History textbooks give overviews of people and events of the past. Primary sources provide varied perspectives, adding details, nuance and, often, a sense of immediacy that make history come alive. Oral histories and personal narratives allow us to step into someone else’s shoes for a moment and make personal connections to history. Students who completed…
Integrating primary sources into the social studies curriculum doesn’t take a quantum leap of imagination, but can you imagine how they could be paired with math? Numerous teachers who have gone through Teaching with Primary Sources programs delivered by TPS consortium members, have done just that. Intrigued? Check out their formulas for mathematical learning by…
There is a lot of talk about copyright today. If you’d like some resources to help explain the development of copyright law and how it works, head over to the Library of Congress online Teachers section or just click the links below. Copyright Quick Check Library of Congress YouTube Channel Using Items from the Library’s…
During the civil war Walt Whitman worked in Washington D.C. and spent much of his spare time visiting wounded soldiers in the hospital. He was a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln whom he saw around the city frequently. Like many, Whitman was deeply saddened at the loss of President Lincoln, assassinated at Ford’s Theatre on…
On August 28, 1963 a march organized by supporters of stronger civil rights legislation drew more than 250,000 people to Washington, D.C. Encouraged and inspired, Martin Luther King, Jr. strayed from the short speech he had prepared and delivered instead his famous extemporaneous I Have a Dream speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Primary…
Image sequencing activities help students better understand written or spoken texts. Image sequencing requires groups of students to review an image set and match individual images with designated lines of text, discussing and justifying their choices. These activities give students great practice in the skills emphasized by the Common Core State Standards, particularly the CCSS standards…
The Teaching with the Library of Congress blog provides an overview of the resources found in America’s Library and some great teaching ideas for using the website with younger students or older English language learners. For more involved projects, click the links below to access two primary source projects using America’s Library resources from TPS-Barat….
Below you will find teaching ideas related to Civil War prisons and prisoners. Civil War: First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920 This collection chronicles the experiences of southerners from all stations in life — white and black, rich and poor, including many accounts that relate the common soldier’s perspective on the war. Some of these accounts…
In celebration of Native American Heritage month, the Teaching with the Library of Congress blog provides some great suggestions for teaching students to view the experiences and contributions of Native Americans from various perspectives. Comparing sources from multiple perspectives provides students with practice in critical thinking and evaluating evidence and arguments. Links to more Native American…
“The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.” The Teaching with the Library of Congress blog provides some great starting points for using the Veterans History…
This morning I saw a tweet mentioning primary sources related to immigration in the Gilded Age and I began to wonder . . . What learning activities related to the Gilded Age could we imagine using Library of Congress primary sources? What other teaching resources and strategies are available on LOC.gov and elsewhere? See the results…
The Teaching with Library of Congress blog provides activity suggestions for using the transcript of World War I veteran oral history to provide students with personal insight into a historical event and help them to value the individuals behind the history of World War I and Armistice Day. Teachers might also choose to have students compare accounts, looking for…