Project Collaborators:

• Jordan school district
• Granite school district
• Washington school district
• Alpine school district
• Utah State University’s digital library.

Project Overview:

Interested parties in Utah formed a consortium for their TPS-Mountain/Plains program. The group includes four county school districts (Jordan, Granite, Washington, Alpine) and Utah State University’s digital library.

“The reason we formed a consortium is because we’ve all had Teaching American History grants, and teaching with primary sources has been the foundation of those grants,” says Pamela S’ua, the history/social studies curriculum consultant for the Jordan School District. “… Some of our grants are ending, but we see the value in using primary sources, so we’re looking to train trainers so that they can go out and work with individual groups of teachers in schools.”

S’ua hopes to develop a nucleus of TPS talent to draw upon to train teachers throughout the state. Currently, TPS-Mountain/Plains consortium members meets once every two months as part of another group, the Wasatch Front Consortium, to provide support and avoid duplicating efforts.

“One thing that will come out of the grant as we train trainers is that each trainer will take one of the core curriculum standards and compile a document collection and a lesson to go with that, and all of these units will be placed on our department of education’s website so that teachers across the state will have access to these document collections and information on how to use them.”

The first Utah group training was held in December 2008. The response was unanimously positive and enthusiastic:

"It made finding necessary information easier. It simplified the searching process."

"Great materials and online resources...the hands on opportunity was very helpful."

Ultimately, the goal of the Utah program is to teach students—so far in grades four through 12—to think like historians, including being able to analyze and think critically about primary sources. S’ua adds, “In the past, history was memorize these dates, learn the names of these people, memorize what they did. Now, we’re saying, ‘If I give you this information, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to think it through? What questions are you going to ask? What inferences can you make? What predictions can you make? What do you know about it?’ By using primary sources, kids develop these critical thinking skills that then carry them on into other disciplines and into the world.”

S’ua suggests “What Does it Mean to Think Historically, and How Do You Teach It?” by Bruce A. VanSledright [Social Education, 68, No 3 (2004): 222-23]. A download of the paper is available on Amazon for $5.95.

Especially in the Internet age, S’ua says these inquiry-based learning skills keep kids from falling prey to spam artists. “They learn to think things through,” she says. “They learn to see if it makes sense and if it fits logically into what they already know, so I think we’re giving them real-world skills by asking them to take a look at primary sources.”

After all, she reminds us, primary sources are not just historical in nature. New primary sources—including things like teen magazines—crop up every day.

Grant Awarded: Awareness Grant of $5000

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