Finding+Local+Primary+Sources

Personal, local, and state history does not occur in a vacuum. Artifacts are created all of the time that give valuable insight into the time period in which they are created. The goal of this lesson would be to help students locate and evaluate primary sources and use that experience to understand more about local, state, and national history.


 * 1) Give the students instruction in primary source documents and go through a few samples to see what they look like and how they teach us.
 * 2) Discuss places to locate primary sources in your community.
 * Newspaper archives
 * Local government records
 * Letters that residents have
 * Photos that residents have
 * Church archives
 * Chamber of Commerce archives
 * 1) Send the students out to find primary sources.
 * Give them a letter of introduction that explains the project and what will be done with the primary sources
 * Scan text and photographic resources
 * Photograph articles
 * Collect information about the resource that might not be included with it, such as the names of people in pictures, or the date.
 * 1) Work as groups to evaluate and document the resources, including ways to preserve them and to make them available to others.
 * Build a website or wiki to make the resources available digitally.
 * 1) Discuss what was learned from the primary sources that the students worked with.
 * 2) Promote the availability of these new resources within the school, community, government agencies, etc.
 * City council meetings
 * Community fairs and celebrations
 * Local museums

There is an excellent lesson plan, with resources, that covers this idea. However, I couldn't find their Arkansas archive anymore. []