ABSTRACT
Students learn strategies for interpretation in historical problem solving and increase their ability to write from primary documents. Talented students must be taught explicitly about the use of evidence and how to corroborate, source, and contextualize documents. Learning to practice the methods and skills of historians has been suggested as desirable for gifted learners. Complex learning in history is more likely when students and teachers use multiple and primary sources. The stuff of history is found in primary documents, thus the assumption is that students are better served if they have access to primary sources and opportunities to manipulate them in the classroom. The use of sets of documents that included conflicting points of view coupled with a strategy for teaching corroboration and persuasive writing was investigated with 12 learning-disabled, 39 normally achieving, and 4 talented middle school writers. Documents from the National Digital Library, a project of the Library of Congress, are available electronically.
