Primary Resources and Secondary Resources

Many students had trouble finding their primary sources. The main problem was that many of us did not know what primary sources meant. Mr. Armstrong realized this and we went over what primary and secondary resource were.

He first gave us a slideshow on what primary and secondary sources were. Primary resources are something that is created in the time unders study. They are created by people who actually saw or participated in an event and recorded it immediately after a short time. Secondary resources are created using information provided by someone else, they are often created with some distance form the event.

After viewing the slide and understanding the meaning of primary and secondary resources, Mr. Armstrong showed us the next slide. The next slide showed two picture of different things. One was a painting of Colombus and his arrival at the Caribbeans and another showed his report of the discovery. We were asked to decide which was the primary resource. After people volunteered their thoughts, Mr. Armstrong told us that the report was the primary resource.

When we finished viewing the slide show, we did a CIS activity in our groups. We were given pictures of resources and broke it down, trying to find out who, when, and why. We first did it as a class and later in our groups. After we finished, we were told the story of each resource. After this activity, we turned on our laptops and checked eachother's resources to see if they were primary resources or not.

I think that everyone learned a lot, and unlike last class, I'm sure everyone of us were clear with the term "primary resources." Everyone helped eachother with finding primary resources and Mr. Armstrong gave us all an excellent definition on both primary and secondary resources. Goodjob everyone!

Soyon J. 8B