Curricular Considerations
and Primary Source Documents
Content:
Which documents will you use?
What will students learn from these?
How many text documents will
you want students to read? Why
How long are the text documents?
What is the language like?
What may be observed in the
images? How will they inform students about the topic?
What will students learn by
observing objects and artifacts, by going on field trips, by talking to
experts?
Duration of the Activity:
How much time will be given
to the whole unit?
To this activity?
Over what time period?
How much time will students
be expected to spend with the materials in each sitting?
Resources:
What kind of access to computers,
other technology, books, and other materials do you and your students
have? Is it adequate and reliable? Do you have sufficient help keeping
things working?
What Internet sites will you
use? Why?
What books and other materials
will you use?
What artifacts or experiences
will you use? Why?
Who might children speak with
to get information about the topic? Why?
Target Population:
Think of a particular document
and the students with which you work.
What prior knowledge will
the student have to bring to the document to make sense of it? How will
you support students who don't have it?
What reading and related language
skills will students need to be able to make sense of the document? How
will you support students who don't have these?
How much time do you feel
it should take for your average student to read and process the document?
What will you do to support students who need more time?
What tech skills will students
need? How will you support students who don't have these?
What group work skills will
students need? How will you support students who don't have these?
Methodology:
How will you relate the content
students get in the activity to the whole unit of study?
How will you modify the task(s)
so that there is a good fit between materials and students?
Will you create a frame activity
of which this is part, or is this a stand-alone?
What will motivate the students
in your class to work hard with these materials? Is there some aspect
of the work other than its inherent interest that will engage students?
Assessment:
How will you know whether
each student has understood the goals for the activity?
How will you know what your
students are understanding and learning about the topic when they read
documents, examine images and artifacts, and talk to experts?
How will you know that students
are relating information to concepts, that is, seeing the whole picture?
What instruments will you
use to determine what students have learned?
