Evaluating Historical Fiction with Primary and Secondary Sources
Artifact Description
Another strong example of primary source analysis placed in context from my coursework was again from the Minnesota to 1862 course. As part of the culminating assignment for the course, students were required to include a significant primary source analysis component in a potential series of lessons that may be assigned in a future course. The series of lessons I developed focused on analyzing primary and secondary sources, separately, and then using those analyses to compare historical evidence and scholarship against a piece of historical fiction about the Civil War written for middle school readers. In order to develop this series of lessons, I reviewed and analyzed several collections of primary sources relating to the Civil War mostly comprised of letters and accounts written by soldiers who served in Minnesota units. Each of these collections was contextually situated against each of the others, as well as against the secondary sources students would also review as part of the unit. This exercise is a strong example of my philosophical stance towards the use of primary sources in a secondary-level classroom; primary sources illuminate and humanize past people and events, and may gain relevance through direct comparison with other primary and secondary sources.
Lesson Plans for Evaluating Historical Fiction |