Investigating the Ancient Past How do we know?

Primary v. Secondary Sources Refresher Sources tell us about history. Primary sources are those that come from the period in history that you are looking at. They are first-person accounts, or things/objects that are from the historical time period/event/place/culture that you are looking at. Secondary sources are those that are created after/away from the historical time period/event/place/culture that you are looking at. They are often created from looking at primary sources. A textbook is a good example of a secondary source.

Primary and Secondary Sources Using your table from last week (of primary and secondary sources), write a paragraph explaining what Mr Gleeson’s life at Surf Coast Secondary College. (Remember, we are pretending that it is 2014 and we are one of the primary school students looking back at what school was like this year, try to just use the sources you have found, rather than other information that you know.)

Perspective Article 1 – Listen to the first example. Article 2 – Listen to the second example. Are they different or the same?

Perspective The newspaper articles you have just created are examples of secondary sources. They are different, because each writer has their own perspective on history. Even though you all looked at the same sources, you came to different conclusions because of your different perspectives. This happens a lot in history and is part of the reason why it is so interesting.