A Guide to Understanding Primary Sources

Imagine that you are researching to write a paper about the events during the Siege of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, in 1836.

You have found seven sources, but you need to determine which of them are primary, which of them are secondary, and which of them have both primary and secondary content.

In the activity below, drag each card from the deck to the correct source type.

Click the card deck to view a card. Drag the card from the bottom to the correct category (like playing Solitaire).

...So, how well did you do at classifying the sources about the Alamo? Did any of them stump you? You might want to read an explanation of the answers for Practice #1.