Thinking Like a Historian: Observing and Sourcing a Personal Document or Artifact

Thinking Like a Historian: Observing and Sourcing a Personal Document or Artifact is a highly engaging and interactive mini-unit of 4 or 5 days for 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. It is designed to have your students work collaboratively as historians to look at primary source documents and artifacts as evidence from their lives. In the process, they will learn the kinds of questions to ask about historical artifacts and documents to help them interpret their meaning and importance.

The purpose of this lesson is to help them understand how historians interpret evidence, especially from primary source documents as well as artifacts. 

The lesson introduces or reviews key concepts and terms: primary source and secondary source documents, artifacts, evidence, and interpretation.  It also provides teachers with an opportunity to introduce or review what it means to work collaboratively in small groups to make meaning of documents or artifacts. Finally, students will reflect on their experience and what they learned.

The mini-unit includes objectives and learning targets aligned with Common Core Standards of Literacy in History, a detailed lesson plan, student worksheets for analyzing personal documents/ and artifacts, a sample chart for group work collaboration, and a student reflection worksheet for them to reflect on their experience as a historian. In addition, I include a parent/guardian letter in English and Spanish explaining the unit.

Objectives

• Students will define key historical concepts and terms: primary source, secondary source, artifacts, evidence, and interpretation.

• Students will give examples of what primary source and secondary source documents are.

• Students will give examples of artifacts.

• Students will examine personal primary source documents and artifacts and will ask questions about the documents to help them understand the historical significance of it or its meaning.

• Students will do a close read or close examination for evidence about the document or artifact and interpret what it means and what it reveals about their family, culture, the person or people involved, etc.

• Students will “source” a document or artifact to evaluate its credibility and point of view by asking questions about who wrote or created it, when, why, and for what purpose or audience.

• Students will explain how to work collaboratively with their classmates. 

• Students will identify the key historical descriptors (tools and skills) they most connected with and why.

• Students will reflect on their experience of thinking like a historian.

Standards

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

14-page editable Word doc

Resources:

Detailed lesson plan

Student worksheet: Observing and Sourcing a Personal Document/Artifact

Student worksheet: Reflecting on My Experience Thinking Like a Historian

Letters in English and Spanish for parents and guardians explaining this unit

Sample Collaborative Group Work Chart (what collaborative group work looks like, sounds like, and feels like) created in my classroom