Civil Rights Source Types

This informative social studies worksheet helps students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 strengthen historical inquiry, reading comprehension, and evidence-based reasoning skills through a focused study of the Civil Rights Movement. As students examine a passage describing a learner’s research process, they identify different sources-such as newspapers, recordings, textbooks, biographies, and documentaries-and determine whether each is a primary or secondary source, using details from the text to justify their choices.

Learning Goals

• Primary vs. Secondary Source Evaluation (Grades 4-6): Classify research materials based on whether they provide firsthand evidence or later interpretation.
• Civil Rights Movement Inquiry: Understand how different types of sources contribute to learning about a major historical movement.
• Evidence-Based Thinking: Use clues from the passage to support accurate source classification.
• Comparing Information Types: Analyze how newspapers, recordings, textbooks, and documentaries offer different perspectives and insights.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource: Designed by educators to align with upper elementary social studies and ELA standards.
• Contextual Learning: Embeds source analysis within a meaningful Civil Rights research scenario.
• Builds Research Foundations: Prepares students for more advanced historical inquiry and writing.
• Flexible Classroom Use: Ideal for social studies units, guided reading, homework, or assessment.

This printable worksheet helps students develop confidence in evaluating historical sources and understanding how evidence shapes our knowledge of the past. By analyzing Civil Rights research materials and justifying their classifications, learners strengthen critical thinking, comprehension, and research skills. Whether used in a classroom or homeschool setting, this resource provides meaningful practice with source evaluation, historical inquiry, and thoughtful analysis of informational text.

This worksheet is part of our primary vs. secondary sources worksheets collection.