“Students reported that the guided use of primary source materials promoted critical evaluation not just of historical, but also contemporary sources, and additionally promoted deliberative discussion among people from diverse perspectives” (Vecchiola, 108).
This quote made an impression on me because as a history major, I think that primary sources are perhaps the most important thing to consider when writing a historical narrative. Primary sources, depending on the source, show the attitude and feelings of the time that a contemporary source can’t. I’ve also noticed that using secondary sources can steer the researcher in the wrong direction (the direction of the author instead of the actual historical facts). As for promoting deliberative discussions, I have also found that primary sources give the class the most discussion material (rather than secondary sources, which influence the direction of the discussion and students tend to just repeat the points of the article).
“We used a lesson plan adapted from the Library of Congress that required students to search the Library’s African American Perspectives Collection to find a primary source related to a problem (such as racial violence or voting rights).20 It was a good place to start because the lesson plan provided suggestions for problems to search, explained how to search, and suggested key search terms in the language of the day. This was a primer for the way that we would approach primary source databases for the rest of the term” (Vecchiola, 114).
I chose this quote because it shows how to properly prepare students for primary source research. In my own experience, my teachers have just thrown me into the research process without a lesson plan or guidance. This made it exponentially harder for me to navigate these research tools in a useful way. This brings into question what would have happened if these students were thrown into the research process, would they also have trouble or would they figure it out?
“With our students so inundated by social media, we sometimes assume a degree of media literacy that is often lacking. They are aware of how to find and consume media, but not always of how to analyze it” (Edge).
I would have liked the author to elaborate on this, as I have also noticed this. Media literacy (the ability to examine media and determine its credibility) has become an increasingly important part of historical research with the invention of the internet and should be an integral part of learning how to teach history. With so much information available through the internet, it’s become more and more important to be able to examine source credibility accurately.
