American Revolution and Primary Source Documents

Content Lecture: Drs. Green and Beachley (10/28/09)

Click here to listen to an audio of the lecture delivered by Drs. Green and Beachley during the October 28, 2009 session (Session II).

Lecture: Michael Green — "Nevada during the American Revolution"

Click here to access Dr. Michael Green's lecture titled "Nevada during the American Revolution."

Article: "Thinking Like a Historian: A Framework for Teaching and Learning" by Nikki Mandell

I recommend the article "Thinking Like a Historian: A Framework for Teaching and Learning" by Nikki Mandell. The article, appearing in the April 2008 issue of OAH Magazine of History, outlines the theoretical reasons for teaching students why they should engage in historical inquiry and provides guiding scaffolds for assisting students through the process.

An American Revolution Bulletin Board

After seeing this bulletin board example in the April 2008 edition of OAH Magazine of History, I saw the potential for modifying it for use when teaching about wars. What a wonderful way to have students learn from while creating a bulletin board!

Teaching Students: "What Are Primary Sources?"

I recommend "If Pictures Could Talk, If Walls Could Whisper: Revolutionary Practices that Engage Students in History," a slideshow presentation delivered by Delise Sanders at the National Council for History Education Conference in 2008. The conference slides introduce teachers to methods for helping students develop an understanding of an appreciation for primary sources. Using many student-made and literature-based examples, Sanders suggests starting with student projects focusing on their own lives, moving toward local history, and eventually studying broader national historical topics.

Battle Ground Nevada--Using Library of Congress Primary Sources in the Classroom

Getting to Know Lincoln through Primary Sources

Assignment Desription

Project Focus: Inquiry Question Related to Abraham Lincoln

Participants will work in groups of five to develop an inquiry question relating to Abraham Lincoln. They will identify primary sources available on the Library of Congress website to answer their inquiry question. These primary sources will then be made available to students in the form of a primary source sets accompanying the inquiry question. Each group will create a blog entry including the following items:

Links to a collection of five artifacts including

One official document
One informal document
One picture
One other artifact type (e.g., audio, video, 3-D artifact)
One other artifact

Information for each artifact

Text of all text-based artifacts
Key vocabulary terms related to the artifact
An artifact description

Content of artifact
Author's/Creator's point of view
Context of artifact (e.g., timing, politics, social climate)

Student questions for engaging students in higher level thinking about the artifact
Student suggestions for imaginative thinking (e.g., "What would happen if...?," "Would it be better if...?") and suggested strategies for answering the questions (e.g., create a timeline)

Activities for Working with Primary Source Documents

The Primary Source Learning offers a list of primary source-related instruction strategies.

The National Archives and Records Administration introduces myriad strategies for use with primary sources in this informational sheet. In it, they recommend and offer suggestions for using primary sources in the following ways: a focus activity, brainstorming activity, visualization exercise, project inspiration, dramatic presentation activity, writing activity, listening activity, creating a documentary, cross-curricular activity, current events activity (what is past is prologue), drawing connections activity, integrating geography activity, small group hypothesis activity, self-reflective exercise, and assessment.

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Using Primary Source Sets

To identify groups of primary sources used for teaching specific content and developing inquiry projects, visit http://www.unco.edu/primarysources/MainWebsite/IntheClassroom/pssets.html.

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Analyzing Primary Sources

There are excellent resources for having students analyze a variety of primary source types (e.g., cartoons, photographs, audio recordings, art). Visit http://www.unco.edu/primarysources/MainWebsite/IntheClassroom/Analysistools.html.

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"Found Poems"

Have students work with a single teacher-selected primary source document. Students will review the document highlighting words that are important to them. They then cut out twenty of those words (of their choosing) that are the most meaningful for them. They then make a poem by arranging these words into their own creation.
Note: You may use the primary source set within the Community Center called "Found Poems" for this activity.
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Primary Source Overviews

Create a page-long overview including basic information about specific artifacts. Information may include:

“Author’s Point of View”
“Resource Overview"
"What Do You See?”
“Thinking about the Picture” (e.g., suggestions for seeking more information, links, other resources, provide assignments for working with the resource)
“Using Your Imagination” (e.g., Ask questions like “What would happen if…? “Would it be better if…?” and offer suggested strategies for answering the questions such as creating a timeline)

Basically, provide detailed educator-friendly data about given artifacts in a primary source set. Note, this idea is based on the EduPress sets titled "Exploring Primary Sources."

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Sort It Out

Provide artifacts and have students start with a question (e.g., “How have resources and materials changed the way we live and travel?”). Using that question, have students separate them into a pre-defined number of categories. Students have to determine category names and subcategories within the main categories and fit each artifact into their self-selected categories.

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Scavenger Hunt

Ask students to engage in a scavenger hunt where they simply seek the types of resources available in the collection(s). Examples would include newspapers, pictures, videos, statistics, broadsides.

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Life in a Box

Create a packet of six artifacts relating to the life of one individual. The items should be scaffolded in a method leading from more to less obscure and each should be numbered from one to six. Pass around each artifact one time at a time. Have students try to determine the name of the person in the box in the least number of artifacts. When done, have students write how each item relates to the person on the box.

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Video: Introduction to the Library of Commerce Collections

This video was developed by the Library of Congress to introduce patrons to their resources.

Resources on the Revolutionary War

I recommend the following websites for primary source and other content about the American Revolution era:

Movies of Early America: Primary Source Material from 18th Century America: "Famous Moments in Early American History" within the Archiving Early America website provides a wealth of information surrounding the Revolutionary War. The site is rich with videos, pictures, maps, primary sources, and biographies.
American Revolution Animated: This site uses animation to show troop movement during high-profile battles of the Revolution.