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Essential History Skills Worksheet

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Essential History Skills Worksheet

Alex, Keira and Anahera are hiking a mountain track when they find a weatherproof folder beside an old hut. It contains records about a 1930s track-building project. Use the sources below to investigate what happened. Consider who made each source, when and why it was made, whose perspective it shows, and what it can and cannot prove. Treat the sources as invented practice evidence, not as records of a real event.

Evidence from the folder

Source A — Extract from a government works report, 1934: “The new track will improve access for visitors and provide paid work. Construction is proceeding to plan.” The report was written by a department official and does not name the workers. Source B — Extract from a worker’s letter to a cousin, 1934: “We have been clearing the steep section for weeks. The pay helps, but the wet weather makes the work hard. We were not asked where the track should go.” The letter was written by a worker on the project. Source C — Local newspaper editorial, 1935: “The completed track is a triumph of progress and will bring more visitors to the district.” The editorial was published after the track opened. It gives no workers’ names or comments. Source D — An oral-history interview recorded in 1988 with a person who had been a child in the district during construction: “I remember the workers coming through, but I was young. My family said the track changed how people travelled.” The interviewer asked about memories of the project.

1.Which source is a primary source created during the track-building project? Choose one and explain what makes it primary.

A history textbook written in 2020 about the project
Source B, the worker’s letter written in 1934
A podcast episode made in 2022
A tourist brochure published in 2024

2.Match each historian’s question to the main purpose it serves.

Who created this source?
When was it created?
Why was it created?
Whose perspective is included or missing?

Notice whose experiences are represented and whose are absent
Identify the creator’s position, knowledge or possible interests
Place it in context and judge how close it is to the events
Consider its purpose and what it may leave out

3.Source A says construction was “proceeding to plan”. Give one useful piece of information it provides and one limitation when investigating the workers’ experiences.

4.True or false: Because Source B was written by a worker at the time, every statement in it must be a complete and unbiased account of the whole project. Explain your choice.

5.Complete the sentence: When historians offer different explanations of the same past event, these are different historical . They may differ because they use different evidence or ask different questions.

6.Compare Sources A and B. What different priorities or viewpoints do they reveal about the track project? Use one detail from each source.

7.Which set of evidence would best help a historian build a balanced account of the track project? Choose one and explain why it is stronger than relying on a single source.

Only Source C, because the newspaper calls the track a triumph
Sources A, B, C and D, compared with attention to their different purposes and viewpoints
Only Source A, because government reports are always neutral
Only a modern visitor’s post about walking the track

8.Source D was recorded in 1988, decades after construction. Give one reason it is useful and one reason to be cautious when using it.

9.The folder contains no names of the workers. Write two questions you would ask next to investigate whose labour shaped the track and what their conditions were.

10.Write a short evidence-based conclusion: Was the track project simply a “triumph of progress”? Use at least two sources, explain one limitation, and avoid claiming more than the evidence supports.