Organize information from

primary sources in
preparation for writing,
reporting, and similar
academic tasks in
collaboration with others
Let’s Learn This
Primary sources are original records of the political,
economic, artistic, scientific, social, and intellectual
thoughts and achievements of specific historical
periods. Produced by the people who participated in
and witnessed the past, primary sources offer a
variety of points of view and perspectives of events,
issues, people, and places. These records can be
found anywhere—in a home, a government archive,
etc.—the important thing to remember is they were
used or created by someone with first hand
experience of an event.
Examples of Primary Sources:

Primary sources are not just documents and written

records. There are many different kinds of primary
sources, including: first-person accounts,
documents, physical artifacts, scientific data that
has been collected but not interpreted, and face-to-
face mentors with specific knowledge or expertise.
Primary sources also take a variety of formats—
examples of these are listed below.
Audio—oral histories or memoirs, interviews, music
 Images—photographs, videos, film, fine art
 Objects—clothing (fashion or uniforms), tools,
pottery, gravestones, inventions, weapons,
memorabilia
 Statistics—census data, population statistics,
weather records
 Text—letters, diaries, original documents, legal
agreements, treaties, maps, laws, advertisements,
recipes, genealogical information, sermons/lectures
 How do Primary and Secondary Sources differ?
While primary sources are the original records
created by first hand witnesses of an event,
secondary sources are documents, texts, images,
and objects about an event created by someone
who typically referenced the primary sources for
their information. Textbooks are excellent
examples of secondary sources.
 Why is it important for students to use
Primary Sources?
1. Direct engagement with artifacts and records of
the past encourages deeper content exploration,
active analysis, and thoughtful response.
2. Analysis of primary sources helps students
develop critical thinking skills by examining
meaning, context, bias, purpose, point of view,
etc.
3. Primary source analysis fosters learner-led
inquiry as students construct knowledge by
interacting with a variety of sources that represent
different accounts of the past.
4. Students realize that history exists through
interpretation that reflects the view points and
biases of those doing the interpreting.
Let’s Try This
Task 1. What You See is What You Get!
With your group mates, analyze the editorial
cartoon sample distributed by your teacher. Fill the
blanks below with your findings. Be ready to
discuss your group’s findings.
1. Describe the action taking place in the cartoon.
2. Explain the cartoonist’s message in the drawing and
caption.
3. Is this cartoon easy to figure out? Why or why not?
4. Does this cartoon require you to have a lot of
background information on this issue, event, or person?
__Yes
__No
Explain
5. Who is the cartoonist?
6. List any persons portrayed in the drawing:
7. Did the cartoonist exaggerate any physical features of a
person? If yes, describe how it was done.
8. Were any symbols used?
__Yes
__No
If yes, what do they represent?
Let’s Do This
Task 2. I Got Mine!
A. Draw and describe in detail another cartoon that would
be different from this one but yet would contain the same
message.
B. Draw and describe in detail a cartoon you could create
that would convey an opposite message.
Let’s Do More
Task 3. What Do You See in Me?
Study the photograph carefully. Fill in the boxes with
appropriate information.
Task 3. What Do You See in Me?
Study the photograph carefully. Fill in the boxes with
appropriate information.

People

Objects

Activities
1. What is the subject of the photograph?
2. List three conclusions about the subject that
you can make from studying the photograph. .
3. What questions does this photograph raise?
4. Write your own caption for the photograph.
5. How would you crop this photo to further
bring out a main theme?
Let’s Test
Ourselves
Task 4. What’s in a Commercial!
Study this advertisement then answer the
questions below.
1. What is your initial reaction upon seeing this for the first
time? Is it appealing? Informative? What emotions (if any)
does it bring forth in you?
2. List any objects depicted.
3. List any persons portrayed.
4. Describe any symbols or logos found.
5. Explain the message(s). 6. Who is the advertisement’s
target audience?
6. Does the layout and artwork of this advertisement appeal
to you? __ yes __no Why?
7. What action from the audience does the creator of the
advertisement hope for?
Let’s Enrich
Ourselves
Task 5. What’s in the Map?
Analyze the map. Fill the blanks
below and be ready to report your
findings in class.
1. What map is it?
2. What kind of map is shown in the picture?
3. What technique did the creator of this
map use to distinguish one place from the
other?
4. What are the strong points of this map?
weak points?
5. What suggestions can you give to
improve this map?
Let’s Remember
 A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about
an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources provide
the original materials on which other research is based and enable
students and other researchers to get as close as possible to what
actually happened during a particular event or time period.
Published materials can be viewed as primary resources if
they come from the time period that is being discussed, and were
written or produced by someone with firsthand experience of the
event.
Often primary sources reflect the individual viewpoint of a
participant or observer. Primary sources can be written or non-
written (sound, pictures, artifacts, etc.). In scientific research,
primary sources present original thinking, report on discoveries, or
share new information.