Texas TEKS 2.15.B

Social Studies2nd GradeSocial studies skills

The Standard

identify different kinds of historical sources and artifacts and explain how they can be used to study the past

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students recognize sources such as photographs, letters, maps, newspapers, recordings, and objects. They explain what each source can reveal about people and events from long ago.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can name the type of source and describe a reasonable clue it provides. The student points to a detail in the source as evidence.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think every old object is an artifact or that artifacts must come from museums. They may treat guesses as facts. They may assume one source tells the whole story.
How to Assess It: Show a historic photograph and an old household object. Ask students to name each source and write one thing each could teach us about the past.

Lesson moves

Set up source stations with copied letters, photographs, maps, coins, and tools, then have pairs record one clue from each item.
Show a historic school photograph and ask, "What can we learn, and what can we not learn, from this picture?"
Play Source Detective by giving teams clue cards and having them match each clue to a photograph, map, letter, recording, or artifact.
Have students bring or draw a family object, then explain what a future historian might learn from it.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 2.15.B, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

Keep exploring

Grade, subject, topic, and the complete standard are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.