Analyzing Primary Sources: Learning from Newspapers

Analyzing Primary Sources: Learning from Newspapers

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) strike a balance between the reading of literature and informational texts and promote the use of a wide range of text types: “Through reading a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational texts in a range of subjects, students are expected to build knowledge, gain…

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 5 Writing Prompts & Activities

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 5 Writing Prompts & Activities

Primary source images are great resources for integrating language arts with social studies into activities that meet Common Core State Standards for writing. The grade 5 writing prompts and activity ideas below build on the K-4 writing prompts and activities. Text Types and Purposes CCSS Grade 5 Writing Standards Writing Prompts / Activity Ideas 1. Write opinion…

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 4 Writing Prompts & Activities

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 4 Writing Prompts & Activities

Primary source images are great resources for integrating language arts with social studies into activities that meet Common Core State Standards for writing. The Grade 4 writing prompts and activity ideas below build on the K-3 writing prompts and activities. Text Types and Purposes Grade 4 Writing Standards Writing Prompts / Activity Ideas 1. Write opinion…

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 3 Writing Prompts & Activities

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 3 Writing Prompts & Activities

Primary source images are great resources for integrating language arts with social studies into activities that meet Common Core State Standards. The Grade 3 writing prompts and activity ideas below build on the K-2 writing prompts and activities. Text Types and Purposes Grade 3 Writing Standards Writing Prompts / Activity Ideas 1. Write opinion pieces on topics or…

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 2 Writing Prompts & Activities

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 2 Writing Prompts & Activities

Primary source images, including maps, are great resources for integrating language arts with social studies into activities that meet Common Core State Standards. The Grade 2 writing prompts and activity ideas below build on the K-1 writing prompts and activities. Text Types and Purposes Grade 2 Writing Standards Writing Prompts / Activity Ideas 1. Write opinion pieces in…

Learning from the Source: Zooming into Documentary Photography

Learning from the Source: Zooming into Documentary Photography

Zoom into the picture above and you will see a face recognizable to many. The mother in the photo is Florence Thompson, most famously known as the migrant mother. This photograph was one in a series taken in 1936 by Resettlement Administration photographer Dorothea Lange. In this primary source activity, students will examine photographs individually…

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 1 Writing Prompts & Activities

Connecting to the Common Core: Grade 1 Writing Prompts & Activities

Primary source images, including maps, are great resources for integrating language arts with social studies into activities that meet Common Core State Standards. The Grade 1 writing prompts and activity ideas below build on the kindergarten writing prompts and activities. Text Types and Purposes Grade 1 Writing Standards Writing Prompts / Activity Ideas 1. Write opinion pieces in…

Connecting to the Common Core: Kindergarten Writing Prompts & Activities

Connecting to the Common Core: Kindergarten Writing Prompts & Activities

Primary source images are great resources for integrating language arts with social studies into activities that meet Common Core State Standards. Text Types and Purposes Kindergarten Writing Standards Writing Prompts / Activity Ideas 1. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or…

Analyzing Primary Sources: Bloom’s Taxonomy Image Writing Prompts

Analyzing Primary Sources: Bloom’s Taxonomy Image Writing Prompts

Remembering List the different shapes you see. How many people do you see? How many __________ do you see? List all of the objects that start with the letter “___”. Circle all of the people with _______. List all of the __________ that you see. What makes them different or the same? Understanding Estimate how…

Learning from the Source: Tactics in the March to Suffrage

Learning from the Source: Tactics in the March to Suffrage

Collective action can lead to change. “The basic functional requirements of a social movement,” according to Herbert W. Simons, Emeritus Professor of Communication, Temple University, “are an ability to mobilize human and material resources, to exert external influence, and to mount resistance to counter-pressures.” [1] In this primary source learning activity, students will examine the tactics supporters of…

Learning from the Source: Close Reading in Service of a Cause

Learning from the Source: Close Reading in Service of a Cause

Activity overview Close reading is an opportunity to read and reread thoughtfully and with purpose. By breaking down the analysis of texts and other primary sources into distinct chunks, you can increase rigor and help students more easily climb the staircase of complexity required by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In this primary source…