In the past few years at Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts, we have put greater emphasis on primary source material in the social studies curriculum.
Teachers now require students to include primary sources in any research they do.
Students are using these types of sources in classroom activities, so that when they come to the Library Media Center for research, most are able to differentiate between primary and secondary material. Until recently, the problem for all students was finding these documents, writings, narratives, interviews, and so forth. The collection has books that contain documentation on commonly studied topics, but students had more difficulty locating sources on others. When I purchased two titles in Primary Source Media's American Journey series, everything changed. I got The African-American Experience and Women in America , as these topics were popular with our students in both history and English classes.