Before giving students First-Order and Second-Order documents, the teacher needs to raise a question that is of historical importance -- one that poses a central problem and piques students' curiosity, giving purpose to their examination of the sources.

Discussions have an aim which is to come to a consensus of the meaning of the document, while initially suspending judgment. The teacher asks questions that are prefaced by "what," "how," and "why." Deliberative discussion is the heart of the discussion process.

The Analysis Guides provide a framework for thinking historically. The Analysis Guides emphasize what historians look for and think about as they analyze a document. They are not intended as a checklist or a worksheet. Instead, they focus a direction for discussion of the credibility of historical evidence and historical understanding.

Create a context
Use a guide that emphasizes:

Sourcing Heuristic – what historians do before reading for content comprehension
Corroboration Heuristic – what historians do to relate one document to another document
Contextualization – historians describe the time frame and conditions both locally and nationally
Comparative – historians describe conditions in other parts of the world at the time

The terminology above is drawn from Sam Wineburg, a cognitive studies researcher whose focus is the discipline of history.

For further study, consult:

Wineburg, Sam. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past. Philadelphia: Temple University, 2001.

Wineburg, Samuel S. "Historical Problem Solving: A Study of Cognitive Processes Used in the Evaluation of Documentary and Pictorial Evidence." Journal of Educational Psychology 83 (1991): 73-87.

Wineburg, Samuel S. "Probing the Depths of Students' Historical Knowledge." Perspectives: Newsletter of the American Historical Association 30 (1992): 20-24.

Wineburg, Sam. "Reading Abraham Lincoln: An Expert/Expert Study in the Interpretation of Historical Texts," Congitive Science 22, no. 3 (1998): 319-346.