TPS:BASICS
Teaching With Primary Sources:
A Beginning Asynchronous Individualized Course of Study

Overview

Teachers have always used primary sources such as maps and historic paintings to supplement the secondary sources provided in textbooks. It is a way to engage student in the active participation of learning by doing. Primary sources are useful in fostering understanding because they are both a puzzle and one piece of a puzzle. They encourage inquiry, require interpretation, represent a perspective, and connect to our experiences in life. Learning experiences that use primary sources to help students connect to big ideas, support theories, and create real world products are likely to challenge students to use knowledge and skills to build understanding.

Objectives: During this workshop session, participants will:

1. o   Consider the use of primary source documents in differentiated instruction
2. o   Consider teaching and learning for understanding with primary source documents
3. o   Develop investigative questions and understanding goals for Library of Congress primary source documents.

Learning Activities:

1. Activities for the Instructional Cycle - Here are ideas for selecting and incorporating primary sources into four phases of instruction: Focus, Inquiry, Application, and Assessment.
2. Northern Virginia Teaching With Primary Sources Program. (2005). Best Practices Bulletin:  Differentiated Instruction: Secondary.  Retrieved March 25, 2008 from http://www.primarysourcelearning.org/teach/best_practices/diff_instruct_bulletin_sec.pdf
3. Northern Virginia Teaching With Primary Sources Program. (2005). Best Practices Bulletin: Learning For Understanding With Primary Sources.  Retrieved March 25, 2008 from http://www.primarysourcelearning.org/teach/best_practices/teach_understanding_bulletin.pdf
4. Primary Source Documents Analysis Tools To Use In Developing Teaching for Understanding Activities and Lessons

• Photo Analysis Guide
• Audio File Listening Guide
• Print Document Analysis Guide
• Map Analysis Tool
• Music Analysis Tool
• Poetry Analysis Tool

5. After reviewing a model activity (Zoom In To American History) and lesson plan (Caesar Rodney Differentiated Lesson Plan) create investigative questions and understanding goals for a primary source document that you have located in the Library of Congress archives. Note: Download the following Microsoft Word documents to complete the activity.
   1) Caesar Rodney Differentiated Lesson Plan
   2) ZoomIn Worksheet
   3) ZoomIn Example
   4) ZoomIn Description
   

Please download the following resources, examine them, store them for references, and complete any activites they present in order to complete this module of the workshop:

1) Lesson Framework
2) Bloom and TPS
3) Differentiation and TPS News
4) Literacy and TPS News
5) Lesson Plan - TPS Template
6) Bibliographic Organizer

Content provided by:

WAYNESBURG UNIVERSITY

Eastern Region Teaching With Primary Sources Partner
Ann B. Canning, Ed.D.
©2009