College Board
Evaluating Sources: How Credible Are They?
How can learners evaluate research sources for authority, accuracy, and credibility? By completing readings, discussions, and graphic organizers, scholars learn how to properly evaluate sources to find credible information. Additionally,...
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Medieval Sourcebook: History Through Primary Sources
This site from the Medieval Sourcebook answers the question: Why Study History Through Primary Sources? It provides complete information, a list of review questions, and bibliography information.
Library of Congress
Loc: History Firsthand: Primary Source Research
History Firsthand has been designed to provide elementary children with experiences which enable them to begin understanding primary sources. Students move from personal artifacts to the vast American Memory collections and learn how...
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Personal Stories and Primary Sources
Students will explore the value of personal stories and first-hand accounts when exploring history, in this case, the events of the early twentieth century, which included World War I and the Great Depression. Through this five-unit...
University of California
Cal Heritage Collection: Using Primary Sources
This resource covers what primary sources are, where we can find them, and how we can assess them in the classroom.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Exploration of the Americas
This collection uses primary sources to explain the early exploration of the Americas.
National Archives (UK)
The National Archives: 19th Century Prison Ships
Examine the primary sources provided by Great Britain's National Archives to discover the state of the prison system in late 18th century Great Britain, and the conditions on the prison ships used because of the prison system. Read court...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Voting Rights for Women: Pro and Anti Suffrage
This website from EDSITEment has a lesson plan that examines the push and pushback for voting rights for women. Using primary sources such as political cartoons and letters, find out why people were opposed to universal suffrage, and...
Stanford University
Stanford History Education Group: The Black Death in Florence
[Free Registration/Login Required] Website with "reading like a historian" lessons about the Black Death in Florence for teachers using primary resources in the classroom.
Lumen Learning
Lumen: Finding and Evaluating Research Sources
This lesson focuses on how to find, evaluate, and use primary and secondary sources using printed and online sources. It provides practice writing activities such as examining the same topic through primary and secondary sources and...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Albert Parsons Sac
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students use primary source documents to investigate central historical questions. In this investigation, students read six different sources that provide insight into what happened at Haymarket Square...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: John Brown
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students use primary source documents to investigate central historical questions. In this investigation, students must determine whether John Brown was a "misguided fanatic," by examining a speech by...
Ohio State University
Ohio State University: Cold Cases: Lessons in Historical Skills and Methods
Lessons using primary sources to figure out what happened in the past allows students to examine and perhaps crack the mysteries that swirl around Byrd and his expedition to Antarctica to this day. Primary sources are available on the...
Stanford University
Stanford History Education Group: Great Migration
[Free Registration/Login Required] Using primary sources, students will form their own conclusions as to why African-Americans moved north in large numbers during the early 1900's. Included in this lesson plan is a PowerPoint to use for...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Eleanor Roosevelt on Democracy and Citizenship
[Free Registration/Login Required] Use this lesson to teach how to use primary sources, in this case a speech, a letter, and an article, to show Eleanor Roosevelt's dedication to democracy, civil rights, and education. All the materials...
Other
Kid Citizen: Snap a Photo: Agent of Change
How did photographers help convince Congress to pass child labor laws? This module explores some of Lewis Hine's photographs that exposed children's working conditions and advocated for child labor laws to protect them. In this tutorial,...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Using Historic Digital Newspapers for National History Day
In this lesson plan, students will consider "Using Historic Digital Newspapers for National History Day." The plan includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Treasures: Benjamin Franklin: In His Own Words
Learn about the life and contributions of Benjamin Franklin by examining his letters, books, cartoons, speeches, and manuscripts. An excellent resource for teaching and learning about the history of the United States using primary source...
Library of Virginia
Virginia Memory: The Battle of Yorktown Sort It Sets
For this lesson, students examine why the Battle of Yorktown was a turning point in the Revolutionary War using primary sources.
Library of Congress
Loc: u.s. Participation in the Great War (World War One)
A comprehensive overview of the Progressive Era to New Era (1900-1929) through the use of primary sources provided by the Library of Congress, with concentration on World War One. Through these documents, the effects of the war on...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Using Artifacts
View an engraving and two photographs from U.S. history. As you view these resources, think about what you can identify and interpret through the images, and what kinds of questions you might generate if you were using these images to...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Lewis & Clark's Expedition to the Complex West
This activity can be used as an introduction or for a closer study of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Students will learn that the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803 and President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and...
Library of Congress
Loc: American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
This collection provides a unique view of American History using items such as posters, business cards, flyers, catalogs, advertisements and leaflets. These items capture experiences from important turning points such as the American...
Other
Eastern Illinois Univ.: Childhood Lost: Child Labor During Industrial Revolution
A unit on child labor during the Industrial Revolution. The focus is on using primary resources to learn about this issue and this time in American history. Includes many images and documents. The unit is cross-curricular with activities...