Using Primary Sources in the Classroom

Teaching with primary sources can be overwhelming to teachers who have minimal time to teach social studies. Turn your classroom into a primary source learning environment with this easy-to-use resource that has everything you need to incorporate primary sources into today’s classrooms. Primary sources provide firsthand accounts of history that will capture students’ curiosity about the past. Students who observe, reflect on, and question primary sources understand history at a deeper level than students who only learn about social studies through textbooks. With more than 100 digital primary sources, this book by Kathleen Vest delves deeply into a wide variety of primary sources and details how they can be used in any K–12 classroom. Model lessons for three grade ranges (K–3, 4–8, 9–12) reduce teacher prep time. With fun and engaging activities and a chapter devoted to strategies for using social media posts as primary sources in the classroom, this resource is essential for today’s social studies classrooms.Turn your classrooms into primary source learning environments! With more than 100 digital primary sources, fun activities, and model lesson plans, this resource contains everything needed to successfully teach with primary sources.Kathleen Vest is currently an adjunct instructor for several local universities, teaching social courses. She also served the Independence, MO school district for 26 years as a sixth grade teacher and as coordinator for Project Whistlestop, the U.S. Challenge Grant in cooperation with the Truman Presidential Library.