Using Primary Sources, Grade 3 (Evidence-Based Inquiry)

Evidence-Based Inquiry Using Primary Sources, grade three, offers many opportunities for inquiry-based learning. This high-interest book is the perfect tool to increase reading comprehension. The primary sources, obtained from the Library of Congress, are photos of actual people, events, and symbols of another era. Accompanying text lends context to the photos and is offered at three readability levels to allow for differentiation. A final page in each section presents questions and prompts to encourage students to ask questions, look for answers, and make connections between the past and the present. Students will enjoy the primary source subjects, which range from Civil War ruins to migrant workers to Frederick Douglass.

The Evidence-Based Inquiry Using Primary Sources series for grades 1 to 6 will engage students in a world of inquiry and discovery. Inquiry-based learning is active learning that elicits a higher level of reading comprehension. The pages of these books contain exciting and fascinating real-world photographs, advertising, recipe cards, theater programs, posters, letters, and maps, as well as other interesting items that document history. Each book highlights 15 primary sources across four pages each. The first three pages of each set present the same primary source with text that is differentiated for three reading levels. The last page of each set offers questions and prompts to encourage higher-level thinking and inquiry.

Inquiry-based learning is active learning that engages students in higher-level thinking. These books are full of opportunities for inquiry-based learning as students explore primary source documents. Primary sources provide eyewitness evidence of authentic events. The pages contain photographs of actual experiences, prints, maps, banners, posters, and advertising from about 1860 to 1930. The text provides context for the photographs but allows students to achieve higher levels of reading comprehension as they investigate the details of each primary source. Students are then asked to consider different points of view, to evaluate information, to draw conclusions, and to appreciate historical perspectives. Each activity supports standards-based learning by prompting students to use the primary sources and content-rich nonfiction to cite evidence and build knowledge.