Defining
First-/Second-/and Third-Order Documents
First-Order
- The most essential primary source
for the teacher on a particular topic in history.
Second-Order
- Three to five primary or secondary
sources that challenge or corroborate the
central idea in the First-Order document. These documents,
selected by the teacher, provide a nuanced understanding
of the topic by offering multiple perspectives.
Third-Order
- Additional primary or secondary
sources that students find to challenge or corroborate
the First-Order document. Ultimately, students should
select a Third-Order document to serve as their First-Order
document.
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Frederick D. Drake -
Defining a Primary Source
A direct record left behind from the period
or by the people who are the subject of the historian's
study. It
may be a document in print (e.g. letter, diary, speech,
official correspondence, newspaper or magazine article);
an image (e.g. photograph, painting, political cartoon,
map, chart, graph); broadcast media (e.g. movie or television
show clip, radio broadcast); or artifact (e.g. tool, apparatus).
Defining
a Secondary Source
Books,
essays, and articles historians write that are accounts
of a period or a topic after an event has taken place.
It is a synthesis of research, based on primary sources,
and creativity that offers a narrative of the subject
studied by the historian. Depending on the focus of a
particular study, a secondary source can serve as a primary
source. For example: while a textbook is typically considered
a secondary source, a work such as David Saville Muzzey's
History of the American People (1927) becomes a
primary source when studying textbooks written in the
1920s.
Deliberative discussion is both a method
and means. Deliberative discussion is a method for establishing
the credibility of historical evidence and arguments.
Deliberative discussion is a means to develop historical
understanding in students. Deliberation involves teachers
and students in careful examination and extended discussion
starting with a seminal (First-Order) document, the teacher
and students discuss the central issues and ideas in the
primary source. The teacher ask students to suspend judgments
about past issues and points of view while trying to understand
the context of the document. The teacher than introduces
additional related (Second-Order) documents so students
have a richer contextual understanding of the period.
Students are invited to find other (Third-Order) documents
that more fully illuminate their inquiries into the past.
This kind of inquiry offers students opportunities to
understand ongoing ideas and issues in history.
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