A Look at the Evidence: Travels in France (1792) by Arthur Young

OPVL: When studying an event in history it is important to look at primary sources. These are usually first-hand accounts of a time in history, written by people who experienced the period you are studying. Most of what we know in history is uncertain, but what we do know about the past comes from our primary source material. However, primary sources are imperfect. To use primary sources properly, we need to consider their origin, purpose, value, and limitations (OPVL).

Secondary Source: Harvest Failures

One helpful strategy for paraphrasing and summarizing information is chunking. To do this, you read a paragraph or section of a text, then stop and paraphrase/summarize the main idea in your own words. Afterwards, you move on and read the next paragraph.

Follow the graphic organizer in the handout to use chunking to read “Harvest Failures” linked below.