"Teaching with Colorado's Heritage"
Module 13: Creating Great Lessons Using Primary Source Materials - But Avoiding the Pitfalls

Creating a lesson that uses primary source materials for use in Colorado's classrooms requires proper alignment to Colorado Model Content Standards (note: some districts have revised these state standards). This process is explained below. We also suggest a list of components that make a lesson complete, and facilitate sharing with other educators. Example lessons that integrate primary source materials have been developed by Colorado educators in a series of workshops in 2002-2003.

STEP 1: Aligning the Lesson
When developing a lesson it is important to begin by developing the pieces below to ensure proper alignment:

• Focus of lesson: what is the purpose of your lesson, i.e. what are students to learn from the lesson?
• Standards Assessed: What standards and benchmarks are you aligning your lesson with?
  • Colorado Subject Model Content Standards
  • Colorado Information Literacy Standards
• Assessment: What is your plan for assessing your students? See Robert Marzano on Assessment.
  
• Standards Addressed: What other standards will you be teaching in your unit?
• Subject/Level: What will be the subject and grade level of your lesson?

STEP 2: Outlining the active part of the lesson
Create a general outline of what the students will be doing in the lesson. What types of primary sources will help students accomplish this activity?

STEP 3: Selecting Sources
Review types of primary sources and then go to Primary Source Links for numerous high-quality sites for primary source materials.

• Maps- lessons on historical, geographical, environmental topics, developing observational skills
• Photos- great for younger students, developing observational skills and inferences, further analysis through research
• Documents and Texts- more challenging, will the student read the entire text or an excerpt? If an excerpt is taken remember to fill in missing content so they can understand it in its true context. Reading Strategies to review- word splash; knowledge rating; It says, I say, and so; 6 Traits of writing;
• Material culture (3-Dimensional objects)- great for younger students, good introduction to primary sources
• American Memory has created overviews of the different types of primary sources and how they can be used:
  • Types of Primary Sources,
  • Using Primary Sources in the Classroom

Considerations
When selecting primary sources to use in the lesson, keep the following in mind:
• Use primary sources that are appropriate for developmental level of students.
• Use primary sources in a way that requires students to think critically, analyze and/or synthesize information.
• Present the metadata (biobliographic information) with every primary source used.
• It is important to consider the reliability of a primary source. Consider the 'time and place rule' (the closer to the time and place of creation the more reliable the primary source) and the bias of the creator. For an example of a lesson evaluating the reliability of primary sources, visit: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/psources/analyze.html (Review Module 3)
• Primary sources often reflect the viewpoint of the creator and era. Sometimes they reflect racist or sexist material. How will you sensitively address this issue? Will you be teaching your students about biased viewpoints? (Review Module 7)
• If you are using an excerpt of a document, consider filling in the missing information so students can understand the context of the excerpt. (Review Module 11)
  
• Use graphic organizers, such as analysis guides to help organize the thoughts of students as they learn to analyze primary sources (Review Module 7). You can use one of the following analysis guides in your lesson. Alternatively, you can adapt one to meet your needs or create one of your own:
  • Primary Source Analysis Guide,
  • Media Analysis Tools (American Memory)
  • Document Analysis Worksheets (NARA)

STEP 4: Creating the Lesson
Once you have completed Steps 1-3, create the pieces of the lesson listed below. Refer to the following example of these portions of a lesson.

• Lesson Title
• Time- How many class periods will the lesson be taught in? How long are the class periods.
• Materials/Teacher Preparation Section- the technology, handouts, chart paper, text resources, etc. needed to complete the lesson. Include what you need to do to prepare ahead of time for your students to complete the lesson.
• Possible Procedures- what will your students be doing in the lesson? The assessment assignment should be included here. For research-based information about lesson design that helps students learn, refer to Julie's Brain on Learning, and Robert Marzano on ...Assessment in the extension section below, as well as Best Practices in Teaching.
• Support Materials- handouts, worksheets, documents, etc. needed to support the teaching of the lesson.

  Consider

• What resources will you provide for your students to answer questions they have about the primary sources and to determine if their inferences are accurate?
• What will you provide in terms of supplemental reading, websites to investigate, bibliographic information, other primary or secondary sources, and how much library time will be available?

STEP 5: Technology Check
Answer the following questions and then incorporate the appropriate information into your lesson:

• How will your students access primary sources used in lessons?
• Will they have internet access or will you provide copies of the primary source?
• If they have internet access, will you provide the source, the sites to search, or will they do searches on their own? This will depend on technology you have available, age of students, and the focus of the lesson.

• Will you be considering the quality of the websites? Refer to Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

• Keep in mind that school computers may be filtered. Will these sites be available for your students. If you prepare your lesson at home, make sure that the same websites are available through your school computers.

STEP 6: The Big Picture
Once you have completed your lesson, take a step back and consider:

• Do I have all of the components listed for the lesson?
• Are my lesson and assessment aligned to each other and to standards?
• Have I addressed all learning modalities and best practices?
• Have I used primary sources that require students to think critically?
• Have I used primary sources that are developmentally appropriate for the age of the students?

Extension

Robert Marzano on . . . Assessment (Marzano, 2002)

• Address in the assessment only what is necessary to learn.
• Good assessment for students, parents and teachers provides immediate and accurate feedback.
• Assessment should be OF learning and FOR learning.
• Consider the factors that motivate students - they should be found in the assessment.

Julie's Brain on Learning (Jensen, 1998)

Neural History
• Increased motor activity, arts, music, choices, challenges and feedback
• Socialize students through well-orchestrated group work

Learning Context

• Allow for a wider range of emotional expression - more drama, open discussions, celebration
• Provide an outlet for emotional expression through discussion, singing, sharing, writing, music or drawing
• Activities - open-class discussion, journal writing, stretching, paired discussions, mind mapping, listening to music, reflecting, games

  Acquisition

• Direct instruction in short bursts - no longer than the age of the learner
• Key ideas, directions, lecturettes, reviews, stories, closing
• Student time - processing, projects, discussions, group work, partner work, self-assessment, journal writing, feedback, design, research, mapping, interviews, review, constructing knowledge
• Students who do the talking and doing do the learning!
  

Elaboration

• Feedback from multiple sources - peer editing, discussiokns, student-generated rubrics, answer sheets, pair-share, video or audiotaping, predictions, journal writing, outside speakers, reference materials
  

Encoding

• Engage appropriate emotions through better role modeling, competitions, journal writing, celebrations, dramas, creative writing, humor, student presentations, impending deadlines
  

Increasing Brain Power

• Frederick Goodwin of NIH estimates that we can influence students' IQs 20 points in either direction!

References
Adapted from Jensen, Eric, (1998), "How Julie's Brain Learns", at Educational Leadership, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Alexandria, VA.

Marzano, Robert (2002) ASCD Book Appendix C.3