Grade 7 Fall — Research Process, MLA Citation, Source Evaluation, and Multi-Source Synthesis
English · RES G7 eng.g7.f.res.primary_secondary_distinction

Distinguish primary and secondary sources by discipline (CCSS W.7.8; RI.7.1)

Identify whether a source is primary (first-hand from time/event/person) or secondary (analyzes/interprets primary sources) given the research question and discipline. Recognize that primary/secondary is RELATIVE to the question — a 1950s newspaper is secondary about the Civil War but primary about 1950s attitudes. Apply discipline-specific examples (history letters/diaries; science peer-reviewed articles; humanities the work itself).

Mastery threshold
85%
Min instances
8
Typical minutes
40
Spaced intervals (days)
1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 60
Prereqs
Successors
Common misconceptions
  • Treats primary/secondary as a fixed property of the document rather than relative to the question.
  • Assumes 'old' equals primary and 'recent' equals secondary.

Exercise pool (1)

Diff Stem Type
2 Sort 10 sources for a research question on the Civil Rights Movement. Primary, secondary, or relative-depends-on-question? Sources: (1)... primary secondary sort