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Analyse a Primary Source
Grade 5 - Social Studies - On Level
Worksheet 1
1Which topic could this primary source help study: a speech excerpt by an abolitionist?
2Which clue helps show why "a newspaper notice advertising a ship leaving for Oregon" is useful?
3Which evidence can be taken from a treaty excerpt between the U.S. government and a Native nation?
4Which historical question fits a treaty excerpt between the U.S. government and a Native nation?
5Which limitation should a historian remember about a photograph of workers in a factory?
6Which topic could this primary source help study: a diary entry from a soldier at Valley Forge?
7Which clue helps show why "a photograph of workers in a factory" is useful?
8Which evidence can be taken from a speech excerpt by an abolitionist?
9Which historical question fits a newspaper notice advertising a ship leaving for Oregon?
10Which limitation should a historian remember about a diary entry from a soldier at Valley Forge?
About this worksheet
Analysing a primary source asks students to inspect who created a source, when it was made, what evidence it gives, and what it cannot prove by itself asks fifth graders to use civic, geographic, historical, or economic evidence before choosing an answer. Students may quote a source detail without asking whether the source is firsthand, persuasive, limited, biased, or in need of comparison with other evidence. This worksheet uses concrete documents, maps, timelines, public decisions, and community examples so students must reason from the situation named in the title. Students identify source clues, connect evidence to historical questions, explain limitations, choose corroborating questions, and support claims from the source itself. Support versions use direct wording and familiar evidence. Standard and challenge versions add closer choices, multiple perspectives, and more careful cause-and-effect reasoning. Ask your child to underline the clue that proves the answer. If a choice is true in general but does not match the source, map, event, or tradeoff in the prompt, it is a distractor.
What your child will learn
Identify source clues
Use evidence
Explain limitations
Ask corroborating questions
Worked example
A soldier's diary from Valley Forge is useful firsthand evidence, but one diary cannot prove what every soldier experienced.
Common mistake
Treating one primary source as the complete story.
Helpful hint
Ask who made it, when, why, what it shows, and what else you need.
Worksheet 1