Teacher's Guides and Analysis Tool
Primary Source Analysis Tool for Students
Students can use this simple tool to examine and analyze any kind of primary source and record their responses.
Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects that were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance of time or place.
Bringing young people into close contact with these unique, often profoundly personal documents and objects can give them a sense of what it was like to be alive during a long-past era. Helping students analyze primary sources can also prompt curiosity and improve critical thinking and analysis skills.
Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator Michael Mondello for Global History. This assignment asks students to use primary documents from the Transatlantic Slave Voyage Database to trace patterns between a selected African country and a select Latin American/ Caribbean country and to analyze the circumstances surrounding the Age of Exploration.