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: Putting Loss into Words
February 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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 April 14, 1865. Whitman wrote several poems about Lincoln after his death. Take the plunge into inquiry using the resources we have gathered* to see what new insights into … [Read more...]
Connecting to the Common Core: Image Sequencing Activities
January 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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 related to Speaking & Listening and Language (vocabulary).When creating image sequencing activities, … [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...]
Learning from the Source: Dust Bowl Songs & Photographs
June 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Photographs from the FSA and OWI collection provide vivid scenes of the harshness of life in rural America during the Great Depression.Students can observe the effects of New Deal relief work by comparing pictures of makeshift shelters and tent cities with resettlement camps and showcase housing. Look at images of tents, migrant camps, and labor camps for examples.You might also look at images of Hightstown and El Monte for pictures of those model New Deal communities and images … [Read more...]
George Washington penned a letter about religious freedom to prominent Jewish leader Moses Seixas. Check out our 
