Habits of Document Analysis

Why do we teach sourcing?

Sourcing is the 21st century literacy skill that falls heavily within the discipline of social studies. In Florida, it is has been the first standard, starting in kindergarten for well over twenty years. It may be the single most important standard that we teach. Whether the source is a person or an entity, the source does have a perspective. I want students to think about:

• Is this a man or woman?
  
• What country or part of the country do they from?

• Do they have a cause?
  
• What is their religion?
  
• What do they do for a living?
  
• What is their socio-economic status?
  
• What is the political affiliation?

Many teachers use a simple Who? What? Where? Why? When? strategy to have students unpack a source. I am a big fan of the Stanford History Education Group’s sourcing questions. Whatever you decide to use, consider using an anchor chart in your classroom to reinforce the strategy.

I want students to have an understanding about the source's perspective before they are influenced by what the source says. Every time I hit a source line in an informational text I stop and ask aloud:

• Who wrote this?
• What is the author's point of view?
• Why was it written?
• When was it written?
• Is the source believable ? Why? Why not?

Students aren't always going to have an answer to all of the questions, but the important part is they are developing a thinking routine to help detect the source's perspective. There is an added benefit of the different ways students can start sentences just because they stopped to think about who the source is and where the information is coming from. It's according to Doc A vs. Harriet Tubman, as a black christian woman and abolitionist.

This isn’t about teaching a DBQ, it’s about helping your students make meaning from whatever texts they encounter.

Amie Polcaro

The DBQ Project