lls,
preparing them for success in the 21
st
century.

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)
names as its number one Standard for the 21
st
Century
Learner the need to provide students with the skills,
resources and tools to inquire, think critically, and
gain knowledge. Critical thinking skills are crucial to
success in a changing environment. Primary source-
based instruction helps students to practice and build
their critical thinking skills.

Primary sources are often incomplete and have little
context. In analyzing primary sources, students move
from concrete observations and facts to questioning
and making inferences about the materials. Students
must use prior knowledge and work with multiple
primary sources to find patterns. Integrating what
they glean from comparing primary sources with what
they already know, and what they learn from research,
allows students to construct knowledge and deepen un-
derstanding.



References

American Association for School Librarians (2007).
AASL standards for the 21
st
-century learner.
www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/
standards.cfm
Teaching with
Teaching with


Primary Sources
Primary Sources


The Library of Congress Teaching with
Primary Sources (TPS) Program works
with universities and other educational
organizations to offer professional devel-
opment that helps teachers use the
Library's digitized primary sources to
deliver effective instruction. The TPS
Newsletter provides information and
materials that support this goal.

For more information about Teaching with
Primary Sources or to identify a TPS
Consortium member in an area near you,
please visit the web site at
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps.













2
www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/newsletter


Primary Sources and Promoting Critical Thinking
Primary Sources and Promoting Critical Thinking



by Caroll Van West, Ph.D.

Primary Sources: Gateways to Enhancing Critical Thinking in the Classroom

Teachers are in constant need of tools that will empower their students to explore and dig deeper into
subjects and issues that matter most to them. Primary sources, which are now available in unprece-
dented numbers online, are powerful tools for just such empowered teaching. Not only do primary
sources provide rich cultural context and unique insights into past eras; if used effectively, primary
sources can be the key to making the basics of critical thinking -- asking questions, seeking answers, and
drawing conclusions central to teaching.

Scholars and teachers from different disciplines will define primary sources differently. But no matter the
disciplinary slant, teachers agree that primary sources are the stuff of lifewhat we do, say, perform,
sing, make, and createthat we categorize, study, and analyze through the lenses of the humanities, the
sciences, folklife, and the arts. The Library of Congress defines primary sources as the raw materials of
historyoriginal documents and objects which were created at the time under study. They are different
from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand
experience.

Primary sources surround us. They are in the landscape around ushistoric sites, museums, town
squares, historic architecture. They are bound in collections of the school or local library. They are in
the voices and traditions of our communitiesoral histories, folklife, and festivals. In the humanities, for
instance, primary sources directly link students to the participants and witnesses of important past
events. Primary sources humanize past traditions and supply the language, emotions, attitudes and
values of past peoples. These original materials allow students to experience, and ask questions about,
the past in a way that cannot be matched by the best textbook or any other secondary source.


Maps, for example, provide myriad opportunities for student exploration. In maps, a student can see
ways in which cartographers record the ebb and flow of politics, the history of nations, the evolution of
settlement and the path of scientific and mathematical thought. Because maps reflect humanity's under-
standing (or misunderstanding) of the world around them, sometimes they capture the work of history's
most creative imaginations. Maps can enrich lessons in almost any academic
discipline. Students can piece together a story of political conquest, trace a land-
mark expedition, or see their town develop over time. Historic maps provide the
basis for writing assignments. Math students can calculate distances; science,
geography, and geology students can examine the characteristics of a specific
topography.





Photographs can also stimulate a student's interest in and desire to learn about
the past. Photographs can show types of transportation, fashions, architecture,
social and family relationships, furnishings, professions and trades, and lifestyles
across historical eras. Photographs can help teach vocabulary, textures and
shapes, sharpen observation skills, skills needed to draw inferences, form
hypotheses, and analyze raw data. They are a good starting point for discussion,
writing assignments, and research.

The true power of primary sources emerges, however, when teachers use them to
spur critical thinking by students. To use primary sources most effectively, educa-
tors must ask questions prompting students to draw from their own experiences
and knowledge, to explore and think about what is before them. Questions of
creator bias, purpose, and point of view may challenge students assumptions.
Remind students not to read too much into a primary source, nor draw too many
conclusions from it. Remember that each primary source is part of a process
involving its creator, the purpose and the subject. While primary sources can be


TEACHING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES NEWSLETTER - Fall 2008

Title: For greater know-
ledge on more subjects
use your library often! /
V. Donaghue. 1940. Chi-
cago: Illinois WPA Art
Project. Library of Con-
gress. American Mem-
ory. By the People, For
the People: Posters from
the WPA, 1936-1943.




www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/newsletter
3



TEACHING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES NEWSLETTER - Fall 2008

extremely valuable teaching and research tools, they are best used in conjunction with other sources to
give a more complete understanding of a time, place, circumstance, and people.

The millions of primary sources available online from cultural institutions provide excellent opportunities
for students to explore many types of evidence for comparison and analysis. Students engaged with
scenes of a blues singer performing from a porch of a Mississippi shotgun-shack, for example, can look
elsewhere online to hear music from that time and place or turn to an oral history repository and read
what observers said about the music during the Great Depression. Literature,
performing arts, geography, folklife, and history can be synthesized in a single
exploration that leads to new knowledge.

Using primary sources to capture students attention and to encourage their
own sense of adventure adds immeasurably to students ability to construct
knowledge as they form reasoned conclusions, base their conclusions on
evidence and connect primary sources to the context in which they were
created, synthesizing information from multiple sources. In todays hectic,
information-overload world, primary sources can teach the valuable lesson:
dont just accept what youre told-go to the source and find out for yourself.
Dr. Carroll Van West directs the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Ten-
nessee State University




Rothstein, A. 1915- , Pho-
tographer. Title: Lois Slinker
teaching the only pupil in the
second grade in one-room
schoolhouse. Grundy County,
Iowa. 1939 October. Library
of Congress. Prints and
Photographs Division.


Research and Current Thinking
Research and Current Thinking


For each issue, TPS partners submit summaries of and links to online
resourcesarticles, research reports, Web sites, and white papers
that provide research and current thinking relating to the theme. This
issue's Research & Current Thinking focuses on critical thinking.

Improving Classroom Instruction: Understanding the Developmental
Nature of Analyzing Primary Sources (Dutt-Doner, K., Cook-Cattone, C., & Allen, S., Research in
Middle Level Education) examines abilities of students to complete primary source document analyses
based on current background knowledge.

Strategies for Teaching Critical Thinking (Potts, B., ERIC/AE Digest) addresses essential skills
related to critical thinking: finding analogies and other kinds of relationships between multiple pieces of
information, determining relevance and validity of information that could be used for structuring and
solving problems, and finding and evaluating solutions or alternative ways of treating problems.
Strategy List: 35 Dimensions of Critical Thought (Foundation for Critical Thinking, The Critical
Thinking Community) breaks down the global concept of critical thinking into 35 instructional strategies
in three categories: affective strategies, cognitive strategiesmacro-abilities, and cognitive strategies
and micro-skills. Within each category, strategies are defined and rationale is provided for incorporation.

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