Primary sources are powerful tools in the classroom. Pamphlets, posters, letters, eyewitness accounts, essays and letters written by intellectuals, artifacts like photographs, newsreels or coins – any original material that hasn’t been altered or distorted is a primary source. These items offer students the raw material they need to exercise their abilities to analyze a text independently, to think critically about it and to make their own hypotheses.

 
Patricia Russac, a teacher librarian at an independent elementary school in New York, says using primary sources helps develop skills for deconstructing information. The ability to decode is crucial to understanding meaning and giving context to content.

“Using them can be complex for K-5,” she says, “but the payoff is worth the effort. Students presented with primary sources are building context for what they’re learning. When they go to do more research, the foundation is there.”

Via theASIDEblog