The 250+ document-based lessons in Explore: Primary Sources have a new feature!
You probably knew that this rich collection of historically contextualized primary sources (many with audio and images) spans four centuries and provides comprehension questions to encourage active reading and analysis. And you no doubt also knew that the collection includes founding documents, Constitutional amendments, speeches, letters, patriotic songs, personal letters, Oval Office conversations, and more. Those features alone make the site worth bookmarking for every social studies class.
But there's more. Each primary-source lesson now concludes with a simple question: “Want more on this topic?” Here’s how the feature works. When reading A Flapper's Appeal to Parents, students will see references to a number of other historically significant topics.
So after answering the online comprehension questions for the primary source, students might want to investigate topics like these:
- The impact of WWI
- Women receiving the right to vote
- Athletes of the 20s and 30s
- An additional resource investigating the Roaring 20s
This feature will also work for broad topics that span decades or for a theme like patriotism. For instance, students across all grades will enjoy Emma Lazarus’s poem, The New Colossus.
And reading the poem may spark interest in primary-source documents from opposing perspectives, like the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, as well as resources on Ellis Island or songs and pledges with a similar patriotic theme.
Don’t miss the opportunity to review primary-source documents and learn about the related resources available in Curriculum Pathways. They all focus on critical thinking, and they are all free!
