Examining the Evidence

Primary Sources, Critical Thinking Skills and the Common Core State Standards

This is a primary source.

It’s ready to be mined for clues.

And even the youngest learners can be detectives.

“Some kids was happy. Some was not.”

“The boys in short pants. We don’t wear short pants.”

Even the youngest learners can develop critical thinking skills.

“Two black kids sitting in the back. This picture was taken in the northern side of the U. S. A.”

Every student can learn that knowledge doesn’t come just from words in textbooks.

And every teacher can meet

important CCSS standards.

William Weaver

social studies

Vy Nguyenspecial

education

Lindsay HaydenAmerican history

Students can learn critical thinking skills far in advance of their reading level.

“My students are reading in the first percentile. If I can use images, I will do it any time I can.”

Vy Nguyenspecial education

“When you put that picture with what they’re experiencing today, it definitely kind of twists their thinking.”

William Weaver social studies

“They really were just excited about the discovery process and were able to piece together a pretty coherent story about a subject we had not covered at all.”

Lindsay HaydenAmerican history

Sam WineburgMargaret Jacks Professor of Education and History, Stanford University Director, Stanford History Education GroupAuthor of Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts

“On one level, the book you are holding is about the reading of primary sources. But on a much deeper level, you are holding a manual for citizenship. . . . This book’s seven strategies sound an alarm that awakens us to our digital world. How should we start? We begin by paying attention. Next, we ask questions.”

The Seven Strategies

Strategy 1: Decide what you’re looking at.

California, 1997. Photo by Bob Nichols

The First Thanksgiving, painted by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris in about 1912.

The Seven Strategies

Strategy 1: Decide what you’re looking at.Strategy 2: Determine the purpose and audience.

Vogue Patterns catalog photo, 2014

The Seven Strategies

Strategy 1: Decide what you’re looking at.Strategy 2: Determine the purpose and audience.Strategy 3: Look for bias.

Newboys who sell in a bar, March 1909. Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee. Library of Congress

The Seven Strategies

Strategy 1: Decide what you’re looking at.Strategy 2: Determine the purpose and audience.Strategy 3: Look for bias.Strategy 4: Examine closely the source itself. Strategy 5: Find more information.

MM: Was it very dusty in the mill?NORMAN: Yeah, it was pretty dusty in the cotton part. That creeling job was something on cotton until they put them fans that run around the track. That would blow the lint off of it. It was terrible until they put that up there. Out there in the cotton winding room, I don't know whether they ever did get anything. Now they did on the twisters, they had them blow things on the twisters that would run around the track. That kept the lint off of the yarn. But now the winding, they'd have to stop off about twice a day and clean up in the cotton winding room.

Oral History Interview with Icy Norman, April 6 and 30, 1979, in Burlington, North Carolina. The interview was conducted by Mary Murphy. Norman is describing a North Carolina cotton mill in the 1920s

Mill work was a wrenching change from farm life. In agriculture the family worked cooperatively to achieve a common goal. They worked hard, but they had more control over the pace of work. In the mills, families labored for bosses who drove them hard for 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week. The factories were noisy, hot and dangerous. Lint floated in the air and collected on the hair and skin of the mill workers. After years of working in the mills many found that the lint had also settled in their lungs. The health problems that resulted could cripple or kill them. Workers who were injured on the job lost pay and sometimes they even lost their jobs.

Library research guide on the Georgia State University website.

The Seven Strategies

Strategy 1: Decide what you’re looking at.Strategy 2: Determine the purpose and audience.Strategy 3: Look for bias.Strategy 4: Examine closely the source itself. Strategy 5: Find more information.Strategy 6: Consider your own role in the interaction.

As part of Global Hand washing Day, two Afghan children help each other wash their hands for improved hygiene. USAID October 15, 2013.

The Seven Strategies

Strategy 1: Decide what you’re looking at.Strategy 2: Determine the purpose and audience.Strategy 3: Look for bias.Strategy 4: Examine closely the source itself. Strategy 5: Find more information.Strategy 6: Consider your own role in the interaction. Strategy 7: Compare a variety of sources.

Brown Jug School, near Des Moines, Iowa, c 1920, Courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society

Oral history project conducted at the Michigan City Public Library in 1977−1978. The subject of the interview is Frank McCullough, who was born in 1907.

Of course, every[one] likes to bad mouth the one-room school, but it wasn’t really all that bad if you had, like I said, a good teacher that could organize and really work hard and could make the classes go. Your classes run from six to eight minutes long for each class; but, for example, suppose that a fella is a pretty sharp kid, boy or girl, and you are in the third grade and you get to listen ahead as to what the fourth grade is doing a year before you get to it, because you got your work done fast and you listened, and then you know how to do the fractions actually a year before you get into fractions, and things like that …

To demonstrate, here’s simple snapshot we found in a junk store . . .

Strategy 1: Decide what you’re looking at.Strategy 2: Determine the purpose and audience.Strategy 4: Examine closely the source itself.

Critical Thinking Skills

analyzinginferringhypothesizinginterpretingdeterminingdecidingexplainingconnectinggeneralizing

Common Core State StandardsCCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 (reading closely)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K-8.1 (asking and answering questions

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K-6.9(comparing and contrasting)

C3 Framework for Social Studies

D2.His.9.K-8. Identify a primary source.

D2.His.11.K-8. Identify or infer the date, place, maker, and purpose of and audience for a primary source.

D2.His.12.K-8. Generate questions about a primary source.

And now for something you’re more likely to see in textbooks . . .

Newsboys, 5 P.M., Times-Star Office, Cincinnati, Ohio, August 1908. Photo by Lewis Hine

The same strategies can be applied to text.

Rose at five. The sun was shining brightly through my window, and I felt vexed with myself that he should have risen before me; I shall not let him have that advantage again very soon. How bright and beautiful are these May mornings! The air is so pure and balmy, the trees are in full blossom, and the little birds sing sweetly. I stand by the window listening to their music, but suddenly remember that I have an Arithmetic lesson which employes me until breakfast; then to school, recited my lessons and commenced my journal. After dinner practised a music lesson, did some sewing, and then took a pleasant walk by the water. I stood for some time admiring the waves as they rose and fell, sparkling in the sun, and could not help envying a party of boys who were enjoying themselves in a sailing boat. On my way home, I stopped at Mrs. Putman’s and commenced reading “Hard Times,” a new story by Dickens ...

Rose at five. The sun was shining brightly through my window, and I felt vexed with myself that he should have risen before me; I shall not let him have that advantage again very soon. How bright and beautiful are these May mornings! The air is so pure and balmy, the trees are in full blossom, and the little birds sing sweetly. I stand by the window listening to their music, but suddenly remember that I have an Arithmetic lesson which employes me until breakfast; then to school, recited my lessons and commenced my journal. After dinner practised a music lesson, did some sewing, and then took a pleasant walk by the water. I stood for some time admiring the waves as they rose and fell, sparkling in the sun, and could not help envying a party of boys who were enjoying themselves in a sailing boat. On my way home, I stopped at Mrs. Putman’s and commenced reading “Hard Times,” a new story by Dickens ...

Rose at five. The sun was shining brightly through my window, and I felt vexed with myself that he should have risen before me; I shall not let him have that advantage again very soon. How bright and beautiful are these May mornings! The air is so pure and balmy, the trees are in full blossom, and the little birds sing sweetly. I stand by the window listening to their music, but suddenly remember that I have an Arithmetic lesson which employes me until breakfast; then to school, recited my lessons and commenced my journal. After dinner practised a music lesson, did some sewing, and then took a pleasant walk by the water. I stood for some time admiring the waves as they rose and fell, sparkling in the sun, and could not help envying a party of boys who were enjoying themselves in a sailing boat. On my way home, I stopped at Mrs. Putman’s and commenced reading “Hard Times,” a new story by Dickens ...

Rose at five. The sun was shining brightly through my window, and I felt vexed with myself that he should have risen before me; I shall not let him have that advantage again very soon. How bright and beautiful are these May mornings! The air is so pure and balmy, the trees are in full blossom, and the little birds sing sweetly. I stand by the window listening to their music, but suddenly remember that I have an Arithmetic lesson which employes me until breakfast; then to school, recited my lessons and commenced my journal. After dinner practised a music lesson, did some sewing, and then took a pleasant walk by the water. I stood for some time admiring the waves as they rose and fell, sparkling in the sun, and could not help envying a party of boys who were enjoying themselves in a sailing boat. On my way home, I stopped at Mrs. Putman’s and commenced reading “Hard Times,” a new story by Dickens ...

It doesn’t have to be history

Kindergarten class, Nam Dimh province, Vietnam, June 2013. Richard Nyberg

Sandstone rock with holes drilled by the sharp shells of Piddock clams. Found on the beach off the coast of Washington state, 2003. Photo by Helen Tracy. Austin/Thompson collection.

The Info You Need

When was the source created?Where was the source created?Who created the source?

Where can you find the original?

This has the info.

This doesn’t.

at the OneHistory.org table, 1125

Display of classroom books that contain primary sources with good information.

We have suggestions . . .

on www.OneHistory.org

Teacher featuresPrintable postersSlide shows for studentsMulticultural quizzesLesson plans

List of classroom books with primary sourcesVisual literacy lessonsMuch more

Seven strategies for understanding primary sources

Powerful primary sources, including historical photos and texts

Link to ELA Common Core State Standards

Practice activities

A list of resources for more support

Seven strategies for understanding primary sources

Powerful primary sources, including historical photos and texts

Link to ELA Common Core State Standards

Practice activities

A list of resources for more support

20 percent discountPlus a DVD of K-8 primary source images

www.onehistory.org

making heard all the voices of American historySupport materials for Examining the Evidence

are available at www.onehistory/org/examining.htm