Exploring Primary Sources Website

For those of you with older children who are studying civics, I wanted to be sure to share with you the new site from iCivics. 

Exploring Primary Sources gives educators free, high-quality primary source teaching tools. And it allows students to research and examine primary resources directly rather than reading textbook accounts or narratives. 

This site gives students a chance to:

• Discover innovative, free products from iCivics and their partners that offer interactive, engaging learning experiences with primary sources
• Build their knowledge, skills and confidence to teach with primary sources with this collection of professional development videos
• Simplify lesson planning with this curated collection of high-quality primary source tools

This site is really important for teachers and students in middle school and high school. But there are sections dedicated to students in K through 5th.

The cool thing is that the materials and lessons appear to be presented in an engaging format using games and other interactives to teach kids.

AP teachers (homeschool & traditional) should especially find this site of interest because there is a tool devoted to DBQs (Document Based Questions), which are part of AP U.S. History exams. The tool takes students through these 4 steps:

1. Rate the document for usefulness and determine perspective.
2. Identify and analyze the text and visual elements that assist with answering the questions.
3. Address the supporting questions in your own words.
4. Summarize your findings as a response to the Big Question.

I love this resource because as the mother of a rising sophomore, this is a tool that I can use in our civics and history lessons for the next three years. 

And the fact that this is published by iCivics (who I've been using for a couple of years now) has my complete trust.

This whole site is packed full of teaching resources. I encourage you to go and check out the new Primary Sources website for yourself.