Evaluating Source Usefulness

How do you teach students to evaluate the usefulness of a historical source step-by-step?

This page provides a clear, practical method for teaching students how to evaluate the usefulness of historical sources in a structured and confident way. It is designed for middle and high school history teachers who want to strengthen their students’ analytical skills and improve the quality of source-based responses across all year levels. The step-by-step guide explains what “usefulness” means, how to teach it through explicit modelling, and how to help students move from simple observations to well-reasoned historical judgements. Teachers can use the explanations, examples and classroom strategies on this page to build students’ capacity to interpret evidence, justify claims and engage more deeply with the historical inquiry process.


Evaluating usefulness is one of the most straightforward skills you can teach in historical source analysis.
It’s also the perfect go-to when students feel stuck during evaluation tasks — because almost every source can be judged for usefulness if approached methodically.

Below is a step-by-step guide you can use to help students master this skill in a way that works for any topic in your history curriculum.

Step 1 – Explain What “Usefulness” Means

Students need to understand that usefulness is a judgement about how relevant or helpful a source is for answering a specific question.

A key takeaway:

A source can be extremely useful for one topic but completely irrelevant for another.

Classroom example: A letter from a World War I soldier is useful for studying the Gallipoli landings, but not for investigating trench warfare on the Western Front.

Step 2 – Show the Four Ways a Source Can Be Useful

Usefulness isn’t just “it tells me something.” Give students a clear framework:

  1. Provides explicit information – Direct, clear details about the topic.
    Tip: Quote the source exactly.

  2. Provides implicit information – Offers clues or context that can be interpreted.
    Tip: Use an indirect quote and explain the inference.

  3. Corroborates another source – Supports evidence found elsewhere.
    Tip: Include short quotes from both sources.

  4. Contradicts another source – Challenges or disputes other evidence.
    Tip: Present quotes side-by-side.

Step 3 – Teach the Three Essential Elements of a Usefulness Judgement

A strong usefulness evaluation always includes:

  • A clear judgement – Is the source useful, partly useful, or not useful?

  • The specific topic – What exactly are you judging it for?

  • Evidence from the source – A direct or indirect quote to justify the judgement.

Example:

The academic article by Jones is particularly useful in understanding Egyptian temple inscriptions as political propaganda because he states that “the extensive military conquests adorning the inner walls were meant to impress visitors with the pharaoh’s power and influence” (Jones, 1984, p. 45).

Step 4 – Move Beyond Basic Evaluation to “Values and Limitations”

Once students are confident with the basics, introduce the idea that every source has strengths and weaknesses.

Encourage them to:

  • Identify what the source includes that is valuable.

  • Point out what is missing, biased, or unrepresentative.

  • Still reach a final judgement.

Example:

Plutarch provides the only detailed account of Caesar’s childhood, which makes it valuable. However, it omits his cruelty to slaves, recorded in other sources. Therefore, it is useful for understanding Caesar’s early life but limited by its exclusion of key negative events.

Step 5 – Practice and Apply

Students learn best by seeing the skill modelled and then practising it in varied contexts.

Practical classroom ideas:

  • Give two or three sources on the same event and have students rank them by usefulness with justifications.

  • Use a colour-coding system to highlight the judgement, topic, and evidence in sample answers.

  • Combine with corroboration activities so students see usefulness in relation to multiple sources.

Key Takeaways for Teachers

Teaching usefulness works best when: