Joan W. Musbach

Textbooks, for many reasons, turn students off, but working with letters, posters, or photographs becomes exciting

—OAH Magazine of History, Winter 1989

Primary sources are often heralded as the remedy for bored, turned-off history students. But this solution is often proposed by someone who already possesses the vocabulary necessary to decode the documents, the background to understand the relationship of the information to larger topics, and the motivation to do the work necessary to unlock the meaning. In order to successfully bring primary sources into the classroom, it is important to match them to the developmental and educational levels of students.

My zeal for using primary sources to teach history has been tempered by the wisdom that comes from years of teaching early adolescents. There is no denying the power of discovery that can occur as students study actual documents to learn of people and events in a time different from their own. There is no denying the value of helping students understand how we know so much about the past and how the historian pieces together the jigsaw of evidence to give us the picture painted by the words in a good narrative. But there is also no denying that primary sources, poorly selected or improperly handled, can frustrate efforts, close minds, and turn off the curiosity the teacher intended to stimulate.

I would like to suggest five common-sense rules teachers should abide by when planning to use primary sources. All of these rules require expertise on the part of the teacher. No journal article nor beautifully published collection can replace the knowledge teachers must have regarding the learning skills, experience, maturity, interests, and motivation of their students. Furthermore, teachers must consider their own teaching style and comfort level with materials and time periods.

Rule 1. Be sure that the material selected is age appropriate. When I moved from teaching eleventh-grade American history to eighth-grade American history, I struggled to account for the vast difference between the two groups. Both can learn large quantities of specific information. However, unlike eleventh graders, the majority of eighth graders are concrete learners and cannot yet handle abstract ideas. Thus, selections from The Federalist Papers might be appropriate for high school students who possess the requisite vocabulary and historical background, but not for eighth-grade students. Selections from the diaries of Lewis and Clark would be appropriate for the younger students; documents arguing the theory of nullification would not. Observing that eighth graders enjoyed reading about characters their own age and hoping to create some excitement for the period of the American Revolution, I collected primary sources from adolescents who lived at the time. Letters between Thomas Jefferson and his pre-teen and teenage daughters were readily available. The following excerpt is from one of several letters I used from the correspondence between Martha and her father while she was in boarding school in Paris.

My dear Papa—I am very glad that the beginning of your voyage has been so pleasing, and I hope that the rest will not be less so, as it is a great consolation for me, being deprived of the pleasure of seeing you, to know at least that you are happy. . . . You say your expectations for me are high, yet not higher than I can attain. Then be assured, my dear papa, that you shall be satisfied in that, as well as in any thing else that lies in my power; for what I hold most precious is your satisfaction, indeed I should be miserable without it. You wrote me a long letter, as I asked you; however, it would have been much more so without so wide a margin. Adieu, my dear papa. Be assured of the tenderest affection of your loving daughter, M. Jefferson

The language, the manner of expression, and even the father-child relationship are so foreign to a twenty-first-century teenager that documents such as this yielded little benefit. Furthermore, a young student is unlikely to see something as basic as changes in the father-daughter relationship or changes in literary style as important history. If students do not see learning as either interesting, relevant, or important, they are unlikely to do the extra work to decode the language of the past.

Rule 2. Be sure that selections are readable and the information readily accessible. Many of the selections from early American history contain vocabulary that is difficult and obscure. If selections are too hard for students to read, the joy of discovery is lost. Similarly, run-on sentences and inconsistency in spelling and punctuation make some selections challenging.

I personally enjoyed this account written by Daniel Trabue, a sixteen-year-old Virginian, who fought with George Rogers Clark during the American Revolution.

I was Giting vbery fraid we would be Defeeted, and as we went on I talked some with Lucust again. He still talked the same way of killing several of them. I for my part began to feel chikinhearted. I was afraid I should be killed in this Drary howling Wilderness but I never mentioned it to any one. I thought if we come in contact with the indians I would keep behind or in the reare, but I thought that would not Do as I might be called a coward. I thought, “I wish I could have courrage like Lucust. I would be glad.” Mr. Lucaust was my main Dependence and a poor Dependence he was. I than wished I was back in Old Virginia. . . . All at once I saw the 2 men that was before Jump out of the road and was behind Trees. I Jumped of my horse as quick as a cat and run with all mymight to the exporers that was before looking ahead. And Just before I got up to the 2 Men I saw the Indians before runing and Juming and Dogeing away. I run with all my might and tried to git a shoot at them. I had liked to have got a shoot once or twise. I observed that 2 men as I passed by them was also trying to run a head and shoot.

This selection worked well when I read it aloud. When I asked students to read it themselves, it benefitted the language arts teacher more than the history teacher. The students gained little understanding of a young soldier’s feelings during the war, but they became keenly aware of the importance of correct spelling and punctuation if one wishes to communicate.

Short selections from letters and diaries of soldiers during the Civil War were more successful. The February 1992 issue of Social Education carried a collection relating to the decision of Lincoln to use black troops. These were written in language understandable to students and related to a subject they cared about and thought was important. The selections were short enough to be easily read and understood.

Rule 3. Provide adequate background so students can successfully decode the document. Ideal as it may sound, it is unwise to try to teach a survey of American history entirely from primary sources. Without background, students will not understand the significance of much that they will read. While they may be willing to do some research to understand a document, they will give up if the document is too complex. In the selections on the use of black troops, Lincoln refuses the offer of two black regiments from Indiana. In doing so he refers to “losing Kentucky.” To grasp the significance of this requires students to know that Kentucky was a border state. They need to know how important Kentucky’s location was to northern strategy. It is also important that students understand that even though many northerners opposed slavery, they were, nonetheless, racially prejudiced.

In the farm documents that accompany the following lesson plan, appreciation of their importance as a snapshot of the Great Depression requires students to realize that at this time nearly half of Americans still lived on farms. Income statistics from the 1930s need to be available so that students can determine the economic position of this family. Prior knowledge of farming and farm life is necessary to create a context for the documents.

Rule 4. Arrange for students to work with the primary source materials in groups of two or three. To construct meaning for a time and subject from primary sources requires enough selections to create a detailed picture. Students are more likely to enjoy the activity if they can divide the work. They are also more likely to actually work with the materials when they have the support of other students in the process.

Rule 5. Be sure to provide purpose and motivation. While discovering history through documents is valuable and exciting, it is also more work than reading and summarizing a few pages of text. Students need to see that there is a special purpose for using the documents. It also helps if motivation is offered beyond “just learning history.” Students can be engaged by trying to solve a “mystery.” Why did the population of Virginia keep going down in the early 1600s despite increased immigration? Did Alexander Hamilton instigate the Whiskey Rebellion? Did Mexico begin the War of Mexican Cession? Was John Brown insane?

My students were motivated to work with the farm documents mentioned above because they were curious about my family. They loved knowing that these were my parents and thus enjoyed knowing “personal” things about their teacher—always great fun for junior high students. They liked seeing the actual account book from which the records were copied. As they looked for clues to describe the lives of this farm family, they began to get a picture of how farm families lived during the decade.

As they searched the documents for clues about daily life, they also discovered a mystery. Initially they saw nothing peculiar about the expenditures for silk and silver. In terms of today’s spending, $135 and $150 are not remarkable. But as they began to think from the perspective of the farm family, they had a mystery. Initially they were content to guess at the explanation. Some students accepted the suggestion that the purchase of silk was because someone was getting married and the silver purchase was either a gift or an investment. But others saw the lack of logic in these answers and realized that more research would be needed to resolve this question. Since this was my family, I could provide additional materials that solved the mystery. Even had this not been true, to have students ask questions that arise from using documents and realize that more research is necessary or that all questions cannot be answered, are in and of themselves valuable lessons.

I invite you to try these documents. They will give students a quick snapshot of a life quite foreign to them, yet remarkably American and existing in the century in which they were born. You will not, however, have the prime motivator for my students. Thus, I would encourage you to gather documents and artifacts from your own life and those of your parents and grandparents to share with your history students. Primary sources need not be about wars and politics. They need not be of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, written in unfamiliar language and outdated ways of expression. The 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s are history for the students of today.

Because I believe in the value of using primary sources in the teaching of history, I am concerned that the results be positive. Inappropriate selections, or poorly crafted lessons can lead to a bad experience for a teacher who may then dismiss primary sources as a bad idea. Instead of being energized, students can be turned off to history and the work of historians. Using primary sources requires judgment and skill.

Joan W. Musbach teaches eighth-grade American history and is chair of the Social Studies Department at Ladue Middle School in St. Louis County, Missouri. She is the Missouri liaison for the National Council for History Education (NCHE) and a recipient of the Emerson Electric Award for Excellence in Teaching.