Happy Teaching Tuesday!
Including a tip this week from my presentation at last week's virtual workshop on "Teaching with Primary Sources."
For students to successfully analyze a primary source, they need to make sure they have sufficient background information on the document. To remind students, I tell them every time they approach a primary source they should think "WTF?" This is both a fun reminder that at first they might not know what they are getting into, but a more practical memory tool to identify:
W - Who is writing? What should I know about him/her/them?
T - What is the time period/yeart? What is going on/relevant historical context?
F - What is the format of the document? What am I reading (speech, letter, newspaper...)? And who is the intended audience?
If you have a useful tip, please send it to editorial-teach@mail.h-net.org.
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