Social Studies Primary Source Lesson Plan Template

Sourcing (5 min): Before reading, students answer: Who created this? When? Why? What was their perspective? Sourcing prevents the common mistake of treating every document as objective truth.

Close reading (15 min): Students read the source with guiding questions. What claims does the author make? What evidence do they use? What is left out? Annotation targets keep students engaged with the text.

Contextualization and corroboration (15 min): Students connect the source to what they know about the time period and compare it to a second source. 'Do these sources agree? Where do they differ? Why might that be?'

Original language can be a barrier. Provide a brief vocabulary gloss for archaic terms, but don't rewrite the source — the original language is part of the evidence. For struggling readers, pair the written source with a visual (political cartoon, photograph, map) that provides context.

Sentence frames for analysis: 'The author argues ___ using evidence such as ___. This reflects the perspective of ___ because ___.' These frames scaffold historical thinking without reducing rigor.

Social studies lessons in LessonCraft include source analysis structures, discussion protocols, and evidence-based writing prompts aligned to historical thinking skills.