Kirsten 1:06

This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know if you southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things, social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Hi, there and welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. I was a little worried for a minute because I was hearing the lawn mowing company for a neighbor's yard outside and I was wondering if it was going to pick up the microphone, but it sounds like they just finished so perfect timing. Today we're going to be talking about primary sources, and how we can use them to teach social studies. So we're going to talk about what primary sources are, why they are important, where you can find primary sources, how primary sources can be incorporated into lesson plans. And also just in general, the benefits if you're not already convinced the benefits of using them in the classroom.

Let's start with what primary sources are. Primary sources are things from the past or items from the past that let you see what happened there like old letters, diaries, pictures, speeches, think of those type of sources. These help you understand history a little better. And when you look at the sources, you're learning about history in a real like you're there, you're hearing a firsthand account. That's why they call it primary sources. You can also think about them and understand the different points of view based on who is the source of information and what the topic is on. using primary sources can make social studies more fun and interesting as well.

Primary sources are super important because they help you connect with the past. It's like a time machine that takes you back in time. And they're also very important because they're made by people who actually lived that experience during that certain time or event. When you see or read about these primary sources. You can see what those people thought and felt. You can also learn about the time that they lived in. Looking at primary sources, students can become better thinkers, they can see different points of view. And just really understand history in general, Social Studies definitely becomes way more interesting when they're actually seeing real photographs or journal entries or pages from a book that people wrote in that specific time in history.

So now we can talk about where you can find primary sources. There's several different places, and I'm going to share with you a few of my favorites. So one place to look, our good old libraries and archives, your local library has tons of great stuff like diaries, and letters and pictures and newspapers, you can always ask your librarian or check online to see what they might have available. This is great. If you're learning about a history of maybe your local community, they might have some archives, based off of any primary sources, they're another great place to look is a big online database. There are many websites out there, some good ones are the Library of Congress. And I'm going to link that because like they have, it's so curated, you can search things and filter it. It's amazing. This is what I use primarily, when I am searching for sources. To put in my guided curriculum for social studies. You can also check out the National Archives, and also the Digital Public Library of America. There are several websites, you can search for just search for Pratt, you know, primary sources online, and you'll probably see if you, but I definitely for sure recommend the Library of Congress. A third place to look are museums and historical sites, museums and places that show history also have some primary sources, you can always visit them in person or check their websites. If you're looking for something specific, maybe something they might have something available at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. And you can always check to see what they also have online. The fourth place to look are online archives and collections. ancestry.com has a interesting amount of archives a on I've seen some of my own personal family members on there. They just just depends on you know what the topic is. But there's tons of census records back way back into the 1800s and early 1900s. So that's always great as far as if you're doing something related to maybe finding a family history, learning about family history, but also just colleges and government offices might have things like that. And then the fifth place to look are just thinking about oral history. So these are talks or recordings from people who know about a certain topic or time, you can find these in libraries online are places like the Veterans History Project and story core. Remember to make sure to check if anything you find is reliable, reliable sources is what you want to make sure to find. But even if the history isn't that long ago, maybe it's something you lived as a child. I know a lot of teachers out there probably were alive and living in the late 1900s. While it's not a huge focus of curriculum, like US history, or Texas history, it is history in general, but you could possibly be a primary source, maybe you wrote a diary entry, talking about your life in the 90s or 80s. And that's a primary source right there. So you could be a primary source you never know.

Alright, now let's talk about how we can incorporate primary sources in two lesson plans. We're going to talk about five strategies. The first way is looking at the different documents. So looking at the primary sources, read old letters or diary entries or pictures or view pictures, and learn about that time or event, maybe make some inferences about how they're dressing or maybe their background or what they do for a living. Have your students think about what they see and ask questions. It's always great to just start off with, what do you observe? The second thing to incorporate into lesson plans is to think in the perspective of that person. So have students think in the perspective of the person from the primary source and try to understand how they felt what they were doing, it helps them see how history may be a little complex, and there's more to it than we think. The third thing is to compare and contrast. So look at different printing Ray sources from different times or views. So compare those different primary sources. Maybe you have a letter from the American Revolution and a picture from the American Revolution, compare and contrast, you can contrast maybe different classes of people. So maybe someone who was an enslaved person versus someone who was not an enslaved person. During the era in the 1800s. There are different primary sources you can utilize. And you can always have them side by side to compare and contrast. And the fourth way to incorporate into lesson plans, is to use the primary sources to make stories have students use primary sources to make their own stories, this can be fun, and it also lets them learn about history in a creative way. This is maybe great if you see a part of a diary entry, and maybe you can have students finish what they were trying to say. And just giving them some of course, background information about that particular time period during the when the diary entry was written. And then the fifth way you can incorporate it into lesson plans is to set it up as a station, set up different places with primary sources in the classroom, have students look at them, talk about them work together to understand them. The Library of Congress has a really great activity that you can use pretty much with any primary source, it's called the primary source analysis tool. And there's just three main parts about it. observe, reflect and question. So there's, that's what they're going to do. They're just going to make observations at first, they're going to reflect on it. And then they're just going to ask themselves some questions, or you can give them some guiding questions to think about, then there's also a space at the bottom for further investigation. And maybe you can have students describe what they want to learn more about that specific source. All right,

the last thing we're going to talk about are the benefits. Hopefully, you see the benefits already. But I just wanted to point out how using primary sources in class is not great just for students, but also for teachers. It's a way for you to communicate history with your students and connect with history in a very real and tangible way. When they are reading and thinking about primary sources, they will become better thinkers, and they can also do a better job at filtering what's real from what's not real. It also helps students understand how people from the past viewed things and their perspectives. using primary sources can make students more curious and interested in history. I know it did for me for sure. And it would help them with, you know, maybe generating more questions, and may want to learn more about a specific topic.

So to conclude, everything in this episode of using primary sources in social studies can make history come to life and help them see why it's important. So this week, we've talked a lot about primary sources. Tune in for next week, because I'm going to share with you information about secondary sources, because there is a slight difference. But nevertheless, it's still a great way to teach social studies. All right. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and I'll talk to you again next week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.