Exploration 12: Big Ideas of a Primary Source Learning Design

Understanding Goal

Sharing work and offering feedback to other educators builds a professional community.

Investigative Question

Why write about primary source-based classroom Lesson Plans with students?

Background Information

Writing about primary source-based learning experiences enables educators to:

• reflect on student learning related to an Investigative Question and Understanding Goal
• examine student work to determine how primary sources contributed to the development of student content knowledge and literacy skills
• document teaching achievements
• build on the collective expertise of a professional community of educators

There are five main parts of primary source-based Lesson Plans

• Understanding Goal
• Investigative Question
• Description of Teacher Actions
• Analysis
• Reflections and Recommendations

These main parts are explained through explorations in this chapter. To create a primary source-based Lesson Plan, begin by identifying a topic.

Patron actions

Steps to identifying a topic

1. Reflect on current practice and identify portions of lessons, lessons, or units that would benefit from renovation.
2. Consider units of study that might be enhanced with primary sources. The units may lack multiple perspectives, depth in content or instructional resources that hook or intrigue students.
3. Compare the list of units and lessons that might benefit from renovation or the inclusion of primary sources with the knowledge of the content available at LOC.gov .
4. Identify potential units to develop Lesson Plans.