Student as the Researcher

Involving students as researchers inside the classroom is essential today in the 21st Century where there are so many different resources and different ways for students to be researchers. November (p.51) writes that "one of the most astonishing gaps in many students' educations is their inability to validate information on the internet." I agree with November and think that as a history teacher, it is essential that I am showing my students how to validate information and determine the validity of different sources. It is also essential for students to recognize the appropriateness of different sources for different research. For example, Wikipedia may be appropriate for a pop-culture search but would not be complete for the impact of slavery on the Constitutional Convention. 

A program that I would integrate into a history lesson for students would be the Digital Public Library of America. This website has access to countless primary source documents, where students can search using key words or phrases to find different primary sources. In a lesson on the atomic bomb for example, I would challenge my students to compile as much independent or partnered research as possible on the atomic bomb. First, I would review the concepts of finding appropriate sources and asking key questions before beginning the research (ie. What do you want to learn about the atomic bomb?). I think that this initial part of class could also benefit from a KWL chart where students write what they know and want to want to know. Students will then review primary sources before being challenged to find different primary sources on the Digital Public Library of America in order to answer their questions or provide further information on the atomic bomb. 

An example of this is pictured below with the initial search and then exploration of different documents:

This lesson is designed to spark student interest in the topic of exploring primary sources and their different uses for answering research questions. This lesson will also teach students that not all of their questions can always be answered or found within primary source documents. The Digital Library of America website is not perfect because it does not contain source for every single historical subject. To ensure that there are primary sources available, it may be best for teachers to search on the site before their lesson and see what resources are available for a given topic or subject. However, this is a great tool for an early 9th-10th grade high school history classroom in order for students to explore valid primary sources and see the information that they contain in order to answer research questions and gather further information and knowledge about a particular topic. As students progress throughout the school year, they will get better at research and finding different primary sources