Helping Students Decode Old Primary Source Documents

Helping Students Decode Old Primary Source Documents

Reading primary source documents from the 1700s and 1800s is a huge challenge for our students. Here are a few ways to help them:

Make historic documents easier to read by:

Proving a brief introduction to the document and the time period in which it was written through a headnote, brief video, or short lecture

Ask focusing questions to give students a reason for reading the document

Shorten the document

Define difficult vocabulary

Simplify challenging sentence construction

Provide wide margins for note taking

As students become more skilled, provide less support over time

To find several examples of how this looks, Google: adapting documents for the classroom teaching history.org

Scaffolding Instruction

Teach documents using direct instruction:

I do (the instructor models strategies they use to tackle difficult documents and uses

techniques like a think aloud)

We do (the instructor and students work together on the skill

You do (students work independently on the skill while the instructor monitors their progress)

Use an active reading strategy like text marking so students know when they stop understanding

what they read

✔ I knew this before

! This is new for me

? I’m not sure what this means

Ask who, what, when, where, why, and how questions of the document

Use the margins for notes and brief summaries

Adapted from teachinghistory.org

Headnote: These instructions were given to Americans of Japanese descent living along the West

Coast of the US about how to report for internment

Focus Question: Under the 14th Amendment, American citizens cannot have their rights taken

away without due process of law. If you were a Japanese American citizen, what

would your reaction be to this document

"To All Persons of Japanese Ancestry" [modified]

Western Defense Command and Fourth Army Wartime Civil Control Administration, Presidio of San Francisco, California

May 3, 1942

Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry . . . .

Pursuant to the provisions of Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34, this Headquarters, dated May 3, 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated . . . by 12 o'clock noon, P. W. T., Sunday, May 9, 1942.

No Japanese person living in the above area will be permitted to change residence after 12 o'clock noon, P. W. T., Sunday, May 3, 1942, without obtaining special permission . . . . Such permits will only be granted for the purpose of uniting members of a family, or in cases of grave emergency.

The Following Instructions Must Be Observed:

1. A responsible member of each family, preferably the head of the family, or the person

in whose name most of the property is held, and each individual living alone, will report to the Civil Control Station to receive further instructions. This must be done between 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M. on Monday, May 4, 1942, or between 9:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M. on Tuesday, May 5, 1942.

2. Evacuees must carry with them on departure for the Assembly Center, the following

property:

(a) Bedding and linens (no mattress) for each member of the family;

(b) Toilet articles for each member of the family;

(d) Sufficient knives, forks, spoons, plates, bowls and cups for each member of

the family;

(e) Essential personal effects for each member of the family.

3. No pets of any kind will be permitted.

4. No personal items and no household goods will be shipped to the Assembly Center.

J. L. DeWITT

Lieutenant General, U.S. Army, Commanding