Head of Archives & Special Collections
Library and Learning Commons, 3rd floor
Norman F. Martin Reading Room
Teaching with Archival Materials
Primary sources, such as those kept in Archives & Special Collections, allow students to have hands-on experience using and researching the products of history. Primary sources can also appeal to a variety of learning styles -- some students may work better with photograph collections, while others find their strengths in analyzing oral histories. In the following video (5:57), I talk about things to keep in mind when you're teaching with primary sources. This video was originally created for Harold Hoyle's Fall 2020 EDUC 289A Social Science Methods course.
Resources for Educators
Confronting Hard History
In the following video (1:02:54), Confronting Hard History: Using Primary Sources to Teach Slavery, Civil Rights, Black Lives Matter, Dr. Hasan Jeffries, Associate Professor of History at Ohio State University, discusses how primary sources can be used to help students think critically about past events and link them to things happening today. He stresses the importance of overcoming the empathy gap that can exist between students of today and people of the past. He also talks about how examining narratives of resistance, either as depicted in sources or "between the lines," can connect students to the humanity of people of the past. Dr. Jeffries' introduction starts at 4:01. If you only have time to watch one video about teaching with archives, I would recommend this one.
Dr. Jeffries also has a shorter TED Talk (13:10) titled Why we must confront the painful parts of US history that addresses many of the same issues.
Omeka Projects
Omeka is an online exhibit platform that allows users to upload and showcase materials including documents and images. It is commonly used to share digitized archival resources online. The following is a list of Omeka projects that include primary sources and lesson plans and/or learning modules for use with students.
- Children & Youth in HistoryAs per their website, 'Children & Youth in History is a world history resource that provides teachers and students with access to sources about young people from the past to the present.' This Omeka site includes primary sources, case studies, and teaching modules.
- Making the History of 1989This Omeka project is about the fall of Communism in eastern Europe. It includes over 300 primary sources, teaching modules, and case studies that include teaching strategies.
- Teaching with Laurel Grove SchoolAs per the site, 'The Laurel Grove School in Franconia, Virginia is a restored one room “colored” schoolhouse built in the 1880s during Jim Crow Segregation by ordinary but astonishing people from the first generation born to freedom. With generous funding from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and in close collaboration with historians, museum professionals, teachers, and digital history experts from the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, we have created six standards-based, primary-source-rich history lessons.'
Other Resources
Other podcasts, videos, and websites devoted to teaching with archival materials.
- Teaching Hard Histories podcastDescription from website: "What we don’t know about American history hurts us all. Teaching Hard History begins with the long and brutal legacy of chattel slavery and reaches through the victories of and violent responses to the civil rights movement to the present day. From Teaching Tolerance and host Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Teaching Hard History brings us the lessons we should have learned in school through the voices of leading scholars and educators. It’s good advice for teachers and good information for everybody."
- Teaching ToleranceA project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators with the goal of creating civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants. Their "program emphasizes social justice and anti-bias. The anti-bias approach encourages children and young people to challenge prejudice and learn how to be agents of change in their own lives."
- Teaching Tolerance - Social Justice StandardsFrom the site: "The Social Justice Standards are a road map for anti-bias education at every stage of K–12 instruction. Comprised of anchor standards and age-appropriate learning outcomes, the Standards provide a common language and organizational structure educators can use to guide curriculum development and make schools more just and equitable."
Tools & Strategies For Students
Tools and Strategies to Use with Students
The following links includes tools and strategies that you can integrate into lesson plans for use with students.
- Document Analysis WorksheetsFrom the National Archives, these free, downloadable worksheets ask specific questions depending on the type of material being presented with. They're a great jumping-off point to get your students thinking about what a material depicts and the possible reasons a material was created.
- Primary Source Analysis ToolFrom the Library of Congress, this is a simple tool that encourages students to analyze any type of primary source. There are also medium-specific worksheets available.
- Engaging Students with Primary SourcesFrom the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's Kenneth E. Behring Center, this 64-page booklet provides an introduction to primary sources, breaks them down by type, and provides tips and activities for interpreting these materials.
- Visual Thinking Strategies for Improved ComprehensionFrom the website: The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) method "is a very simple activity designed to build students' background knowledge and develop thinking skills that use detail to enhance understanding. Many educators have used this method as a precursor to working on a literary passage because the thinking skills used to analyze artwork can be transferred to literature as well."