8.12.E

ELA8th GradeThe student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for a variety of purposes.

The Standard

differentiate between primary and secondary sources

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students identify whether evidence comes directly from a person, object, or record connected to an event, or from someone interpreting other evidence. They support the classification with specific source details.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students correctly classify interviews, diaries, photographs, artifacts, textbooks, biographies, and later analyses. They explain each choice by identifying who created the source and how that person knew the information.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think every old document is primary or every website is secondary. They may also assume primary sources are always accurate. A source's type depends on its relationship to the research question.
How to Assess It: Give students four source descriptions about a school event. Ask them to label each primary or secondary and justify one answer using creator, timing, and evidence.

Lesson moves

Give pairs a folder of source cards about one event, then have them sort the cards and defend two placements.
Ask students to write: Can a primary source be unreliable, and what details would help you decide?
Play Source Sprint, teams classify projected examples and earn a point only when they give an accurate reason.
Compare an eyewitness video of a local event with a later news summary, then discuss what each source can and cannot show.

Keep exploring

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