I've been taking a course,"Digital Classroom: Teaching Information Literacy
Using Primary Sources" and already I'm a convert. At one point our instructor asked us to evaluate our use of primary sources in the classroom. I was more than a bit anxious when I realized, after looking at the chart describing levels of Information Literacy Skills and the use of primary sources, that I more often than not remain at Level 1: "When asking students to do research, I expect them to only use secondary resources like books, magazines, or reference materials." Of course,use of online or digital resources are also expected (if not the ONLY requirement by their content area teachers!). I want to more actively engage students in the use of primary sources, especially because today it is vital that students learn to critically evaluate the plethora of self-published work on the Internet.
I also was also intrigued by an excerpt from The Indispensable teacher's Guide to Computer Skills by Doug Johnson, as it relates to the use of primary sources. "The genuine voices of another culture's students of a similar age speak louder than any text or reference book." 2 years ago I worked with our ESL teacher on a project that required her students to evaluate primary source material (photographs, interviews, first-person narratives) that was being sent to us from similarly aged students from the Galapagos Islands. Our students had to construct a narrative about a child whose father was a fishing boat captain based upon the primary sources mentioned above. It was exciting to see our students eager to put together this narrative, waiting to see how accurate their "story" was.
