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The use of primary source documents to teach students about historical
events has too often been reserved for advanced placement high school students. In this video case study
Sandra Lomeland, a Nationally Board Certified Teacher from Page, Arizona demonstrates how pictures,
letters, speeches and other artifacts can play an equally important role in the elementary classroom.
Ms. Lomeland uses a variety of primary sources to help her 5th grade students analyze westward expansion and the
different perspectives of the European American settlers and the Native American population. She specifically
focuses on the definition of "progress" and the building of the transcontinental railroad.
To understand the primary documents, Sandra's students utilize a
variety of graphic organizers that allow them to clearly identify the settlers' and Native
Americans' contrasting and similar views of the land and railroad. Through this process they
begin to understand the importance of viewing historical events from multiple perspectives and
wrestle with the critical concepts of progress and Manifest Destiny.
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