Humanities Aut 1 · 2026–27 · Enquiry: How can we distinguish what a source shows from what we infer or still need to ask?
| Key Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| Source | Anything from the past that gives us evidence |
| Shows | What is literally in the source |
| Inference | A conclusion drawn from a detail |
| Provenance | Who made a source, when and why |
| Corroborate | Check one source against another |
| Purpose | The reason a source was made |
1) What does chronological order mean?
2) What can you SEE in a photo of a busy dock?
3) Is 'the workers look tired' something you SEE or GUESS?
4) Name one type of historical source.
1) Give one clue type that dates a photo.
2) 'The photo shows smoke' vs 'the town was polluted' — which is inference?
3) Why might a diary and a newspaper describe the same day differently?
4) What question can a photo of a dock NOT answer?
1) Define anachronism.
2) Smoke → factories → jobs → migration. Which link is weakest?
3) Rank: 'shows' / 'suggests' / 'proves'. Which claims most?
4) What three questions start provenance?
Key Question: A single photo of the Tees in 1910 sits on your desk. It can show you a hundred things — but what can it never TELL you?
Groups: 👁️ SHOWS, 🤔 SUGGESTS, ❓ CAN'T TELL US. Sort: Three ships are docked, Men wear flat caps, The port was busy that year, Most workers were men, What the workers were paid, Whether they liked the work, Cranes mean heavy cargo, What happened the next day
Draw lines to match:
📋 1901 Census page · 📷 Dock photograph · ✉️ Migrant's letter home · 📰 Gazette front page · 🗺️ 1890s town map · ⚒️ Worker's tool
Who lived in a street & their jobs · How streets & works were laid out · How one person felt · What locals were told that day · What the job physically involved · What the port looked like
shows, suggests, question, photo, detail, because
"The photo shows…" | "It suggests… because…" | "It cannot tell us…"
Detail: name what you see. Inference: "This suggests…" Anchor: "…because…" Question: what next?
Content → Provenance (who/when/why) → Inference + anchor → Limits ("cannot tell us…") → Test ("a second source such as ___ would confirm/challenge ___")
📜 PRIMARY — made AT THE TIME by someone who was there. 📚 SECONDARY — made LATER by someone who studied it.
SHOWS = literally there. SUGGESTS = a fair conclusion, anchored to a detail. CANNOT TELL US = this source alone cannot answer it.
WHO made it? WHY was it made? WHEN was it made? WHAT NEXT would test it?
| Source | Type | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 📋 1901 Census page | Primary | Who lived in a street, and their jobs |
| 📷 Dock photograph | Primary | What a place looked like on one day |
| ✉️ Migrant’s letter home | Primary | How it felt to one person |
| 📰 Gazette front page | Primary | What was thought newsworthy |
| 🗺️ 1890s town map | Primary | How streets and works were laid out |
| ⚒️ Worker’s tool | Primary | What the work physically involved |
Notice: all six are PRIMARY. Your textbook and a documentary would be SECONDARY.
🛑 STUCK ON PRIMARY vs SECONDARY? USE THE TIME MACHINE TEST.
Ask: if I went back to that exact day, could the person who made this see, hear or touch the event?
YES → PRIMARY 📜 NO → SECONDARY 📚
❓ IS A PRIMARY SOURCE ALWAYS TRUE?
No. People exaggerate, forget, only see part of it, or want to sell you something. Primary tells you someone was THERE — not that they were RIGHT.
Always ask: what did the maker want me to think, buy or feel?
🔤 Words I might need: source · primary · secondary · evidence · shows · suggests · infer · reliable · census
Detective Frame
1) Stick the photo card in the middle.
2) Sort the 6 strips: SHOWS on the left, SUGGESTS on the right.
3) One question the photo cannot answer:
Shows / Suggests / Ask
1) Two things the photo SHOWS:
2) Two things it SUGGESTS (with 'because'):
3) Two questions + the source you'd use next:
Full Interrogation
1) Shows (2) / Suggests+anchor (2) / Cannot tell (2):
2) Provenance paragraph — who, when, why, and how purpose affects trust:
3) Your strongest inference + the second source that would TEST it:
1) 'The photo shows ships.' Shows or suggests?
2) 'The port was important.' Shows or suggests?
3) Write one question the photo cannot answer.
Space → Voice → Audience → Influence. The adult’s first job is Space: regulate before you educate.
| Space | The Evidence Wall takes ANY source you bring from home — a family photo counts as history. |
| Voice | Which inference from today do you trust least? Post it on the Doubt Board — doubting is detective work. |
| Audience | Your best 'suggests… because…' lines get read to the other class as our detective standard. |
| Influence | Choose Week 3's mystery: we investigate WHY people came using the source type the class votes for. |
Closing the loop: out loud, as a class, is enough here. Any inclusion counts — a nod, a word, a pointed finger. If a pupil wants theirs written down, an adult scribes it in their words. Pass is always allowed.
Keep with your book / folder.
| Pupil name: | Date: |
| WWW (What Went Well): | |
| EBI (Even Better If): | |
| Level worked at: Supported / Standard / Stretch | Evidence filed: Yes / Not yet |
| Authorship — what I chose or decided myself: | |
| Support given — prepared / scribed / modelled / hand-over-hand: | |
| Pupil response — my next step: | |
1) Why must every inference point to a detail?
2) Give one thing a census is better for than a photo.
3) Who/when/why questions are called…?
1) Why does a postcard's purpose weaken 'the port was always busy'?
2) Rank shows/suggests/proves by strength of claim.
3) Name a source pair that would corroborate each other on dock work.
BUILD Humanities · Week 2 · History Detectives
Add your class once — names stay on this device only, and every Made by Matt lesson on it shares the list. Band each pupil so questions are tier-matched.
Pass is always allowed — passing still counts as taking part.