Australian History - Great Depression View of British support Source Usefulness

Help your middle and high school history students sharpen their historical thinking skills with this no-prep, printable and digital resource focused on evaluating source usefulness during the Great Depression in Australia. With a guided slide deck, editable worksheets, and structured questions, students explore the nuanced perspectives of Australians on British support during the economic crisis of the 1930s.

This is a perfect activity for history classrooms integrating source analysis, perspective, provenance, and content evaluation—all aligned with key inquiry and literacy outcomes.

Product Purpose and Benefits:

This resource helps students:

• Develop deeper understanding of source content and provenance
• Critically assess British-Australian relations during the 1930s
• Explore the social and political impact of the Depression
• Engage in guided source evaluation using historical context
• Build evidence-based writing and critical literacy
  

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.