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As a U.S. Historical past instructor one my main targets was to assist college students perceive the previous to know the place we (People) got here from to know how we bought right here and to, hopefully, keep away from errors of the previous. To that finish, I continuously had college students learn excerpts from main supply paperwork. Typically that meant confronting language and sentiments whereas frequent on the time of writing could be fully unacceptable in the event that they have been written right now. Confronting main supply paperwork whose content material if written right now could be fully unacceptable turns into a really teachable second by way of serving to college students perceive the context (bodily in addition to political and cultural) during which the paperwork have been written. It is also a possibility to show how and why change occurred. It’s troublesome to show with main sources if college students do not first absolutely perceive the variations between main and secondary sources. That is yearly that I taught U.S. Historical past started with classes on figuring out main and finding main supply paperwork. To that finish, I’ve just a few assets that helped me assist my college students and I hope will assist you to as effectively. Evaluate textbooks, main sources, and Wikipedia.It is a fairly easy exercise that I’ve carried out through the years as an introduction to the worth of main sources. Within the exercise I present college students with a textbook entry, a Wikipedia entry, and a main supply doc about the identical occasion or matter. I then have them learn all three and examine the details about the occasion. The define of questions for college students is out there in this Google Doc that I created.Guided studying of main sources by way of Google Paperwork.Considered one of my favourite methods to make use of the commenting characteristic in Google Paperwork is to host on-line discussions round a shared article. By means of the usage of feedback related to highlighted sections of an article I can information college students to necessary factors, ask them questions, and permit them to ask clarifying questions concerning the article. All of the steps for this course of are outlined in Utilizing Google Paperwork to Host On-line Discussions of Main Sources. A variation on this exercise could be accomplished with Formative. I outlined that course of right here.
Disclosure: I’ve a long-standing in-kind relationship with Widespread Craft.
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