Media Activities: Accessing Primary Sources
There are a number of media activities provided within the site that center around the classroom uses of primary source materials. The materials originate from VCDH's numerous online archives. At this time not all of the sections will contain each type of activity. We are continually developing primary source media activities and hope to update these sections regularly.
It is the intent of VCDH to facilitate historical understanding by consulting primary source materials so please contact us if you have suggestions.
Primary Source Activities
1. Journal Readings- Doctoral Students from the University of Virginia combine narration and images to represent a number of first person accounts in the form of letters and journal entries. Each reading contains a transcript of the original document, discussion questions and some activities for classroom use.
2. Video- Each section contains video activities. These activities utilize numerous VCDH online archives to help users make sense of history by using primary source materials. Click on the primary source videos links to establish familiarity with the topic then move on to the questions and activities provided.
3. Debates- For each era under discussion, there is at least one debate topic. The debate guidelines page provides instructions for how to conduct a classroom debate at the middle school level or with the Taking Sides format.
Choose Eras