Effective Use of Primary Documents in Middle School Social Studies

            In this article in AMLE Magazine, Kenneth Anthony and Nicole Miller (Mississippi State University) say the Common Core ELA standards “provide a natural way for language arts and social studies teachers to collaborate through interdisciplinary teaching; the medium for collaboration can be primary sources.” Anthony and Miller suggest a three-pronged approach to using primary documents to deepen students’ understanding:

            • Consider the context. Students establish a baseline by answering questions such as, When was this document written? Why was it written? Who authored this document? What was the author’s point of view? (judged by the tone and the presence or absence of particular information)

            • Consider the content. What was said? What arguments were made? What supporting points or details were provided? These questions deepen students’ understanding of the document, key vocabulary, central ideas, text structure, and the topic being studied.

            • Make connections. Guiding questions include: What connections to your life and/or prior learning can you make? What connections to other events and people in history can you make?

            Anthony and Miller suggest the primary document “Rationale for Founding the Georgia Colony” for middle-school social studies classes, using it to find this information:

-    Geography: the location of Georgia in relation to existing colonies; the distance from England to Georgia; how long it took to travel; the boundaries of the colony; the location and significance of Great Britain, China, Persia, Bahamas, Palestine, Port Royal;

-    People: His majesty the king of England, James Oglethorpe, William Penn, Indians, Protestants, Saltzburghers, “the useless Poor in England.”

-    Economics: Money for passage, sustenance, revenue, duties on goods.

-    Domain-specific vocabulary: Colony, charter, persecution, trustees, incorporating, latitude.

-    Domain-specific concepts: Liberty of conscience, refuge from persecution.

-    Time: When was the Colony of Georgia established compared to the other British colonies in North America?

-    Time, continuity, and change: What events influenced the development of Georgia and the United States?

-    Power, authority, and governance: How and why do political systems protect individual rights? How does this document compare to the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence?

-    Civic ideals: How and why did the United States develop democratic ideas and practices?

-    People, places, and environments: Why did people leave Europe for America? How does the establishment of Georgia differ from other colonies?

 

“Digging Deeper with Primary Sources” by Kenneth Anthony and Nicole Miller in AMLE Magazine, January 2014 (Vol. 1, #5, p. 23-25), www.amle.org; the authors can be reached at kva3@msstate.edu and ncm39@colled.msstate.edu.