Classroom Resource

Document Analysis Worksheet

Subject Area

Social Studies

Grade(s)

3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12

Overview

This graphic organizer will guide students through the process of analyzing a historical document such as a newspaper article, a report, a magazine article, a congressional record, a press release, a census report, an internet article, a map, an official memorandum, or an announcement. This worksheet includes guiding questions that will support students as they closely read and analyze a selected historical document.

Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 3

SS10.3.11

Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs.

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.3.11

Vocabulary

  • interpret
  • legends
  • stories
  • songs
  • contributed
  • development
  • cultural history
  • tall tales
  • folk heroes

Knowledge

Students know:

  • The purpose and essential elements of legends, stories, and songs.
  • Examples of legends, stories, and songs that contributed to United States' cultural history including American Indian Legends, African American Stories, Tall Tales and stories of Folk Heroes.
  • Vocabulary: legends, stories, songs, cultural history.

Skills

Students are able to:

  • Interpret legends, stories, and songs.
  • Identify the purpose and essential elements of legends, stories, and songs.
  • Identify the contribution that specific legends, stories, and songs had on the development of cultural history of the United States.

Understanding

Students understand that:

  • There are legends, stories, and songs that have contributed to the development of the cultural history of the United States.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 4

SS10.4.1

Compare historical and current economic, political, and geographic information about Alabama on thematic maps, including weather and climate, physical-relief, waterway, transportation, political, economic development, land-use, and population maps.

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.4.1

Vocabulary

  • agriculture
  • economic development
    • physical-relief maps

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Many events can impact the population, economic development, and land use in an area.

Skills

The students are able to:
  • Analyze characteristics of Alabama using physical and thematic maps.
  • Describe the relationship between human migration and population.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Events can impact the population, economic development, and land use in an area.
  • The climate and weather of our state impacts the population, economic development, and land use.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 7 - 7th Grade: Geography

SS10.7G.1

Describe the world in spatial terms using maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies.

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.7G.1

Vocabulary

  • spatial thinking
  • spatial relationships
  • spatial perspective
  • spatial patterns
  • spatial models
  • geospatial technologies

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Types of maps or geographic resources—reference, thematic, planimetric, topographic, globe and map projections, aerial photographs, satellite images.
  • The difference between aerial photography and satellite images and their properties for interpreting spatial patterns.
  • The uses of GIS in portraying geographic or spatial patterns and in answering geographic questions.
  • The uses of mapping technology to trace diseases through a population geographic trade patterns, governmental alliances, and immigration patterns, mental maps, cultures, urban land-use patterns, distribution and linkages of cities, migration patterns, population-density patterns, spread (diffusion) of culture traits, spread (diffusion) of contagious.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Read, analyze and interpret maps, aerial photography, satellite images, and other types of mapping technology.
  • Use mental maps.
  • Use GPS for locations.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Maps portray human and physical geographic patterns, understand the use of GPS and GIS in explaining geographic patterns, that mental maps are important in understanding cultural perceptions and the organization of cultural landscapes.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 11 - United States History II

SS10.US2.5

Evaluate the impact of social changes and the influence of key figures in the United States from World War I through the 1920s, including Prohibition, the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Scopes Trial, limits on immigration, Ku Klux Klan activities, the Red Scare, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the Jazz Age, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, W. C. Handy, and Zelda Fitzgerald. (Alabama) (A.1.a., A.1.b., A.1.d., A.1.f., A.1.i., A.1.j., A.1.k.)

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.US2.5

Vocabulary

  • prohibition
  • Nineteenth Amendment
  • Scopes trial
  • Ku Klux Klan
  • Red Scare
  • Harlem Renaissance
  • mass culture

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The causes, effects, and impact of social and political events in the United States from World War I through the 1920, including Prohibition, passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, the *Scopes Trial, limits on immigration, Ku Klux Klan activities, the Red Scare, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, and the Jazz Age.
  • The impact of influential individuals on social, political, and economic realities in the United States from World War I through the 1920, including Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, W. C. Handy, and Zelda Fitzgerald.
  • The impact of media on social and political realities in the United States from World War I through the 1920.
  • The impact of major works of American artists and writers from World War I through the 1920, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes and H.L. Mencken.
  • The importance of technological innovations through the 1920s and the impact these had on social, economic, political, and individual realities in the United States.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Explain social, economic, political, and cultural changes in the United States during specific historical periods and related to specific historical events.
  • Describe the influence of specific individuals and groups on the United States during specific historical periods into modern times.
  • Analyze the impact of technical innovations and changing media on American social and political realities.
  • Determine central ideas of primary and secondary sources.
  • Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • There were significant impacts of the social changes and the influence of prominent figures in the United States from WWI through the 1920s.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 09-12 - Contemporary World Issues and Civic Engagement

SS10.CWI.1

Describe current news stories from various perspectives, including geographical, historical, political, social, and cultur

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.CWI.1

Vocabulary

  • perspective
  • local, state, national, and international communities
  • analyze
  • interpret
  • statistical data
  • compare/contrast
  • news graphic (infographic)

Knowledge

Students know:
  • News stories can be interpreted through various perspectives.
  • The types of information that can be found within news stories.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Analyze news stories for comparative purposes in their style, format, and audience.
  • Develop connections between current issues and past events.
  • Interpret various forms of data, including statistical and geographical, contained in news stories.
  • Identify cause-effect relationships with current news stories and their world implications.
  • Locate on a map key locations of major world news stories.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The relevancy of major news stories can be established through analysis of the story and drawing connections.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 09-12 - Contemporary World Issues and Civic Engagement

SS10.CWI.6

Compare information presented through various media, including television, newspapers, magazines, journals, and the Internet.

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.CWI.6

Vocabulary

  • media bias
  • analyze
  • criticism
  • viewpoints
  • perspective
  • political carton
  • symbolism
  • flawed sampling
  • editorial

Knowledge

Students know:
  • A variety of techniques for analyzing media outlets including television, internet, magazines, newspapers, and journals.
  • A variety of techniques for analyzing the meaning, sources, viewpoints, bias, and sampling involved in media.
  • Media is biased.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Analyze and compare information from various media sources.
  • Support analysis with evidence from various sources.
  • Determine reliability of news and their sources.
  • Identify bias and viewpoints including symbolism.
  • Apply strategies for media analysis to a variety of media outlets.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • It is important to analyze media in all forms to determine the reliability, source, meaning, perspective, bias, and sampling when listening to media outlets.
Link to Resource
http://www.bringinghistoryhome.org/assets/bringinghistoryhome/document%20analys…

CR Resource Type

Learning Activity

Resource Provider

Bringing History Home
Accessibility

Accessibility

Text Resources: Content is organized under headings and subheadings
License

License Type

Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

Comments or Notes

This graphic organizer worksheet can be printed and distributed to students.

This graphic organizer worksheet can be used with any historical document, including maps.

Approved Date

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