Resources for TeachersThe activities on this website are designed to help students learn to analyze primary sources. The questions move students from lower- to higher-level critical thinking skills by asking them to first describe, then summarize, and finally analyze and create historical context. Descriptive questions help students identify the source. Students should use good reading or visual strategies in their descriptive work by referring directly to the photograph or document. In summarizing, students are asked to state what the document is about. They need to figure out what is the most essential information being conveyed by the document. Asking bigger questions is a way for students to think about historical context. Students can ask themselves what they already know about the topic of the primary source, why something might have happened, or what another perspective might be. Links are provided to websites containing historical context. The synthesizing activity asks students to connect local Orford events to the larger national story. It also helps students to develop a chronology or narrative of Orford’s agricultural and architectural history and its impact on the land. The activities are also designed so the U.S. History teacher will have a local lens with which to view major eras in U.S. History. Students can thus move through the activities by going from trail stop to trail stop or by going chronologically from the list below. Background readings and websites. Creation of OfordActivity: Orford's Proprietors Lower Street: Grafton County TurnpikeActivity: Traveling to Orford Activity: Settling Orford Orford AcademyActivity: Orford’s Schools Tillotson MillActivity: Mills in Orford Marston/Morrison FarmActivity: Orford's Changing Agricultural Landscape Synthesizing Activity |
