Critical Thinking About Sources

Primary Sources

“Primary sources are original materials. They are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation. Primary sources are original materials on which other research is based. They are usually the first formal appearance of results in physical, print or electronic format. They present original thinking, report a discovery, or share new information.”  (Definition taken from the LIB101 powerpoint)

Pirmary Source Examples:

• Texts of laws and other original documents.
• Newspaper reports, by reporters who witnessed an event or who quote people who did.
• Speeches, diaries, letters and interviews - what the people involved said or wrote.
• Original research.
• Datasets, survey data, such as census or economic statistics.
• Photographs, video, or audio that capture an event.

Secondary Sources

“Secondary sources are less easily defined than primary sources. Generally, they are accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. They are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence...Context is everything”  (Definition taken from the LIB101 powerpoint)

Secondary Source Examples:

• Most books about a topic.
• Analysis or interpretation of data.
• Scholarly or other articles about a topic, especially by people not directly involved.
• Documentaries (though they often include photos or video portions that can be considered primary sources).

Using Primary Sources : Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects which were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience.

Examining primary sources gives students a powerful sense of history and the complexity of the past. Helping students analyze primary sources can also guide them toward higher-order thinking and better critical thinking and analysis skills.

Engage students with primary sources.

Draw on students’ prior knowledge of the topic.

Ask students to closely observe each primary source.

• Who created this primary source?
• When was it created?
• Where does your eye go first?

Help students see key details.

• What do you see that you didn’t expect?
• What powerful words and ideas are expressed?

Encourage students to think about their personal response to the source.

• What feelings and thoughts does the primary source trigger in you?
• What questions does it raise?

Promote student inquiry.

Encourage students to speculate about each source, its creator, and its context.

• What was happening during this time period?
• What was the creator’s purpose in making this primary source?
• What does the creator do to get his or her point across?
• What was this primary source’s audience?
• What biases or stereotypes do you see?

Ask if this source agrees with other primary sources, or with what the students already know.

• Ask students to test their assumptions about the past.
• Ask students to find other primary or secondary sources that offer support or contradiction.

Assess how students apply critical thinking and analysis skills to primary sources.

Have students summarize what they’ve learned.

• Ask for reasons and specific evidence to support their conclusions.
• Help students identify questions for further investigation, and develop strategies for how they might answer them.