The Internet is a gold mine of primary source documents. Many of the documents are shown in the original handwriting. Teachers use primary source documents for a variety of reasons.
Primary sources expose students to multiple perspectives on major issues of the past and present.
Interpretations of the past are often widely debated and students can use primary sources to join in those debates. By using primary sources directly, students ask questions, think critically, make inferences, and develop reasoned explanations and interpretations of events and issues in the past and present. Teachers can use primary source documents to gain an advanced level of understanding. Provide students the entire text of a primary source that has been excerpted in the textbook. Use contemporary primary sources to focus instruction on a historical period.