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. For example, use a current newspaper editorial on immigration, minimum wage, or welfare reform as a springboard to explore those issues in the past. This is the depository of most of the famous national documents. It also contains reproducible copies of primary documents, teaching activities correlated to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government, and cross-curricular connections.