For the vast majority of students at all levels (primary, secondary and post-secondary schools), working with primary sources in the classroom is a new experience.

Here we provide worksheets that present two examples of activities that students can do with documents, photos or other primary sources. The purpose of these worksheets is to give students guidance in "reading" these primary sources. It is important to give students some time to look independently and carefully at the documents, but to also give them guidance in doing this. Otherwise, primary source activities can end up being a teacher of professor explaining the significance of sources to student which ends up being a teacher-centered activity and can become boring after looking at one or two documents.

Archive Review Sheet
Areas to focus on and questions to ask while analyzing a primary document.

Research Exercise: Analyzing a Historical Document
A six step exercise to analyze a primary document.