Why You Should Engage Students with Primary Sources in Your ELA Classroom

Rebecca Newland spent 15 years as a high school English teacher before becoming a high school librarian, which has been more fun than she could have imagined.

According to the Library of Congress‘s teacher’s page, “primary sources are the raw materials of history—original documents and objects that were created at the time under study.” According to the Society of American Archivists, primary sources are “material that contains firsthand accounts of events and that was created contemporaneous to those events or later recalled by an eyewitness.” The Harvard Library Research Guide for the History of Science states “primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring.”  

From those definitions, we can see the concepts that are repeated: firsthand accounts, original materials, and creation at the time of the event. Primary sources therefore are the closest we can come to time travel short of the invention of the time machine (an innovation I am waiting for with anticipation). Offering students the opportunity to work with primary sources provides them with glimpses into the lives, experiences, and thoughts of real people living in a time before our own.  

Teachers and librarians easily see that primary sources are a natural fit in a history class, where artifacts of the past connect with the exploration of both national and world history, but the connections to literature and benefits of using primary sources in ELA classrooms are sometimes less obvious. However, the advantages of engaging students with primary source analysis are myriad.  

One of the most powerful uses of primary sources with ELA students comes when we offer sources that represent a variety of perspectives. Imagine reading the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, which explores the effects of the 9/11 attacks on a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell. Primary source photographs of the events as they unfolded offer the perspective of observers of the attacks. Interviews with those who escaped from the Twin Towers provide the perspective of those who were direct participants, who may also know individuals who lost their lives. Oral history interviews with first responders offer the perspective of those whose work took them in proximity to danger on that day. Journals or diaries written by those who lost loved ones offer a window into the grief of families left bereft by loss. Analyzing the multitude of perspectives provided by primary sources enriches the study of the novel by adding layers that are unavailable in the fictional text.  

Primary source analysis can also build historical context when studying both fiction and nonfiction. In a work of historical fiction, the author cannot include every aspect of the historical context, particularly if they are exploring a specific event or time. Alan Gratz’s novel Grenade takes place during the Battle of Okinawa from April 1 to June 22, 1945. Students will be drawn in by the events of the novel, but historical fiction, by definition, does not cover the events in a strictly factual way; it instead weaves historical events and people with fictional characters. Integrating analysis of maps, photographs, newspaper reports, or oral history accounts related to the battle can bring context that is not provided within the novel to help students engage with the events in a deeper way. These items can also allow students to think about which stories are represented, which may be missing from the record, and why this may be the case. In this way, we engage students in critical thinking about representation, storytelling, and the historical record.  

Consider also Charles Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist, written to explore, in part, the scourge of child labor in Victorian England. This is not a work of historical fiction since Dickens was reflecting what was happening in London at the time he was writing. The period in question is the 1830s, a time during which the United States was in the throes of the Industrial Revolution and also mired in child labor practices. 

The movement to abolish child labor in the United States came about in the early 1900s. Photographer Lewis Hine was hired by the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) to travel around the United States to document the conditions of child laborers and gather evidence to convince Congress to pass laws to limit and regulate child labor. This was done with the passage of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, and his work is preserved at the Library of Congress in the National Child Labor Committee Collection. The photographs are poignant in their depiction of the hardships of work for many children, some as young as five or six. A search of the collection reveals that there were few parts of the United States where children were not working in factories, fields, or streets. Connecting students to photographs taken near where they live can help them to understand the hardships, make more personal connections, and begin to ask questions about why children were used so extensively and how laws were finally passed to end this practice. 

As an extension to reading the novel and engaging with primary source analysis, students may discover that child labor still exists in the United States and around the world. Curiosity may lead them to ask why this is the case and how this practice might be eradicated in the future.  

When students have the opportunity to engage with primary sources, they show increased interest in the literary works, asking for more reading material by the same authors, exploring their own curiosities, and looking for primary sources related to the books and their own areas of interest. The increase in engagement with the text is palpable well past reading the work in class, and the connections that can be made between primary sources and literature are almost unlimited. Primary sources engage students by immersing them in pieces of the past and inviting them to ask questions, investigate areas of interest, and build empathy for those whose lives are unlike their own. Primary sources, like books, can offer windows into the lives and experiences of those in the past.  

FURTHER READING 

Primary sources related to these and other works can be found from the following sources: 

• Library of Congress
• National Archives and Records Administration 
• Digital Public Library of America 
• Multitudes of museums, libraries, and historical societies around the nation and world.  
• Curated collections related to a classic text in Norton Critical Editions 

WORKS CITED 

“Getting Started with Primary Sources.” Library of Congress: Teachers, Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/. 

“National Child Labor Committee Collection.” Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/.

“Primary Source.” Dictionary of Archives Terminology, Society of American Archivists, dictionary.archivists.org/entry/primary-source.html. 

United States, Congress, House. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as Amended. United States Code, title 1318, U.S. Department of Labor, May 2011, www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/FairLaborStandAct.pdf.

“What Is a Primary Source?” Library Research Guide for the History of Science: Introduction, Harvard Library, guides.library.harvard.edu/HistSciInfo/primary. 

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