Primary Sources

Reading the articles on primary sources was very interesting. The first two articles were the articles that caught my attention the most. Having actual artifacts and documents or examples, make learning about it so much fun and engaging. Students must first understand the difference between primary sources and secondary sources to first understand whats the difference.

After reading the first article it gave me a lot of ideas on things I can do differently and similar in my social studies class. Teaching social studies, the learning should be hands on and incorporate different activities and artifacts so students will be eager to learn. Like in the article, it states how Library of Congress can have information for teachers and also students.

I really did like the idea of using pictures, you can have student compare and contrast different things, relate it to the students and real life situations. You can have students do various things: circle this, explain this, describe this, etc. Having students first observe an artifact is the first step, they just look at the object. Then they can talk about what they see, when they talk about it they may start to ask questions and make guesses. Then students will form addtional questions if they have any and start to make connections.

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"We often hear social studies teachers in middle and high school say they wish that students entered their classrooms already knowing how to observe, speculate, provide evidence for their thinking, and ask good questions" (Wesson). Why not start these stages early in our students to observe, question, and make connections, to have them ready by middle and high school ?