The Educator’s Handbook for Teaching with Primary Sources

Educators across subject areas are striving to integrate primary sources into their pedagogy and teaching. Yet, despite their importance to authentic disciplined inquiry, the implementation of primary source activities in the pre-K-12 classroom has been limited. This lack of utilization can largely be attributed to the perception that these activities are too complex to design, implement, and grade. Many teachers also feel that primary source analysis and the construction of evidence-based narratives are too difficult for students to complete in the traditional classroom. Waring argues that this is not the case and, with this handbook, provides teacher candidates and inservice teachers with detailed and specific perspectives, activities, approaches, and resources to help them effectively and authentically use primary sources in their classrooms.

Book Features:

• Introduces teaching with primary sources, including detailed examples of authentic and tested instructional ideas and approaches.
• Designed to meet the needs of classroom teachers and teacher candidates in social studies, English and language arts, mathematics, science, and other fields.
• Offers dozens of primary sources and links to resources throughout the book.
• Aligns to national standards, frameworks, and the C3 framework for social studies.
• Can be used to meet the needs of emerging English learners and students with special needs.
• Focuses on ways in which educators are utilizing a variety of emerging technologies to engage students in deeper and more authentic ways of learning.

Scott M. Waring is a professor and program coordinator for the Social Science Education Program at the University of Central Florida. His books include Integrating Primary and Secondary Sources Into Teaching: The SOURCES Framework for Authentic Investigation and Conducting Authentic Historical Inquiry: Engaging Learners with SOURCES and Emerging Technologies.