Contextualization is the process of making sense of a primary source within the time and place it was created. It's a skill that involves connecting one's prior knowledge of history to a given document. Historians use the skill of contextualization to make meaning out of sources and to fit them into historical schema.
Like any other skill, contextualization requires practice. Students may need direction, prompting, and support to connect an unfamiliar photograph, document, or artifact to a topic they've learned about before.
Furthermore, contextualization requires at least some degree of background knowledge. Depending on the goal of your lesson, students might need a quick crash course or refresher in the time period or place relevant to the primary source they're investigating.
Watch HGSE lecturer Dr. Eric Soto-Shed outline three strategies to give students context for primary sources:
Provide an informational mini-lecture or handout;
Create a brief headnote on top of the primary source;
Ask questions to prompt students to connect to past learning.
Watch Harvard historian Dr. Jarvis Givens outline ways students can make connections between a new primary source and broader themes that they've encountered in their units of study.