Examining the Evidence

WINNER OF THE 2016 LEARNING MAGAZINE TEACHERS CHOICE AWARD!

Educators are being challenged as never before to invite reality into the classroom and allow students to explore it. This book will help you meet the challenge. Primary sources are the very documents that history is made of, the images that science is based on, the raw material of our lives. They are also excellent tools to teach the critical thinking skills required by the Common Core State Standards.

The founders of OneHistory.org, Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson, wrote the book Examining the Evidence: Seven Strategies for Teaching with Primary Sources using their experience as visual historians*, writers and editors of educational material for major textbook publishers, and speakers who have given presentations on the subject for more than a decade.

This book reveals in detail the strategies you can use to make primary sources come alive for your students and to enhance visual literacy, using fascinating photographs and powerful primary source texts.

Reviews

“With a foreword by Sam Wineburg, this book gained instant credibility. The authors, Austin and Thompson, also share their personal backgrounds which include significant experience using, teaching with, and writing about primary sources. I can gladly recommend this book for teachers in grades K-8. The text is well-organized and accessible. At the end of each chapter the authors provide Things to Think About to help the reader extend and deepen their thinking about the given chapter. In some chapters, the authors also provide a just for fun section which adds levity and interest.” —MiddleWeb, Nicole C. Miller, faculty member in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at Mississippi State University

“This book is directed to learners through grade 8, with possibilities in secondary school as well. Basically, it is more for the professional and helps develop how best to use primary sources there are strategies that involve visual literacy as well as developmental appropriateness. It is the professional who will need to see differently, weigh issues differently, and be open to student interaction with a primary source in ways not imagined. This book helps to do this. . . .It challenges educators to bring the real history of photo and sound into learning. Intertwined with the Common Core standards, this book can assist in developing lessons that related to learning in multifaceted ways.” —Teacher Librarian, Resources for the Teacher Librarian, Elizabeth (Betty) Marcoux

From the Book

Foreword by Sam Wineburg

Excerpt:Strategy 3, Look for Bias

Excerpt: Strategy 4, Examine Closely the Source Itself

Poster of The Seven Strategies

Examining the Evidence Classroom Posters of Image (with questions)