Examining primary sources gives one a powerful sense of history and the complexity of the past. Analyzing primary sources can also help to guide you toward higher-order thinking and better critical thinking and analysis skills. Watch the video below by @CommonCraft to help you learn the difference between primary and seconday sources.


What is a Primary Source?
Primary sources are original records of the political, economic, artistic, scientific, social, and
intellectual thoughts and achievements of specific historical periods. Produced by the people
who participated in and witnessed the past, primary sources offer a variety of points of view
and perspectives of events, issues, people, and places. These records can be found anywhere—in a home, a government archive, etc. The important thing to remember is they were used or created by someone with firsthand experience of an event.

Examples of Primary Sources:
Primary sources are not just documents and written records. There are many different kinds of primary sources, including: first-person accounts, documents, physical artifacts, scientific data that has been collected but not interpreted, and face-to-face mentors with specific knowledge or expertise.

Primary sources also take a variety of formats:
Audio—oral histories or memoirs, interviews, music
Images—photographs, videos, film, fine art
Objects—clothing (fashion or uniforms), tools, pottery, gravestones, inventions, weapons, memorabilia
Statistics—census data, population statistics, weather records
Text—letters, diaries, original documents, legal agreements, treaties, maps, laws, advertisements, recipes,
genealogical information, sermons/lectures.

What’s a good way to get started with primary sources? Try using the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool, a graphic organizer that helps you closely examine primary sources and record your ideas in a way that builds understanding.

Click this link to create a copy of the Primary Source Analysys Tool in your drive, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f8xPoGm0jjG1sVJ6vVll6FZn0o10R16xtheGyoUQqXw/copy

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