Australian History - Aboriginals experiences in the 1920's Source Usefulness

Strengthen your students’ historical thinking, source analysis, and literacy skills with this no-prep, printable and digital worksheet activity and editable slide deck, designed for middle and high school Australian History classes. This lesson focuses on Aboriginal Australians in the 1920s and teaches students how to evaluate the usefulness of primary and secondary sources based on content, provenance, audience, and purpose.

Whether you’re teaching historical inquiry, research skills, or the experience of Aboriginal people in the interwar period, this resource is a perfect way to engage students in meaningful, curriculum-aligned tasks that build evidence-based writing and critical thinking.

Product Purpose and Benefits

This resource helps students:

• Develop confidence in using historical evidence to support inquiry questions.
• Deepen their understanding of Aboriginal Australian history in the 1920s.
• Build analytical writing skills using structured scaffolding.
• Evaluate the usefulness of historical sources through author, date, content, and perspective.
• Engage in source-based tasks aligned with Australian Curriculum standards.
  

What’s Included in This Resource:

1. Editable Slide Deck – “Understanding Source Usefulness”

The lesson begins with a teacher-guided slide deck that introduces key concepts of source usefulness, including content and provenance, bias, perspective, and purpose, with sample questions, sentence starters, and modelled examples to support discussion and explicit teaching of historical thinking skills.

2. Source Evaluation Worksheet

After the slide deck, students apply their learning to a structured, scaffolded worksheet focused on two real sources.

Students are guided to:

• Evaluate each source’s content (what is being said/shown)
• Analyse the provenance (who, when, where, why)
• Make informed judgments about usefulness for understanding the event
• Use evidence to support their evaluation in a clear, written format

3. Source Usefulness Activity

Worksheet designed to deepen understanding.

This task encourages students to:

• Examine the surface and subtext of both sources
• Explore tone, language, and visual cues

• • Build confidence in engaging with unfamiliar source types

Learn more about this product’s features, care instructions, and other useful details to help you make an informed choice.

Learn more about this product’s features, care instructions, and other useful details to help you make an informed choice.