Primary vs. Secondary Sources

A couple of times this week I have written about using primary sources in history lessons and or research lessons. That has reminded me of a couple of good videos that can help students understand the differences between primary and secondary sources. 

The Minnesota Historical Society offers a fantastic video on the topic of primary v. secondary sources. By watching the short video students can learn what a makes a resource a primary or secondary source. The video provides a handful of examples of each along with a description of what makes the example a primary or secondary source. This is probably the best video that I have seen explain the differences between primary and secondary sources.

Using Primary & Secondary Sources is a video that was produced by the Oregon School Library Information System. The video is intended to help elementary school students understand the difference between primary and secondary sources. The video uses some clear examples of each type of source and how those sources can be used in the research and writing process. The best part is that there are examples aligned to multiple subject areas including art and science.

Interactive Posters on Historical Thinking and Investigation

TeachingHistory.org is an excellent source of lesson plans and other materials useful in teaching US History. Visitors to TeachingHistory.org will find resources appropriate for students in elementary school, middle school, and high school. One of my favorite resources from TeachingHistory.org is their historical thinking posters.

TeachingHistory.org's historical thinking posters are interactive displays that guide students through the process of examining and thinking about history. There are two interactive posters available. The poster for elementary school is called Doing History is Like Solving a Mystery. The poster for high school students is called History is an Argument About the Past. Both posters include images of primary sources. Clicking on the images in the posters opens a series of guiding questions.

Screen capture of poster, visit TeachingHistory.org for the
interactive poster. 

Applications for Education
These interactive posters could serve as a good introduction to the research process. What I like about the posters is that they're not focused so much on "how to find things" aspect of research but rather on the process of investigating and digging into what you have found. In other words, these posters could help students ask better questions that then help them search for things they might have otherwise ignored.

How To Do Research - An Interactive Map

One of the challenges that every student faces at one time or another is conducting focused and efficient research. The folks at the Kentucky Virtual Library know this and put together an interactive map of the research process for students. The map, titled How To Do Research, walks students through the research process from start to finish with every step along the way. One of the things about this map that school librarians will like is that it is not focused solely on web research. How To Do Research includes a good section about using library catalogs, books, and magazines.

Applications for Education
The Kentucky Virtual Library's How To Do Research could be a good resource for elementary school or middle school students to have bookmarked as a guide through their research projects. Not every step along the way is explained in depth so you will have to help students actually perform some of the tasks along the way.

H/T to Russel Tarr.