Audio-Visual Primary Sources
Course
Sourcing & Contextualizing [4:39]
Even before students begin watching or listening to audio-visual primary sources, they should prepare to interact with the source by sourcing and contextualizing.
I ask my students to spend less than five minutes on sourcing and see it as preparation to analyze the primary source. Some of the sourcing comes from what they know about different formats of media, but other information comes from the bibliographic data that students should have access to along with the source itself.
If a student was sourcing the 1897 film taken at the corner of Madison and State Street, Chicago, he would identify it as a short film created by Thomas Edison's film company. While he might not know exactly why the film was created, he would likely know that films are usually created to entertain or inform people, and may believe this film was created for one of these reasons. The students may believe the film is highly credible because of its format, that it captures a moment, or may feel the source is credible because they know the name Thomas Edison even though they may or may not associate the name with film.
Notice that students can do much of the sourcing without actually watching the film. Depending on the primary source, I may suggest exactly that. Sourcing with minimal interaction with the primary source itself, ask them to draw upon the bibliographic data and their understanding of sources and those involved with the source and helps them to wait to analyze the source, which they will do separately. Seeing the title, still frame, and possibly a small portion of a longer film is typically enough to source the film itself.
After sourcing, students should move right into contextualizing the audio-visual primary source. Again, bibliographic data is key, along with their own prior knowledge of history and events as they work to place the primary source in its historical context.
Questions can help guide students when contextualizing an audio-visual primary source. They may ask where and when the source was created, what topic of study is the source connected with, what do they know about this event, the time period, what people may be involved.
Contextualizing this particular film may be difficult for some students depending on when I introduced this into my teaching on the Second Industrial Revolution. Again, only seeing a still frame, title, and bibliographic data, a student would find that the film was created in 1897 in Chicago, Illinois. And while her knowledge of 19th century Chicago may be limited, she may know that Chicago is a large city and a busy city today and assume that it was a larger city compared to most at the time.
If I have already begun teaching about the urbanization of America, she may also draw upon her knowledge of certain technological advancements in cities, such as the telegraph, gas and water supply and sewer systems, or typical modes of transportation in cities during the Second Industrial Revolution, such as bicycles, automobiles, or mass transportation, including trolleys or subways. Again, notice that the student does not need to watch the film or listen to the audio when contextualizing the audio-visual primary source. The goal is to draw upon her own knowledge in preparation for analysis of the source.
You may have times when students have little background knowledge to draw from. If time is limited, you may supply some appropriate context that you think will assist them when analyzing the source. But be careful not to provide context specific to the source, instead, provide context specific to the topic. In my example above, I may provide context about cities during the Second Industrial Revolution but not specifics about Chicago or transportation methods within the city.
My goal in assisting students with context, if there's little or none, is to support them in making meaning of the audio-visual primary source and to ask questions, not to give them so much information it encourages them to explore the bibliographic information and make initial connections to prior knowledge that they can draw upon as they view a film or listen to a recording. While initial modeling may take longer, once students become comfortable with sourcing and contextualizing, they should only spend a few minutes doing each before moving on to analyzing the primary source.
Additional Resources
Primary Sources Used in This Workshop
Teaching with AV Sources.
About the Author
MLA Citation
Bober, Tom. "Audio-Visual Primary Sources. Sourcing & Contextualizing [4:39]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, January 2018, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2123891?learningModuleId=2123886&topicCenterId=2158571.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2123891?learningModuleId=2123886&topicCenterId=2158571
Entry ID: 2123891