Local History and Primary Sources
History is closest in his own town and his own family. Talking with an older neighbor, visiting a county museum and reading a real letter from the past teach him to ask who wrote this, when, and why.
What you need
- Family photos, old and new
- A notebook for interview questions
- The local library's history shelf or the county museum
- A world map or globe
- Printed short primary sources (a letter, a diary page, a speech)
What done looks like
- He can name people who shaped his town and Texas and what they did.
- He asks "who wrote this?" without being prompted.
- He explains why two accounts of one event do not match.
What to do, grade by grade
- Grade 1: a family custom (a holiday meal, a Sunday tradition); ask a friend's family about theirs and compare.
- Grade 2: compare your town with a town on another continent; learn about people who built your town and Texas; interview an older neighbor.
- Grade 4: read a short Texas primary source and answer who wrote it, when, to whom, and why.
- Grade 5: two accounts of the same event, side by side: where do they agree, where do they differ, and why.
How to teach it
- Before an interview, write five questions with him: where did you grow up, what was school like, what has changed here.
- Lay an old photo next to a new one of the same kind of place and list what changed and what stayed.
- For a primary source, ask four questions every time: who wrote it, when, for whom, and what did they want the reader to think?
- Two accounts differ because the writers stood in different places, knew different things, or wanted different things. Name which.
- Say what happened, when, and who did it. Leave the judging of the past to the facts.
Curriculum goals this sheet covers (5)
In the words of the grade-by-grade guide.
- Describes a custom his own family keeps and compares it with a different family's.
- Compares his community with a community somewhere else in the world and names two real differences.
- Identifies historical figures connected to the local community and to Texas.
- Reads a short primary source about Texas and says who wrote it and why that matters.
- Compares two primary sources about the same event and explains why they differ.
Goals covered: Describes a custom his own family keeps and compares it with a different family's.Compares his community with a community somewhere else in the world and names two real differences.Identifies historical figures connected to the local community and to Texas.Reads a short primary source about Texas and says who wrote it and why that matters.Compares two primary sources about the same event and explains why they differ.