Subscribe

6th grade · Social Studies · Unit 9 of 9

Sources & Points of View

Primary sources, bias and credibility

What your child practices

Telling primary and secondary sources apart, facts and opinions, points of view about an issue, spotting bias, and judging whether a source is valid, credible and up to date.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 6.19(A); 6.19(D); 6.19(F); 6.21(E) · primary and secondary sources, points of view, and judging sources for validity, credibility, bias and accuracy

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A point of view is how someone sees an issue, shaped by experience.
  2. Bias favors one side and leaves out others. A travel brochure shows only the nice side.
  3. Use many sources for a complete account, and cite where your information came from.

Example: Why does a historian use many sources? One source may be biased or incomplete. More sources give a fuller picture. Answer: to make the account more complete and accurate

Sources & Points of View in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 9 of 9 in 6th grade Social Studies, after World Regions.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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

    The date a source was published matters because…

    • dates are just decoration
    • newer sources are always right
    • older sources are always wrong
    • information can change over time

  2. Question 2

    A source's purpose might be to…

    • hide every fact
    • only confuse readers
    • inform, persuade or entertain
    • replace all other sources

  3. Question 3

    Which word is a sign of a loaded, one-sided statement?

    • disastrous
    • located
    • about
    • population

  4. Question 4

    Which is an opinion?

    • Brazil is in South America.
    • Mount Everest is in the Himalayas.
    • The Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
    • Mountain towns are the nicest places to live.

  5. Question 5

    Corroborating a source means…

    • copying it word for word
    • throwing it away
    • checking it against other sources
    • translating it

  6. Question 6

    A speech by a government leader about a new policy is a primary source that may also be…

    • a census
    • a physical map
    • persuasive and one-sided
    • a secondary source

More 6th grade