Goals:
1.Students will learn to recognize primary sources.
2.Students will develop an understanding of the use and value of primary sources.
3.Students will understand the terms: primary document, secondary document, and transcription.
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Objectives:
1. Students will view primary source documents and make inferences from them
2. Students will list documents in their own life that may become primary documents to future historians
3. Students will complete a sentence with each of the terms: primary document, secondary document, and transcription Motivational Goals: Maintain interest in the research process Promote value of information skills
1. Computer file folder containing all of the components to a "web lesson"...this webpage can be opened by pointing the browser to http://www.siscinfo.com/ist504/index.htm
2. Job aid relating History/primary and secondary sources
3. Checklist worksheet for responses to the web resources that are accessed. Computers with internet access are needed, at least one for every pair of students.
Introduction
1.Students will be greeted, and told that they will be working on the computers today, but before they get started, they're going to play a game.
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2.Students should line up in a long single line. They will play a game of "telephone". The LMS will whisper a complex phrase into the ear of the first student in line, who will turn to the next student and repeat the phrase in a whisper, and so on. The first and the last students will then compare the phrase they heard.
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3.Explain that the game illustrates a fact of life - the more people that a message passes through, the more garbled and changed the message can get. Talk about how Tall Tales were created, (this should be review), maybe starting from a normal event, but being exaggerated and stretched, with wild details added for fun. The more often the tale is told, the wilder it can get. Contrast this with the way historians study history - they don't want the facts to be exaggerated like a tall tale, or garbled like in the telephone game. That is why historians are especially interested in Primary Sources.
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Materials: None
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Body
1.Show students the Job-aid about History, Primary Sources and Secondary Sources. Mention examples of each (primary: letters, diaries, photos, articles of clothing, things that have survived the past) (secondary: textbooks, books about history, historical fiction. You can mention that these may contain primary sources along with secondary material).
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2. Tell the students that when they go on the computers, they will be working in pairs to complete a "Web Lesson". In order to learn about primary sources, they will be looking at some primary sources from the Library of Congress collection.
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3. The Web Lesson will ask them to be historians and find out some things from looking at the primary sources, and will ask them to imagine life in the time of Abraham Lincoln.
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4. Tell them when they're done, they will know more about Primary Sources, and also they will know some things about Abraham Lincoln and his family.
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5. At this point, hand out the Checklist, (one to each pair), tell them to write both their names, and explain that they should fill it out as they go through the Web Lesson.
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6. Students should log on and use their web browser to open index.html in the folder where the Web Lesson is stored (following instructions on white board or handout the LMS prepared).
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7. Students should follow the instructions on the screen and work through the lesson, with the teacher circulating to give help when needed.
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Methods, media, materials: computers, Checklist handout, Instructions to open Web Lesson index.html file written on White board or similar, Job-Aid: History/Primary/Secondary, computer file folder containing all components of the Web Lesson (temporarily, this is residing at: http://www.siscinfo.com/ist504/index.htm )
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Conclusion
1. When the students are done with the Web Lesson, discuss the last question with them - what ideas did they have for primary sources that might help a future historian study our time?
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2. Collect the Checklists for assessment.
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3. Ask the students to review what kinds of documents are included in the term "primary sources", why historians use them, and how they differ from secondary sources.