Thursday 03/01 Writing - Primary Source Documents

Purpose: As a researcher of history, I can study primary sources to make sense of information from an artifact, a document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, a recording, or any other source that was created at the time under study.

1. Connection:  A Game of Telephone
2. Teaching:  Today I want to teach you that the chance to read--to study--primary sources is precious, so take every opportunity.  When a source survives across the ages, allowing you to go back and hear the original message, you're being given valuable information.  But it takes a special kind of close reading for you to make sense out of a primary source document.
3. Active Engagement: What can you learn from studying this primary source document, a letter from William Swaim
4. Link: With your small-group research team, secure the details, stories, quotes, storylines, and so on necessary to write compelling texts that draw in your readers.
• When you come across primary sources in your research, don't pass them by!  Study them closely and figure out what information they offer: quotes, inferences, thoughts, feelings, etc.
• Tomorrow is your last day to do the research you need to do; use these approved & appropriate resources.