The Library of Congress has long realized that teaching with primary sources engages students and promotes critical thinking skills and helps them to construct knowledge. Early on TPS-Barat recognized the connection between the processes represented in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the process of analyzing and interpreting primary sources. This shift from a primary focus on content knowledge to the process of interacting with and comprehending, analyzing, and evaluating content … [Read more...]
Primary Source Learning Is Contagious: Free PD for Chicago-area Educators
May 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Presented by TPS-Barat in conjunction with the Chicago Public Schools Department of Literacy, this workshop is geared towards librarians and social studies and language arts teachers of grades 6-12. The workshop is open to teachers from school districts in the Chicago area. Two CPDUs will be awarded.Workshop DetailsDate: Tuesday, May 19Time: 4:30 - 6:30 pmCost: FREELocation: Reilly Elementary, Main Building Computer Lab 3650 W School Street Chicago, IL 60618Workshop … [Read more...]
Finding Resources: TPS Journal
May 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Dig deep into a variety of teaching with primary sources topics. The TPS Journal, formerly titled the TPS Quarterly, is an online, peer-reviewed publication focused on pedagogical approaches to teaching with Library of Congress digitized primary sources in K-12 classrooms. Each issue provides sections related to the issue's thematic focus: a feature article, an elementary primary source activity, a secondary primary source activity, a teacher spotlight highlighting primary source learning in the … [Read more...]
Learning from the Source: Minutemen & the Start of the Revolution
July 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Activity Guidelines Gather minutemen-related primary sources and print them out or make them available to your primary students digitally.As a class or in groups, have students review different primary sources and note what they see, think, and wonder.Next, you may choose to have students review source bibliographic information or secondary source materials and note if any of their questions were answered, how their thinking has changed, and what new questions they have.Then … [Read more...]
George Washington penned a letter about religious freedom to prominent Jewish leader Moses Seixas. Check out our 
