Name: Date: Score:

SECONDARY SOURCES: These are sources that talks about or makes sense of the primary sources. These
sources assign value, conjecture upon, draw conclusions, or interpret the events discussed in the primary
source. These sources are from after the primary sources have occurred.
DEFINING QUESTIONS:
What is the value of the source and how do we learn about the nature of the source? Consider the following:
Are the authors conclusions based on a single piece of evidence or have many sources been taken into
account?
How does the author know these details? Where does the author acquire the: who, what, when, where?
Where does this information come from? Does it come from personal experience, eyewitness accounts, or
reports written by others?
Material acquired from: University of California, Santa Cruz, History Unfolding, and Teacher Created
Materials
PRIMARY SOURCES: These happened (or were written) at the same time as the historic event. These are the
original documents that include diaries, interviews, journals, letters, manuscripts, magazine articles,
memoirs, newspapers, photographs, speeches, and video recordings. These sources are from the time
period!

KEY CONCEPTS AND STRATEGIES
Analyze the sources reliability
Learn to detect and use the bias in the sources. Bias is not a bad thing!
Recognize the importance of your background knowledge!
Make Reasonable inferences about the sources!
Learn to deal with conflict among the sources.

STUDYING DOCUMENTS
What kind of document is it?
Describe the physical characteristics or qualities of the document.
Who created the document?
When was the document created?
Why was the document created?
For whom was the document written?
What is the purpose of the document?
What evidence helps you to understand they it was written?
What background knowledge do you use to help you understand this source or to help understand
the bias of the source?



STUDYING IMAGES
Is there a caption or title? What is that caption or title?
List the objects and/or people that you see. Can you identify these objects/people?
If there are people, what are they doing? Why are they performing that action(s)?
Are their words/signs in the image? If so, what are they?
What can you learn from the image/photograph?
Does the image/photo have color? If so, is the color important?
What symbols are used?
Who created this image/photograph?
For whom is this image/photograph created?
For what purpose is this image/photograph created?
MAPS AND CHARTS
Is the map/chart drawn or printed?
Are there any dates?
What is the scale?
What information does the legend/key provide?
Why was this created?
What information is left out?

Notes: