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4th grade · Social Studies · Unit 2 of 8

History Detective

Sources, timelines and evidence

What your child practices

Primary and secondary sources, timelines and centuries, fact and opinion, claims and evidence, and judging a source by its maker, date and purpose, using early American history.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: History 1 · using primary and secondary sources and timelines to study the past

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A primary source is from the time, like a letter. A secondary source is made later, like a textbook.
  2. A fact can be proved true. An opinion is what someone thinks.
  3. Check a source’s maker, date and purpose. A century is 100 years.

Example: Is a colonist’s diary from 1750 a primary or secondary source? It was written by someone living then. Sources from the time are primary. Answer: a primary source

History Detective in Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 2 of 8 in 4th grade Social Studies, after World Maps & Globes and before Maine on the Map.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Maine Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What is a claim?

    • A map symbol
    • A random guess
    • A statement you support with evidence
    • A date

  2. Question 2

    Why might two people describe the same event differently?

    • Only one person can see
    • One must be lying
    • They have different perspectives
    • Events never happen

  3. Question 3

    What makes evidence strong?

    • It has lots of opinions
    • It is from one person's guess
    • It is very long
    • It comes from reliable sources and supports the claim

  4. Question 4

    A century is…

    • 50 years
    • 100 years
    • 10 years
    • 1000 years

  5. Question 5

    A historian finds two sources that disagree. What should she do?

    • Compare them and look for more evidence
    • Pick the longer one
    • Throw both away
    • Choose the newest one

  6. Question 6

    A deliberative process for a class decision means…

    • Never deciding
    • One person decides alone
    • Flipping a coin without talking
    • Discussing options and reasons before deciding together

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