Teacher

Toolkit

Using primary sources

There are many Internet locations that contain helpful information for using primary sources in the classroom. They include The Learning Page at the Library of Congress' American Memory site and The Digital Classroom at the National Archives and Records Administration site.

Finding documents in the American Memory collections

The finding documents tutorial demonstrates searching and browsing techniques for those who want to examine the collections from which the documents in the lesson are drawn.

Interpreting primary sources in this lesson

The interpreting primary sources tutorial looks at three different kinds of documents used in the lesson to consider commonly encountered problems of interpretation.

Citations of Internet sources

Citing Internet sources in formal papers is an evolving art! Three places to begin learning about citation styles are: A Brief Citation Guide for Internet Sources in History and the Humanities by Melvin E. Page, Online!: A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources by Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger, and The Columbia Guide to Online Style by Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor.

Cautionary note

The primary sources used in this lesson often contain inappropriate stereotyping. They are included because they often provide documentation, however, distorted, that is otherwise unobtainable. In addition, much can be learned about the attitudes of an era by considering the messages--intended and unintended--contained in document titles, descriptions, and ways of portraying people.