Using Secondary Sources to Teach Social Studies

Kirsten 1:06

This is the social studies teacher podcast a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know if you southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Hey there welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. We're going into a part two of using sources to teach social studies. Last week, I talked about primary sources and today I will be talking all about secondary sources. In the world of social studies. Primary sources are considered very important for teaching. But we don't want to forget about secondary sources because they're important too. So this episode is going to explain why secondary sources matter in teaching social studies. And I'll be offering some tips and resources to use them in your own classroom. Today, we're going to be talking about what Secondary sources are in social studies, why they matter how to find good secondary sources for lessons, and also ways to include secondary sources in your lesson plans and ways to engage your students with secondary sources. So there's a lot happening, but we're gonna go ahead and get started.

Okay, so what are secondary sources in social studies? Secondary sources in social studies are materials that analyze interpret, or talk about primary sources. These sources are usually made by experts, such as scholars, historians, educators, journalists, and they help us understand historical events better. Examples of secondary sources could include textbooks, articles, documentaries, biographies, and also maybe some historical analysis paper. When we use secondary sources, we're giving students different views, critical thinking skills, and a more broad context to learn about social studies. So it's pretty much anything that is written or maybe recorded by someone who was not living that experience firsthand. They're writing about that specific historical event or topic.

So let's talk about why it matters secondaries. sources are important because they give students a deeper understanding of history. It offers perspectives, interpretations and thoughts about certain primary sources in a way we might not have gotten with the actual primary source. Using secondary sources can help students see things from different angles, and help them become critical thinkers. It also will give them a wider picture of social studies and will encourage them to think deeply about historical events. This is a great way for students to learn how to do research and figuring out if the information is trustworthy. As a side note to that, because, you know, not all secondary sources are something we can take as fact, we have to also fact check that.

All right, let's talk about how to find good secondary sources for social studies lessons. So in order to make sure students get the right information, it's important to find reliable secondary sources. And here are some tips to do that. Number one, use trusted websites go to websites known for their expertise, such as government sites, or schools, maybe some respected outlets or marketplaces, such as Teachers Pay Teachers number to check the author, see if the person or group behind the source knows about social studies, don't want just someone who just has a variety of opinions on social studies, they might need to have some type of educational background, I would hope, you know, maybe some experience with maybe history, maybe they have a degree in history or elementary education, all that kind of stuff. The third thing is to think about why the source was made. Was it made to teach, convince or entertain? So thinking about author's purpose? Sources made for education are usually better? But of course, it depends on the specific topic being taught. So thinking about if it is persuasive, is it informative, or is it just like some type of entertaining piece, I want to I'd caution against the whole entertainment or persuasive, I'd probably go towards maybe the more informative, especially if it's geared for your upper elementary students. Number four, look for sources that mentioned where they got their information. This shows that their information is based on research, and they're just not pulling it out randomly. Number five, make sure the source is recent and matches what we know now. So what we might know about Thanksgiving in the past is different right now. We are unlearning a lot of things and a lot of topics and how we are saying certain groups and just like trying to shift away from one historical narrative and making it more inclusive of all perspectives and all groups. So you want to make sure those sources reflect that. And they're not just based on something that people would mainly say in the 90s, or 80s, or 70s. The sixth thing to think about is to check different sources to see if they say the same things and find any problems or biases. So this kind of goes hand in hand with number five, you want to fact check you don't want to take one source as is and just go off of it. And you want to make sure what they're saying is accurate. And if they're saying the same things among all of the different sources. Number seven, ask experts in social studies for advice on good sources. So maybe you have an expert that you might listen to you or follow or know about that you might want to ask them for their opinion on any good sources.

It if you were to ask me, I definitely have a few that I can think of off the top of my head. I love Britannica. I refer to it regularly when I create my social studies resources. And I also really like BrainPOP and the way they disperse the information. Of course they have a variety of topics not just in social studies, but I think it's a great source that's easy and bite sized for students to understand in certain ways. And I know that they are very reputable in their what they do. And I also think another great secondary source would be Nat Geo kids. I know there's a lot of holidays that they do so anything related to the culture and society domain. I know they have more science stuff, but they do have some social studies information and also time for kids. I love time. Time for Kids was always really great. Scholastic news is another great one. But I know some of those are subscription based and it may not be where you can purchase a subscription for one license you, I think usually they cater it to teachers that are in districts. But if I were to think off the top of my head, I would definitely recommend those resources. I think out of all of them, my favorite would be the Britannica kids. And I definitely think the subscription like paying for just even a, you know certain amount of time, I think they do it quarterly or maybe every six months, it is absolutely worth it. Especially because you can cater the reading level, they've got for elementary, middle and high school, they've got different passages for each topic, depending on that. So either way, I totally recommend those resources. If you're ever looking for secondary sources other than maybe some of my resources that I utilize, and so on Teachers Pay Teachers,

let's go into including secondary sources in lesson plans, thinking about adding it to your social studies plans. This is a really great way to learn more about social studies is when you're including secondary sources. When you're using these types of sources, they can really enhance your lessons and help students become better thinkers and researchers. And so here are a few ideas. First, of course, you want to explain what Secondary sources are to your students and why they matter. The second thing is to choose sources that fit your topic and will interest your students. So this could be something you're purchasing off of Teachers Pay Teachers, maybe you're utilizing Britannica Online, or Brain Pop all of those really great secondary sources that we know and love. The third thing is teaching students how to use the sources, help them see the writers opinions, figure out if the source is trustworthy. And also help them think about when this was made. When was the secondary source written. The fourth thing is maybe help students find their own secondary sources, this can help them increase research skills. So going back to that episode I did about making or using WebQuests. It, it's a nother great way to refine your research skills, or have students refine their research skills. And also, of course, we can't forget about the primary sources. So number five, use primary sources. This could be diaries, letters, photos, and any other collections from the past. The sixth thing is to start class talks with secondary sources, like maybe some type of short passage or short paragraph about a specific topic that you're going to be talking about. This is a great way to engage students, get them talking, asking questions, and even maybe a little bit of friendly debate or opinion about each other's ideas. Then the last thing is to test students on what they've learned, assess what they've learned from the sources. You can do this through an exit ticket, maybe a post it note, one thing you've learned two questions you have. This can help you see if they understand the content, and you can also give them that feedback from it.

The last thing we'll talk about is engaging students with secondary sources. Historically, Social Studies hasn't been necessarily fun. It's always been boring in a textbook and something we have to read a certain chapter and answer two or three questions from the book on a piece of paper. At least that's how my social studies experience was in elementary school. But using secondary sources in social studies can make learning more exciting and engaging and easier to understand. When you introduce a variety of secondary sources, such as maybe a short BrainPOP video clip about a topic or, you know, a interesting passage or maybe some type of skit related to that topic, it can make it a little bit more fun and easier to understand for students. The main thing it's important to know is to make sure to pick sources that fit your topic and also, you know, make sure that they are reliable sources. If you're looking for some secondary sources to implement with your students, I have created a couple of really great resources that I utilize and research with Britannica and a few other primary and secondary sources. And I'm going to share them with you. So the first one I want to share with you is the daily Social Studies passage bundle. This is something I thought of as kind of like if you don't have the time to teach social studies. And this is just one way to not only teach some topics and have you know, test their comprehension on it but also kind of align it with ELA So it integrates really well with it. English language arts, especially in the upper elementary level, and I'll make sure to link it in the description. But this is great if you're looking for any minimal prep, reading comprehension passages with questions that are aligned to TEKS. And also Common Core ELA. But this is just basically where students are going to read a short paragraph about a certain social studies topic. And there's three questions for each topic. And not only that, there's one for each day of the week, Monday through Thursday. So there's, you know, Monday's passage, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it's a really great warm up activity can do it in maybe five to 10 minutes, where students are doing it on their own, and then you check out the class. So it combines, you know, understanding social studies with reading comprehension skills, and then on Friday, for each topic for the week, there is a quiz that's cumulative based on those four topics. So there's basically 57 Total weeks in the bundle if you choose the bundle. But there's also different domains that you can purchase separately, but I'm going to link the bundle so you can see everything that's included. And then the last thing I wanted to share with you is what I'm working on right now, this is my baby, like it's something I've been working on for the last couple of months. And even before that, just prepping for it. And that would be my Smart and Simple Social Studies guided curriculum for third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade. This is something that is more comprehensive, it's basically you know, if you don't have a social studies curriculum, or you're missing different pieces of it, this can be a really great secondary source. It comes with slideshows, daily lessons, pacing guides, practice activities, exit tickets, unit projects, unit assessments, everything for each unit, and it's all aligned to TEKS if you're in Texas, so you can always follow that follow along with it, or pick and choose your units. I'm going to link the third grade communities, fourth grade Texas history and fifth grade US history if you're interested in that. But I you best believe I am fact checking with everything, you know, making sure that it is accurate and historically and culturally relevant. So that it's sharing the true, you know, accuracy of what happened as best to the best of my knowledge. And so yeah, that's something that I'm really passionate about and working on. And I hope you can always check that out.

All right, well, that is the end of the episode. Have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.

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