in middle and high
school classrooms (Britt & Aglinskas, 2002;
Grant & Gradwell, 2005; Swan & Locascio, 2008;
Wooden, 2008), primary source documents are
often overlooked at the elementary grades. Yet even
students in first grade have demonstrated facility
with using primary sources (VanSledright, 2004).
There are untapped possibilities for using primary
sources in elementary grades. In this article we
explore the role, benefits, and possibilities for using
primary sources in classrooms, highlighting how
using primary sources meets the new Common Core
Standards and discussing their role in developing
students’ world knowledge and fostering students’
critical literacy skills.
Understanding the Role of Primary
Sources
It is important for students to know that as people
live their lives, they leave a trail of items they create
or use as they go about their days that represents
who they are and what they did. They leave evidence.
The primary sources left behind are numerous,
including, but not limited to, news articles, speeches,
letters, diaries and journals, interview transcripts,
poetry, song lyrics, photographs, informational fliers,
commercial products, and scripts. These pieces all
provide insight into a certain time period.
Denise N. Morgan is an associate professor of literacy education at Kent
State University, Ohio, USA; e-mail dmorgan2@kent.edu.
Timothy V. Rasinski is a professor of literacy education at Kent State
University; e-mail trasinsk@kent.edu.
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Primary sources can also be actual
artifacts. For example, sharing longplaying
albums or 45 and 78 rpm
records help take students back in time
to when the norm for listening to and
sharing music was much different than
in today’s world. Primary sources help
students develop immediacy to the
time period or event and allow for a
natural compare–contrast that deepens
understanding of the past as well as
the present. Primary sources provide
students with a sense of what it was
like to be alive during a certain time.
They allow students to “read the words
written by living, breathing humans like
themselves” (Barton, 2005, p. 751) and
serve as important forms of evidence of
a particular time period or event.
The Benefits of Using
Primary Sources
Primary sources allow a student to get
as close to a moment in time as possible,
to have more of the firsthand, livedthrough
experience that is so crucial for
deep understanding. Primary sources
certainly provide students with factual
information; however, they also allow
for an aesthetic or emotional response
that comes from being part of an
event in life (Rosenblatt, 1978). These
materials can help connect students to a
person, event, or time period.
Studying one source often leads to
the need to examine additional sources
for corroboration or disconfirming
evidence, leading students on a hunt
to find an answer they can share with
others. Teaching students to work with
source material is one step in helping
them begin “thinking historically”
(VanSledright, 2004). James and McVay
(2009) described historical thinking
as involving “critical thought about
the past, asking good questions about
sources of knowledge, about context
and meaning of historical accounts”
(pp. 347–348). Reliving and investigating
history with students, rather than
“telling” students history, provides
students with an idea that history is
“always incomplete,” and engaging
in this kind of work with students
helps position history and the past as a
“mystery to be continuously unraveled
and interpreted” (p. 347).
The Role of Primary
Sources and the Common
Core State Standards
The new Common Core Standards
(National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices & Council
of Chief State School Officers, 2010)
were designed to foster students’
opportunities to read closely and
critically, seeking “wide, deep,
and thoughtful engagement” with
informational and literary texts that
“builds knowledge, enlarges experience,
and broadens worldviews” (p. 3). The
Common Core Standards document
calls for more thoughtful work with
informational texts and for teachers,
especially in grades K–5, to balance the
reading of literature with the reading of
informational texts.
Mastery of informational texts is
considered “essential for college and
career readiness in a twenty-first
century, globally competitive society”
(National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices & Council of
Chief State School Officers, 2010, p. 3).
Working with primary sources serves as
Pause and Ponder
■ How are you currently using primary
sources in your classroom? To what extent
are your students able to critically analyze
and question information?
■ In what ways might you be able to
incorporate more primary sources into your
teaching? What materials or artifacts would
best help your students become more
involved with the concepts presented in
that particular unit?
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a way to support increased opportunities
for informational reading and to engage
students in more thoughtful and critical
work with the most fundamental of
informational texts. Using primary
sources, students must learn how to
comprehend and critique the material
they read. They “must work diligently to
understand precisely what an author or
speaker is saying” while also questioning
“an author’s or speaker’s assumptions
and premises and assess the veracity
of the claims and the soundness of
reasoning” (p. 7). Students must become
“sensitive to inconsistencies, ambiguities,
and poor reasoning’ in texts (p. 8). To do
so, students need more than one source
of information, such as the textbook, to
question and assess.
The Standards call for experiences
in which students perform critical
readings of informational texts that
broaden their worldviews. It is clear
from these goals that more than one text
is needed to meet these new standards.
However, many school districts rely
on textbooks as the primary, and
many cases sole, source of students’
informational reading. The inclusion of
primary sources can help alleviate this
problem. In the remainder of our article,
we present how working with primary
sources simultaneously broadens
students’ worldviews and supports their
critical thinking abilities.
Developing World
Knowledge
Students are unable to gain a sense of
how people in the past experienced their
lives through textbooks and lectures
alone, but rather, they need to construct
a more complete understanding
that comes from the specificity and
detail that primary sources provide
(Barton, 2005). Using primary sources
in the classroom helps promote an
understanding that the past should
not be merely presented and accepted,
but rather analyzed and investigated.
These sources often provide context for
that time period; they are “residues of
the past left behind by our ancestors”
(VanSledright, 2004, p. 230).
By viewing written artifacts and
documents, reading letters, hearing
(singing and reading) songs and poetry,
and examining pictures, students’
understandings of that time period
expands. Their knowledge can become
anchored in something larger than
names, dates, and facts. These sources
offer students the opportunity to expand
their sense of life experiences during
that time or event.
For example, in investigating a social
studies standard of understanding daily
life, younger students can examine
photographs to study what life was like
for children in the past compared with
their present experiences. Students
can look at primers that children used
to learn to read and locate common
adages about children at the time.
When studying geography, more
specifically, human environmental
interaction, students could examine how
transportation has evolved. They could
study old train schedules to determine
how long it might take for a journey
from their home to a well-known
location and read an excerpt from a
diary or travel log to better understand
what the journey entailed.
For older students, hearing and
reading speeches such as Sojourner
Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman speech and
reading the words of important
documents such as A Declaration of
Sentiments allow students a glimpse into
the important issues of a time period
“Their knowledge can
become anchored in
something larger than
names, dates, and
facts.”
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to different groups of people and how
language was used to explore those
issues during that time.
With speeches and other forms of
primary sources, it is important that
students not only know what was
said, but also experience and hear how
it was said. By reading parts or all of
important documents, students can
gain an understanding for the language
and the tone of the document. Often,
because the language is different from
what is used today, students will need to
infer the meaning of what is being said,
encouraging them to use their higher
level thinking skills to make meaning
from those experiences. They are
developing a worldview that cuts across
time as well as place.
Primary sources allow students
opportunities to explore more deeply
events in history. Rather than simply
acquiring the large-scale facts about a
particular time period or event in history,
students can read how such events
touched the lives of individuals and
groups of individuals who lived through
that episode of history. This, in turn,
helps students come to understand more
deeply other perspectives and cultures,
a necessary quality as outlined by the
new Common Core State Standards
(National Governors Association Center
for Best Practices & Council of Chief
State School Officers, 2010).
Supporting Critical
Thinking
Primary sources can support student
inquiry about historical events and
allow them to develop their critical and
analytical thinking skills. Students
must learn to ask questions about the
past and seek evidence to help answer
those questions (Barton, 2005). They
come to realize that individuals create
these sources and they can hold “very
different perspectives on the same event
or incident,” and therefore, students
must learn how to consider and assess
perspective (VanSledright, 2004, p. 231).
Because primary sources are mere
snippets of history, these incomplete
texts may encourage students to search
for additional information. Students
then have to consider what information
would be helpful and where they might
obtain such sources. They should have
exposure to multiple sources when
studying a particular time or event.
When exposed to multiple
sources, students must learn through
observation and analysis how to
integrate this information to develop
a more complex understanding of
this time. They must grapple with the
complexity of synthesizing information.
As critical thinkers, they must learn
that it can be problematic to rely
on a single source for information.
Specifically, providing students with
opposing views of a particular event
might also help them better understand
why investigating multiple sources is
necessary. Students can examine these
documents for bias and point of view,
deepening their critical examinations
of these sources. Primary sources,
especially photographs, artwork, or
advertisements, can be especially
helpful for students who do not
respond well to written texts (Barton,
2005). These visual artifacts often offer
an “in” to students who sometimes
respond less positively to historical
investigations.
An increasing number of state
standards, including the upcoming
Common Core State Standards, as
well as the professional organization
the National Council of the Social
Studies (NCSS, n.d.), support historical
investigation with primary documents.
The council believes that curriculum
should be challenging. In their
document entitled “NCSS Position
Statement Powerful and Purposeful
Teaching and Learning in Elementary
School Social Studies” they state,
Students should be provided with
opportunities for in-depth investigation
of a few concepts that challenge and
engage them rather than superficial
treatment of many topics that can create
student apathy…. Instead of simply
reading and answering questions,
elementary students should be taught
to question, evaluate, and challenge
informational sources. Teachers should
ask children the kinds of questions that
stimulate decision making, problem
solving, and issue analysis (n.p.).
With this investigation, students have
opportunities to engage in the kind of
complex thinking that encourages them
to question information, helping them
realize the need to view history as an
ever-evolving subject. See the Table
for a starting point when searching for
primary sources.
Analyzing Primary Sources
In order to help expand students’
worldview and develop their critical
thinking skills with using primary
sources, students need a thoughtful way
to analyze the sources they investigate.
We offer two ways to guide students
as they question and think about the
sources: first, a circular approach from
“As critical thinkers, they must learn that
it can be problematic to rely on a single
source for information.”
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the Library of Congress, and second,
an approach to help students “think
historically” from a social studies
perspective.
A Circular Approach
to Analyzing Primary Sources
The Library of Congress’s (n.d.) guide to
analyzing primary sources recommends
taking a circular approach to analyzing
these documents. There is no correct
order to follow, but students should
do the following three things when
working with sources:
1. Observe—Students should identify
and note details in the source.
2. Reflect—Students should generate
and test hypotheses about the
source.
3. Question—Students should ask
questions that lead to more observations
and reflections.
When observing, students should note
things such as what they noticed and
what they noticed but did not expect
or cannot explain. When reflecting,
students should think about the origins
of the document, why this item might
be important, and what can be learned
from examining that item or text. When
questioning, students should wonder
about who, what, when, where, why,
and how in relation to their source.
This interplay among the three
tasks supports using and investigating
primary sources in a meaningful way.
The Library of Congress website (www
.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/
for additional information) offers
specific questions to consider for
analyzing specific types of primary
sources such as printed text, maps,
photographs, prints, sheet music, songs,
and sound recordings.
Thinking Historically
Another way of thinking about primary
sources draws on what historians do
and provides a way to help students
begin to “think historically” and further
investigate and engage in source work.
VanSledright (2004) identified four acts
that help students assess sources:
1. Identification—This helps students
determine what kind or type of source
or artifact they are viewing. Knowing
the kind of source aids in understanding
what can be expected from
the source and what questions can
be asked. Identifying an excerpt as a
diary entry helps students anticipate
that there might be dated entries that
focus on one’s person life. What the
diarist focused on will probably be of
immediate concern and be influenced
by what is occurring in that person’s
life. Students should also expect that
how events are described represent
one person’s opinion, and sweeping
statements about how all people of
that age or time felt cannot be made.
2. Attribution—This helps students
identify the author and consider the
context in which the text was created.
Table Helpful Websites for Locating and Using Primary Sources
Library of Congress for Teachers: Contains primary source sets; themed resources; lesson plans for
using objects, images, audio, statistics, text, and the community; and Collection Connections. You can
also search for primary sources according to individual states. There is also an Ask a Librarian section,
where you can send a question to a Library of Congress reference librarian.
www.loc.gov/teachers/
Library of Congress Guide to Using Primary Sources: Includes information on using, citing, finding, and
analyzing primary sources.
www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/
National Archives: Contains teacher resources with information about getting started with primary
sources. Includes links to multiple places to obtain documents.
www.archives.gov
IRA & NCTE ReadWriteThink.org Web Resource Gallery: This site offers links such as American Master’s
Database of Visual Artist, American Museum of the Moving Image (film and television), and American
Notes: Travels in America, 1750–1920 (offers more than 250 narratives describing travels in the
colonies and United States).
www.readwritethink.org/resources/index.asp
University of Berkeley: Includes tips for finding primary historical sources.
www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/primarysources.html
Repository of Primary Sources: A listing of 500 websites for primary sources.
uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html
Primary Sources on the Web: Divided into U.S. and World History.
www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/primary.html
Primary Sources at Yale: A collection of various primary sources.
www.yale.edu/collections_collaborative/primarysources/index.html
Speeches and Oratory: A collection of the most important speeches from American history. Original
recordings of some speeches are also available.
americanrhetoric.com/
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS): This is a professional organization for K–12 social
studies teachers. The website includes a Teaching With Document section that offers a primary source
document with teaching activities, and lessons focus on history, civics, and many other social studies
disciplines. You do have to be a member to access these records.
www.socialstudies.org/resources/twd
In addition, you can look to commercial publishers, search the Internet, and have the students search for
primary sources.
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A diary entry from a young boy
during wartime might sound and feel
quite different from that of a boy of
the same age during a period of economic
success in the country.
3. Judging perspective—This helps students
think critically, because they
have to consider the author or creator
of the artifact, who is not present.
Students must think about why a text
was created, trying to determine the
author’s intended purpose. An editorial
has a different purpose than a
letter to a relative, even if both authors
discuss similar topics.
4. Reliability assessment—This helps
students think about corroboration of
evidence and information. Students
must learn to seek out additional
sources to support tentative conclusions
about what they think they
know. In a unit on goods and services,
students could try and verify the cost
of a dozen eggs read about in a diary
entry or from a weekly shopping list
by examining a flier for eggs in a local
newspaper.
Although the end goal is to have
students engage in these four acts of
thinking, teachers of younger students
may focus on a few of these acts at
first, such as developing students’
identification and
reliability assessment
(or corroboration)
skills, as a first step.
Eventually students
would incorporate
all four acts, but the
youngest students
can begin to question
information.
Both the circular
and thinking
historically
approaches offer
students a thoughtful,
detailed, and systematic method for
analyzing primary source documents.
These specific approaches provide
students with a way to evaluate and
question sources, a way to guide
their critical thinking about the texts
and artifacts they are viewing. Both
approaches provide students with a
way to investigate multiple features
of a single document, a critical skill in
world with ever-increasing access to
information.
Primary Sources Woven
Around a Particular Theme
Primary sources seem to work best
when they are collected around
a particular theme. We call such
collections jackdaws; other teachers
call them mini-museums. Jackdaws are
simply collections of artifacts, textual or
nontextual in nature, real or facsimile,
that share a particular theme. In other
words, jackdaws are collections of
primary source material.
Teachers use jackdaws for a number
of reasons. Jackdaws are wonderful
for building background and interest
around a particular topic or theme.
There is something inherently
fascinating about being present at the
location of a historical event, to view
actual documents related to a historical
event, or even to hold an object of
historical significance. Jackdaws allow
this to happen within the classroom.
The lively questions and discussion
that occur, for example, when students
pass around the artifacts (e.g., letters
to and from home, magazine articles
and newspaper clippings, photographs,
military gear) that a World War II or
Vietnam veteran brings with him or her
to a classroom is evidence that students
have an interest and are deepening their
background and understanding about
the topic. This is especially true when a
knowledgeable expert is available to field
students’ questions and offer their own
personal insights about the topic. When
students read a text or informational
trade book about the topic, they now
have a schema that allows them to make
better sense of that they read.
Touching those artifacts and reading
the ones that contain language also
allow students to re-create the firsthand
experience of the owner or creator of
the artifacts. This personal contact with
history is a much different experience
than what occurs when reading an
impersonal text written in third person,
as most textbooks are today. In the next
section, we share how three teachers
used primary sources with their students.
“This personal contact
with history is a much
different experience
than what occurs when
reading an impersonal
text written in third
person.”
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Understanding the Past
Primary students often have difficulty
understanding that the life experiences
and conveniences they enjoy today
were not always this way. The past
is often an elusive concept for young
students. Teachers and students can
gather primary sources to make this
idea more concrete and understandable.
Gathering information from a firsthand
source, someone who lived in the “past,”
provides an opportunity for students to
gather primary source material through
oral histories.
In an investigation of family and
community, Jess Kobe had her first
graders interview grandparents or
older relatives to learn more about
what life was like when they were
first graders. Collectively the class
developed several questions they
wanted to know more about. Students
wanted to know what their relatives
did for fun, what school was like, the
kinds of clothing they wore, the places
they visited, and how they traveled.
Jess felt this would help her students
develop a sense of the past compared
with the life they now lead.
Jess felt that when her students
interviewed their grandparents, they
discovered that their “normal” was very
different from their grandparent’s sense
of normal. The students discovered
that certain ubiquitous items in their
lives today have not always existed.
The students had a difficult time
imagining life without video games,
televisions, iPods, DVDs, and many
other electronic devices. They came to
realize that new inventions have made
life different and more convenient.
The students discovered that although
their grandparents did not have similar
electronic devices, they still had fun and
got entertainment from other sources.
In addition, some students discovered
that their grandparents walked to
school. Many students were shocked to
discover that, for some, school buses did
not exist. Many grandparents shared
that they went home for lunch because
the school didn’t provide lunch, so they
would go home and eat lunch with their
families. Through these conversations,
students discovered that most of their
grandparents’ mothers didn’t work
outside of the house. This meant that
their grandparents did not go to daycare
or to a babysitter’s house before or after
school, as many of students currently do.
This interviewing process, hearing
these firsthand accounts, helped
students envision how a different reality
could exist because it was the “reallife”
story about their grandparents’
childhood. Jess reflected on her
students’ learning about the experience:
First graders are very attached to what
is real and not real. It is hard for them
to imagine something foreign to them
because they haven’t lived it themselves.
This intimate experience provided the
kids with a different perspective and
insight into life during a different time
period. This experience also helped the
kids understand that life in the past wasn’t
“bad” or “no fun” it was just different.
People still had what they needed and
wanted but they just fulfilled their needs
and through a different means.
This experience made the past come
alive to the students. It provided them
with a perspective that life did happen
before they were born. It also helped
them see how life could be different and
was different for their own parents and
grandparents. It helped them appreciate
the past and visualize what it would be
like to live then.
Investigating the Local
Community
Even though students live in a
community, they often fail to notice
or are unaware of unique aspects
of their community. They may not
fully understand how geography can
influence community life, as do the
cultural groups who settle in a particular
area. The local resources can play a
factor in the kinds of jobs found in the
area. There is much to help students
explore in their community beyond how
they live their life. Helping students
understand their community is one step
in helping them understand the past.
In a third-grade study of the local
community, teacher Katy Fogarty and
her students worked with their local
historical preservation society to gather
important documents that detail growth
and change in their area. Students
were able to gather and study maps to
compare the growth and change of their
community. They were able to view
photos of particular spots or certain
streets so that students could see how
economics and time have shaped the
spaces they live today. They studied
photos that showed that the land now
housing school buildings in the district
was once farmland.
Maps and photos also helped students
understand the kinds of transportation
“The past is often an elusive concept for
young students. Teachers and students can
gather primary sources to make this idea more
concrete and understandable.”
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used in the community. They were able
to examine photos of long-established
businesses in their area, studying
the exterior of a store when it opened
compared with how it appears today.
They were able to determine the oldest
building in the community.
Students examined census records to
find the kinds of occupations found in
the community, along with the largest
employer for the area. Examining old
newspapers provided students with
a sense of the cost of items, along
with topics of importance at the time.
Because the students lived in an area
with four distinct seasons, they were
able to examine past records of annual
snow to compare with their current
averages. Students also learned about
the community’s early settlers and
founding families. They were able to get
a sense of the crafts that were needed to
provide basic living necessities.
As Katy explains, these visits to and
materials from the local historical society
offer students opportunities to work with:
real stuff they can put their hands
and eyes on. The past becomes more
present this way. Often the volunteers
are from the historical society are longtime
members of the community and
they can offer nuggets of information
to the students as they have lived the
community history.
As Tommy (all student names are
pseudonyms) shared,
It’s important to learn about your city’s
history. There are a lot of artifacts about
our history that show us what people
did in the past like old pianos (the
instruments in the past were a little
different than our instruments today)
and some of the old school stuff. It’s neat
to see how stuff was different in the past.
Andrew felt similarly when he reflected,
It shows a lot of our history. The
volunteers can really teach you a lot about
what happened when our city first existed.
You can see a lot of things from the past
there like old school desks and pictures
of the old school house. It’s interesting
because we get to see the artifacts and
the whole place shows us how our city
has changed (like there used to be not as
many buildings and a few small schools).
It shows us the changes and helps us not
just have to use our imaginations. We get
to see how it really was.
Natalie commented on the amount of
work that people had to do in the past
compared with today. The old twoperson
saw used in the past intrigued
her because she couldn’t imagine having
to work that hard to cut down a tree
and compared that with our use of the
electric saw today. She considered her
experience of seeing artifacts in helping
her get a sense of the past when she said:
Without going there [the historical
society] it might be kind of hard to learn,
there we got to see the actual stuff.
Seeing these things on the computer
would be OK but really going there we
got to see it in person is better than just
seeing it online.
As Katy reflected on her students’
learning experiences, she feels that
working with primary sources:
offers students something unparalleled
by the curriculum. It is an irreplaceable
experience, rather than thinking about
what they might see or what something
might be like, students actually see
things firsthand and sometimes, touch.
They have a richer experience. These
experiences result in a different level of
conversation.
Primary sources provide a vehicle
for investigation that allows students
to develop a more comprehensive
understanding of their immediate world.
Exploring the American
Civil War More Deeply
As students enter the upper
elementary and middle grades, the
kind of primary sources available for
examination, analyses, and response
expands. The American Civil War
was one of the greatest and most
complex events in American history
and is currently in its sesquicentennial
commemoration. Although most history
textbooks devote at least a chapter to the
Civil War, in most textbook chapters,
the Civil War is essentially presented
as a sequential series of major events
presented in third person.
Students reading such texts may learn
facts and figures about the Civil War,
but may not develop a sense for how the
war and the events preceding it shaped
the hearts and minds of Americans in
different ways. Students may wish to
read and respond to the oral history of
African American slaves. The firsthand
accounts of the realities of slavery offer
students opportunities to respond
in emotional ways through personal
journals and small-group discussions.
“As students enter the upper elementary and
middle grades, the kind of primary sources
available for examination, analyses, and
response expands.”
“The past becomes
more present this way.”
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Students can transform their readings
into Readers Theatre scripts, poems,
fictional letters, and other literary forms.
The Civil War produced a wide
range of rhythmical texts reflecting
various stances on the war. In listening
to Civil War songs and lyrics as well
as reading and performing Civil War
poetry, students can explore how music
and poetry was used to unify, rally, and
inspire people living in various parts of
the country.
The Civil War also produced a
plethora of letters, diaries, oratory, and
political documents. Abraham Lincoln,
for example was considered one of
the most literary of all presidents.
Students could examine his speeches
against the newspaper headlines of
that day, looking at the ways in which
Lincoln addressed pressing issues of
the time and used language to help the
country work together. Students can
explore how President Lincoln was able
to use his gift of language to inspire a
nation.
Speeches, letters, diary entries, and
other such documents contain a strong
voice. Such materials lend themselves
to authentic fluency instruction, as
students need to rehearse such materials
in order to read them aloud for an
audience. That rehearsal (repeated
reading [Samuels, 1979]) that students
engage in is aimed at capturing the voice
and meaning of the original author. In
order to read something well, students
need to fully understand the text being
read or performed.
These primary sources offer a
richness and depth of understanding
that few, if any, textbooks can capture.
Primary sources provide insights not
offered by informational texts alone.
They allow readers to hear the personal
and heartfelt voices of the original
authors, rather than the disembodied
voices of textbook authors, to experience
the aesthetic response that the
original readers of such texts may have
experienced, and to experience and
debate various points of view offered
by the original readers of such texts.
The sources offer a broader glimpse of
the world, taking students back to a
time and place that is hard for them to
fathom. In addition, especially with an
issue such as the Civil War, students
must apply critical thinking skills as
they encounter polar opposite opinions
on important topics.
Fifth-grade teacher Lorraine
Griffith studied this monumental
event in American history with her
class. The students read and learned
from textbooks, trade books, and
primary sources. They read and reread
documents such as the Emancipation
Proclamation and Lincoln’s first and
second inaugural speeches; they
studied maps and tracked the routes of
various armies. They also explored the
letters of individual soldiers; they sang
and examined the words in Civil War
songs such as the Battle Cry of Freedom,
popular among Union soldiers (then
they compared and contrasted its lyrics
with the Confederate version of the
same melody); and they recited poetry
that reflects various Civil War themes.
Lorraine transformed some of the
primary sources into texts for Readers
Theater. Included in this article is
her Readers Theater script based on
Frederick Douglas’s famous speech
What to the American Slave Is Your Fourth
of July that was a precursor to the Civil
War (see Figure). When reading this
document, many students discovered
that not all Americans considered
July 4th a day of independence and
celebration.
She decided to conclude the study
with a recitation of a primary source
document, The Gettysburg Address. She
shared her thinking for this decision:
I decided that the class should recite
the whole address one sentence at a
time. One of the benefits I found in this
individual, deep, close reading of this
text was how well the students digested
the complex ideas in the piece. They were
able to pull deep, rich meaning from the
internalized texts as they heard it read to
them and then read it themselves slowly,
repeatedly, and reverently—much deeper
than what they would have gotten from
reading the description of the speech
from the textbook.
Lorraine’s students themselves
noted the particular sentences from the
speech that had the greatest impact on
them individually. Joshua, for example,
was struck by the sentence, “The brave
men, living and dead, who struggled
here have consecrated it far above our
poor power to add or detract.” Although
a challenging sentence with unusual
vocabulary, he was able to take meaning
from Lincoln’s words:
I think this sentence means that the men
who fought there did what they thought
was right and we cannot take any of their
righteousness away or give more to what
they did.
Anthony was particularly moved by,
“The world will little note, nor long
“These primary sources offer a richness
and depth of understanding that few,
if any, textbooks can capture.”
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remember what we say here, but it can
never forget what they did here.” His
interpretation of this line shows a deep
understanding of Lincoln’s text:
I think this sentence means that you
know actions speak louder than words
and Lincoln thought that nobody would
remember what he said at Gettysburg,
but everyone would remember what the
soldiers did there. And now everyone
remembers both.
Jana’s reflections on “That we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain” demonstrates an
understanding that transcends the Civil
War itself:
It means that we must make sure that
these people did not die for nothing. I
like this sentence because it shows that
so many people sacrificed themselves for
us and our freedom. It shows that there
are so many heroes in the world and
some aren’t ever noticed.
Although the learning that occurred from
the use of primary sources in Lorraine’s
classroom may not be measurable in
terms of test scores, it seems clear that
the use of these materials as historical
and literacy experiences in her class
had a profound impact on her students:
how they understood the content, from
differing and personal perspectives, and
how they responded to it. The discussions
and written responses that ensued from
her students’ reading of primary sources
went much deeper than memorization
of facts; they reflected deep, critical
thinking.
Engaged Learning
Using primary sources with elementary
students has untapped potential.
The Common Core State Standards
identifies a clear need for increased
opportunities for students to read and
interact with informational texts in the
K–5 grades. Thoughtful use of primary
sources helps students develop their
critical thinking skills as they investigate
Figure “What to the American Slave Is Your Fourth of July?” by Lorraine Griffith
A Readers Theatre script for four voices: Narrator, Readers 1, 2, 3
Narrator: You are going to hear a speech given by Frederick Douglass at an Independence Day
Celebration in 1852 in Rochester, NY. At that period in history, most Black Americans did
not observe Independence Day on July 4th. They had not yet found the freedom most White
Americans enjoyed. In this speech, Douglass fought with words for the freedom of fellow
Blacks still enslaved. Three speakers will share the powerful words of one articulate man,
Frederick Douglass.
All: “What to the American slave is your Fourth of July?”
R1: Fellow citizens,
R2: pardon me,
R3: allow me to ask,
R 1, 2, 3: Why am I called upon to speak here today?
R3: What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?
R2: Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that
Declaration of Independence, extended to us?
R1: And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and
to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from our
independence to us?…
R 1, 2, 3: What to the American slave is your Fourth of July?
R1: I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross
injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.
R2: To him, your celebration is a sham; …
R3: your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless;
R1: … your shouts of liberty and equality [are] hollow mockery;
R2: your prayers and hymns are to him mere fraud and hypocrisy—
R3: a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.
R 1, 2, 3: There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody, than are
the people of these United States, at this very hour.
R1: Go where you may,
R2: search where you will,
R3: roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World,
R2: travel through South America,
R1: search out every abuse,
R3: and when you have found the last,
R 1, 2, 3: lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation,
R1: and you will say with me that,
R2: for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy,
R3: America reigns without a rival.
R 1, 2, 3: And I ask again…
All: What to the American slave is your Fourth of July?
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these documents (Wooden, 2008) while
providing students with a deeper and
more complex understanding of the
world. It provides them with a way to
view and evaluate future information by
questioning and thinking deeply about
the topic.
Primary sources have the ability to
stimulate curiosity, provoke questions,
and supply evidence for historical
accounts (Barton, 2005). Presenting
students with opportunities to use
primary sources supports students
in pursuing meaningful questions,
making informed choices, and drawing
conclusions from evidence gained from
investigating these artifacts (Barton).
Primary sources are fragments of
history that can support students’ active
learning and intellectual curiosity.
It can be challenging for students
to connect with past events when
those experiences feel far removed
from their current lives. The past
we explore with our students is not
about neutral events; rather it is about
people living in a particular time with
particular issues and challenges. By
including more primary sources in
classroom instruction, students have the
opportunity to connect on both a factual
and emotional level with people and
events in our history. These sources help
students recognize the complexity of our
history (Wooden, 2008) by providing
multiple points of view. Primary sources
can build a bridge between two time
periods, often providing the human link
between students today and the people
of the past (Otten, 1998).
Primary sources should be a
“centerpiece” in instruction because
they are a “foundation of historical
knowledge” (Barton, 2005, p. 753).
By including more opportunities for
students to investigate primary sources,
IRA Book
■ Reading Photographs to Write With
Meaning and Purpose, Grades 4–12 by
Leigh Van Horn
IRA Journal Articles
■ “Building Literacy Skills Across the
Curriculum: Forging Connections With the
Past Through Artifacts” by Carol J. Fuhler,
Pamela J. Farris, Pamela A. Nelson, The
Reading Teacher, April 2006
■ “Models for Using Nonfiction in the
Primary Grades” by Rosemary G. Palmer
and Roger A. Stewart, The Reading Teacher,
February 2005
MORE TO EXPLORE
we offer them a unique opportunity to
view past people and events in ways
only firsthand accounts can offer, and in
turn, students experience learning about
such events in intimate and personal
ways.
REFERENCES
Barton, K.C. (2005). Primary sources in history:
Breaking through the myths. Phi Delta
Kappan, 86(10), 745–753.
Britt, M.A., & Aglinskas, C. (2002). Improving
students’ ability to identify and use source
information. Cognition and Instruction, 20(4),
485–522. doi:10.1207/S1532690XCI2004_2
Grant, S.G., & Gradwell, J.M. (2005). The
sources are many: Exploring history
teachers’ selection of classroom texts. Theory
and Research in Social Education, 33(2),
244–265.
James, J.H., & McVay, M. (2009). Critical literacy
for young citizens: First graders investigate
the First Thanksgiving. Early Childhood
Education Journal, 36(4), 347–354. doi:10.1007/
s10643-008-0296-6
Library of Congress. (n.d.). Using primary sources.
Retrieved January 24, 2012, from www.loc
.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/
National Governors Association Center
for Best Practices & Council of Chief
State School Officers. (2010). Common
Core State Standards Initiative. Retrieved
December 23, 2010, from www
.corestandards.org/the-standards/
english-language-arts-standards
National Council of the Social Studies (n.d).
NCSS position statement: Powerful and
purposeful teaching and learning in elementary
school social studies. Retrieved January 24,
2012, from www.socialstudies.org/positions/
powerfulandpurposeful
Otten, E.H. (1998). Using primary sources in the
primary grades. (ERIC Digest ED419773)
Rosenblatt, L.M. (1978). The reader, the text, the
poem: The transactional theory of the literary
work. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois
University Press.
Samuels, S.J. (1979). The method of repeated
readings. The Reading Teacher, 32(4), 403–408.
Swan, K., & Locascio, D. (2008). Evaluating
alignment of technology and primary source
use within a history classroom. Contemporary
Issues in Technology & Teacher Education, 8(2),
175–186.
VanSledright, B.A. (2004). What does it mean to
think historically…and how do you do teach
it? Social Education, 68(3), 230–234.
Wooden, J.A. (2008). “I had always heard
Lincoln was a good person, but…”:
A study of sixth graders’ reading of
Lincoln’s views on black–white relations.
Social Studies, 99(1), 23–32. doi:10.3200/
TSSS.99.1.23-32
1. Select a topic you study in social
studies or science.
2. Think about sources and artifacts that
would be meaningful to students and help
them better understand and connect with the
selected topic. Ponder what would help students
better understand the time period or make them
feel connected to the events being studied.
3. Begin searching for primary sources
that would enhance students’ understanding
of the selected topic using the websites
provided in the Table. Also, contact local
historical societies to see if they have
artifacts or documents of interest.
4. Gather two or three primary sources.
Using either the methods described in
“Circular Approach to Analyzing Primary
Sources” or the guiding questions
presented in “Thinking Historically,” begin
a whole-group discussion on how to
question and analyze these sources.
5. Provide opportunities for students to
try this on their own in small groups.
TAKE ACTION!
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