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Try It

Answering the Five Questions

Click through the following slideshow to hear Jasmine and Josh evaluate a primary source.

Speaker plays audio

Maryland’s Oyster Wars

Josh and Jasmine sitting at a desk in the library talking

OK, Josh. Are you ready to use the five questions to "source" a document and evaluate how useful it is?

Josh showing Jasmine a tablet with a magazine cover drawing of the oyster wars on it

I think so. My project is about the Maryland Oyster Wars. Did you ever hear of them?

Jasmine talking to Josh

Ummm… no. What are the Oyster Wars?

Josh pointing to the image on the tablet

The Oyster Wars were a bunch of fights between fishermen in Maryland and Virginia in the 1800s. Guess what they were fighting about.

Jasmine and Josh talking

Oysters?

Well yeah…

Close up of the tablet screen

Look at this picture from the Library of Congress website. It shows some fishermen and policemen on boats during the Oyster Wars. Maybe we can use Mr. Lexington’s questions to see if this is a good source for my project.



Let's learn more about the Oyster Wars picture that Josh found. Click on each of Mr. Lexington's five questions to find the answers about the following source.

> Text version for interactive



Now we will evaluate how useful the source is for Josh's project.
Placeholder video

> Text version for video

Watch the video on Vimeo