In our new Timely Connections section, we will be linking contemporary articles to primary sources and teaching ideas. Some of the articles may come from websites, such as The New York Times and the The Washington Post, that restrict access to their content. Most sites provide subscription discounts to educators and allow anyone to access…
This is a guest post from veteran teacher Heather Klos, an 8th grade U.S. history teacher and the Social Studies department chair at Crownover Middle School in Corinth, Texas. Primary sources are one of the most valuable tools we have as social studies teachers. What better way to incorporate primary sources for the 21st century learner than through…
This is a guest post from Sara Conyers, a middle school history teacher at Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church, Virginia. Creating a Zoom-in primary source analysis activity using Google Forms is quick and easy. Step 1 – Select Image Select a primary source image that will challenge your students to dig deeper into the meaning and…
This is a guest post from Patti Winch, the Middle School Social Studies Specialist for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia. I first learned about Zoom-ins about 10 years ago when taking a class with Northern Virginia’s Teaching with Primary Sources program or TPSNVA. Zoom-ins were originally developed by a FCPS teacher and subsequently shared…
This teaching resource blog was created to help educators and students teach and learn with primary sources from the Library of Congress. There is a lot of material to browse and search on the Primary Source Nexus, but sometimes you just need to go directly to a particular section of the Library website. But how do…
Historic newspapers contain a wealth of information about the past, providing a snapshot of social and cultural values of a certain place and time. You will find news stories, feature articles, editorials, cartoons, advertisements, stories, poems, art and more. All of these can be useful to help contextualize events and people from history. According to the Center for History…
Summer is the perfect time to take some time to explore the Library of Congress digital collections. You can simply use the URL: https://www.loc.gov/collections/. Alternatively, you can navigate from the LOC.gov homepage by clicking the menu icon to the right of the search bar at the top of the page, clicking the Discover link, then…
The Library of Congress YouTube™ channel features, “Timeless treasures and contemporary presentations from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.” On the Library’s YouTube homepage you will find a featured video as well as a browsable list of the most recent uploads and the Library’s playlists. Video Uploads To access all the videos the Library has uploaded,…
Music is such a powerful primary source and can really help us connect to and engage with a person or an event. The Library of Congress is full of digital music resources, including numerous sheet music collections and items. But what to do if you would like to hear the music but cannot play an instrument…
This is a guest post from Kelly Grotrian, an American History teacher at East Brunswick High School in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Google Forms is a great tool to use for student primary source analysis because it provides a single point of access for multiple sources and efficiently collates student responses into a spreadsheet which…
This is a guest post from Kelly Grotrian, an American History teacher at East Brunswick High School in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Far and away my favorite Google App for Education is Google Forms. Forms allows you to present a variety of primary sources to students in an organized fashion and to collect data on…
Here is very simple tip from TPS-Barat for printing high-quality black & white or sepia images that we use in our in-person workshops: ask the print shop to use a color printer to print the black and white images and print them on business-card card stock. And don’t forget to ask if they have educator discounts!…