Teaching students about sourcing a document is an explicit strategy instruction (Nokes & Dole, 2004.) It helps students understand what to keep in mind when they analyze a resource, specifically historical documents.

When students are sourcing a document they ask themselves these questions:

• Who wrote this?
• What is the author’s point of view?
• What was this written?
• What time frame was it written? (How long after the event?)
• Is this source believable? Why or why not?

See sourcing in action in the video below.