Only Yesterday occupies an unusual position in the classroom because it is a work of history and also a product of its own time. Allen wrote in 1931, only a few years after the events he described, and the Depression was already shaping how he told the story. Students who understand that can write much more interesting essays than those who treat the book as a neutral list of facts. Sourcing assignments built on Allen teach a skill that transfers to every other text they will read.

A basic sourcing essay asks students to consider who Allen was, when he wrote, and what he might have wanted readers to take from the book. Allen was a magazine editor writing for a general audience, which explains the conversational tone and the attention to fads and personalities. A student who notices that connection is already doing more than summarizing. Grading should reward that kind of observation when it is tied to a specific passage.

The trouble is that many students recite the sourcing checklist without using it. They write that the author lived through the 1920s, so he is reliable, or that he was biased, so he is not. Neither claim explains anything. A useful rubric asks for an explanation of how the author's position changes the account, supported by a particular example from the text.

Grading Point of View and Purpose

Point of view is the hardest sourcing element to grade because students tend to treat bias as an accusation. Help them see that every narrator has a vantage point, and the question is how it shapes the story rather than whether it exists. Allen's retrospective tone, written after the crash, colors how he describes the boom years as almost reckless. A student who notices that the Depression may influence his portrait of 1920s optimism has found a real insight.

• Identifies when and for whom the book was written
• Explains how the Depression may shape Allen's tone
• Cites a specific passage rather than a general impression
• Tests Allen's claim against another source or fact
• Concludes with a judgment about how far to trust the account

Pairing Allen With Other Sources

Sourcing is far easier to assess when students have a second source to compare against. Pair a chapter of Only Yesterday with a newspaper article, a speech, or a table of economic figures from the period. Ask which source is more useful for a particular question and why. The comparison forces students to articulate criteria for usefulness instead of reaching for generic labels like reliable.

On the grading side, comparison essays reveal quickly which students understand the idea. A weaker response treats the sources as separate summaries stacked together, while a stronger one moves back and forth, using one to qualify the other. Mark that movement in the margin so students can see the structure you value. When feedback names the move, students can repeat it on their own.

Common Errors to Flag in Feedback

Several errors appear again and again in sourcing essays. Students confuse the date of publication with the date of the events described, assume a famous author must be correct, or treat disagreement between sources as proof that one is lying. Each of these is worth a brief, specific comment, ideally with a model sentence showing the corrected version. A bank of such comments saves time and keeps the standard consistent across classes.

Feedback tools that draft comments from a rubric can help with this volume of repeated guidance. The teacher defines what a strong sourcing paragraph looks like, and the software applies that language to each essay for review. You still decide what a student sees, which matters because sourcing judgments can be subtle. The result is faster turnaround with the same professional standards.

Building Sourcing Skills Over Time

A single assignment will not make students careful readers of sources. Revisit the same rubric with different texts across the year so that students practice the same moves in new contexts. By spring, a student who once wrote that a source was biased should be explaining which choices in the text reveal the bias. That growth is the real outcome of a sourcing curriculum.

Track progress by keeping a short record of each student's sourcing scores. Patterns emerge quickly, showing who needs more support with purpose and who is ready for more advanced comparison. Share the pattern with students in conferences so they understand their own trajectory. Allen's book then becomes one stop on a longer path toward independent historical thinking.