Reading Response: Primary Sources

Minda Moskowitz

Reading Response

Using Primary Sources in the Primary Grades

November 3, 2015

            Using or studying tangible objects in the classroom creates a palpable reality for students.  In addition, being able to read, touch and manipulate actual items physically engages them in the lesson, whether it be for a science, math, or social studies class. Wanting to provide a meaningful hands-on experience for my science lesson, absent real fossils, I researched and found beautiful, detailed color photos of them, which I printed out and laminated.  I also found and printed various versions of geologic time scales. With the help from a geologic time scale of their choosing, the students then matched up the fossils with the appropriate time periods in which they were found. 

            As part of an introductory math lesson about volume, I constructed seven rectangular prisms with colorful unit cubes so that each group of three students would have a model. Their assignment was to discover at least one strategy to count them. Some students wanted to take them apart and count each unit cube. Other students figured out more efficient methods. They then created their own rectangular prisms and circulated around the classroom in order to figure out the volumes of all of the peer-created prisms.  Having actual objects to study and manipulate provided the students with an engaging hands-on activity.

This concept of using actual objects, or primary sources, is applicable to social studies, as well. For example, reading a book about the Declaration of Independence is an entirely different experience from seeing the actual document, or at least a photo of it.  I strongly agree with the article that having students touch and feel physical remnants from the past make the past that much more tangible and that “by introducing primary sources in the classroom, students can question, explore, research and draw links to the distant past in a fresh and creative way (Otten, n.d.).” In my future classroom, I will certainly refer back to this article and its many wonderful recommendations about where to find artifacts for use in my social studies lessons.