Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← History
HistoryGCSE-style history: sources, interpretations and change over time30 min★★★ difficulty

How useful is this source? Answering it properly

'Useful' is not the same as 'reliable', and a biased source can be extremely useful. The question is always: useful for finding out what?

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims

Key learning points

  • • Read the caption first
  • • Bias is evidence, not a fault
  • • Tie utility to the enquiry
  • • Building the answer

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

methodshistoricalenquiryevidencerigorously

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

How useful is this source? Answering it properly

An English teaching video on this topic from The Medieval Historian. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already know the difference between a primary and a secondary source and that sources have authors with purposes.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Provenance
Who made a source, when, where and why.
Utility
How useful a source is for a specific enquiry.
Nature
What kind of source it is: diary, poster, official report.
Purpose
What the author wanted the source to achieve.
Corroboration
Checking a claim against other evidence.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Provenance before content

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Read the caption first

Nature, origin, purpose and date shape everything. A recruitment poster from 1915 tells you little about how many men wanted to fight, but a great deal about how the government wished the war to be seen. Weak answers describe the picture; strong ones start with who made it and why.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Bias is evidence, not a fault

A source distorted by its author's interests is still evidence of those interests. A mill owner's account of factory conditions is unreliable about hours and injuries, and highly useful about how owners justified themselves. Never dismiss a source simply because it is one-sided.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

'Useful' should always be judged...

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Provenance means...

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Judging utility for a stated enquiry

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Tie utility to the enquiry

The same source shifts value depending on the question. A soldier's censored letter home is limited evidence about battlefield tactics but strong evidence about what soldiers were permitted to say. Always name the enquiry before judging usefulness.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Building the answer

Use a repeatable shape: what the source shows, what its provenance adds, what own knowledge confirms or challenges, then a judgement on utility for the stated enquiry, including limitations. Two developed points beat five undeveloped ones.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

A biased propaganda poster is useful evidence of...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

The strongest source answers include...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Reliable and useful are different judgements — biased sources can be very useful.
  • A source being old, or primary, does not make it more useful by itself.
  • Describing the content is not analysis; the marks come from provenance and enquiry.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

A source distorted by its author's interests is still ____ of those interests.

Always name the ____ before judging usefulness.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: How useful is this source? Answering it properly

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Nature of a source means...

  2. 2. Corroboration means...

  3. 3. A censored letter is strong evidence about...

  4. 4. Own knowledge is used to...

  5. 5. Which weakens an answer most?

  6. 6. A primary source is automatically...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Source

A factory inspector's notebook, 1842

"I visited the mill at seven in the morning. The machines were already running. I counted fourteen children at the frames, the youngest no more than nine years of age. The overseer told me they work from six until seven, with forty minutes for dinner."

"The air is thick with cotton dust and the windows are kept shut so the thread does not break. Two of the children showed me hands cut by the shuttles. The owner assured me that the work is light and that the families beg him for the places, since without the children's wages the rent cannot be paid."

"I have written to the magistrates. I doubt much will follow from it."

Original source-style text written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Who wrote this, when, and why might that make it useful to a historian?
  2. What does the source tell you about children's work — and what does it not tell you?
  3. How far does this source show that mill owners were to blame? Answer with a judgement and evidence.

  • Source work

    Reading

    Read the source closely. Write who made it, when, and what it tells you — then what it does not tell you.

    2 paragraphs

  • Essay answer

    Writing

    Answer the enquiry question with a clear judgement. Use two pieces of evidence and finish with a sentence that weighs them up.

    300–400 words

  • Timeline

    Diagram

    Draw a timeline of the events in this lesson with dates, then photograph it.

    6–8 events

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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