Analyzing Primary Sources

Students analyze primary source documents and then write letters for and against legislation related to migrant labor.

The students will use American World War I propaganda posters to evaluate how individual citizens were encouraged to support the war effort. Students will work both individually and cooperatively during the course of this lesson.

Activities that help students think and work like historians

Students will use Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Henri Barbusse's Under Fire, and letters written home by American soldiers to compare the experiences of different participants in World War I.

Individual capstone project for a unit on World War I. Students use primary sources to develop insight into the personal side of the Great War. Students will use archive based research to create a story about one particular soldier.

Students will research through the use of primary source documents the lives of different segments of societies in WWI, and create a fictional narrative based on this study, to illustrate their understanding of the material.

The students will analyze six groups of primary sources documents related to the desegregation of the armed forces on July 26, 1948. They will work together to gain a broader understanding of both the immediate and long-term ramifications.

Students will use primary sources to study the Berlin Blockade and discuss options Truman may have contemplated.

Students will research in a group setting and prepare a written report or a PowerPoint presentation (complete with notes) about some aspect of the 1920s that does not fit the stereotype this era.

There will be cooperative learning as students will be working in groups of 4-5 and analyzing secondary sources concerning Cap Anson and primary sources from after Jackie Robinson's playing days.