Teaching Primary Sources Provides Rigor, Access, and Relevance for All Students

Primary sources increase rigor because of the effort required to make meaning from these pieces of history.

• Primary sources may support multiple and novel interpretations.

• Primary sources demand investigation of themselves as artifacts and of the contexts that produced them.

• Primary sources are up for interpretation and require the use of evidence to justify students' thinking.

• They naturally cross subject areas and allow students to bring a wide range of expertise to their interpretation.

Primary sources are literally fragments of life, so they are relevant to our personal experiences.

• Making connections to previous knowledge and experiences is a key factor for successful learning.

• Learners can relate to primary sources on a variety of levels, including their past experiences or background knowledge about a time and place.

• Primary sources inspire question and curiosity.

• They are mysteries that learners with all levels of experience can solve.

Primary sources are accessible to students with a wide range of interests, strengths, and learning needs.

• Primary sources provide a concrete object or image to look at and refer to, allowing learners to point to the evidence that they see in the primary source.

• Primary sources come in many different formats that contain multiple levels of complexity.

• Primary sources can easily be modified in a digital format to add supports and extensions.

• Students may be inspired by primary sources to learn more and research a topic more deeply.