Developed in partnership with middle school social studies teachers, Read.Inquire.Write. (RIW) supports students in inquiry and argument writing in social studies. All resources are free, thanks to a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, but access to specific materials requires a free teacher account. As students progress through investigations in World Geography, Ancient World History, and U.S. History, they draw on their own rich and diverse … [Read more...]
Finding Resources: Story Maps
February 3, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Story Maps are immersive web applications that tell the incredible stories of the Library’s collections through narrative, multimedia, and interactive maps. The story maps are created within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based software platform created by Esri. Story Maps are chock full of primary sources, including photographs, illustrations, texts, newspaper articles, and even maps. “I find story maps to be a twenty-first-century tool for a twenty-first-century library,” said … [Read more...]
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden: Holiday Message & Read Aloud
December 18, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Before watching the video below, read the Minerva's Kaleidoscope blog post, Sharing Kindness, Bringing Light as We Read Together, to get acquainted with the story of Bear and Coco and review some pre-reading discussion questions. … [Read more...]
TPS Spotlight: State Historical Society of Iowa
November 23, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Through the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) grant, the State Historical Society of Iowa developed free and downloadable Primary Source Sets to help K-12 educators meet the Iowa Core Content Standards for Social Studies. These sets address national and international history as well as Iowa-specific history. Educators outside of Iowa are encouraged to use the sets in conjunction with primary sources from their states (see PSN curated sets of state resources). There are … [Read more...]
Literature Links: 2020 National Book Festival
September 24, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Overview The 2020 National Book Festival ran from September 25-27 and featured a combination of prerecorded and interactive live Q&A programs with more than 120 authors, poets and illustrators. For a complete line-up of authors and their video presentations, please see the full video on demand list. Highlights from Children’s and Teen Stages at Virtual National Book Festival 2020 Minerva’s Kaleidoscope blog October 2, 2020 Democracy in the 21st Century Democracies around the world are … [Read more...]
Integrating Technology: Primary Source Crowdsourcing Campaigns
May 6, 2019 by Leave a Comment
By the People is a Library of Congress project that invites anyone to transcribe, review, and tag digitized images of manuscripts and typed materials from the Library’s collections. This is a great literacy activity for students. Come check it out by clicking the links below! By the People Campaigns People Susan B. Anthony Clara Barton: Angel of the Battlefield Carrie Chapman Catt Anna E. Dickinson Letters to Lincoln Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World Rosa … [Read more...]
Literature Links: National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
January 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Library of Congress News The Library of Congress, the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader today announced the appointment of Jacqueline Woodson, four-time Newbery Honor Medalist, Coretta Scott King Book Award winner and former Young People’s Poet Laureate for her memoir-in-verse “Brown Girl Dreaming,” as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The program was established by the three organizations in 2008 to emphasize the importance of young people’s literature as it … [Read more...]
Teaching Now: Integrating Literacy, History & Geography
May 17, 2017 by 1 Comment
Informed citizens have knowledge and understanding of geography and history (see the College, Career & Civic C3 Framework). This is a guest post from Nicole Woulfe, a middle school social studies teacher from New Hampshire and a Citizen U pilot lesson implementer. I created the Geography & the Civil War lesson to allow my students to grow as geographers as we studied the Civil War. So often, students are overwhelmed by the dates of battles, the number of casualties, and the famous names … [Read more...]
Teaching Now: Predicting & Inferring with Primary Sources & Literature
May 26, 2015 by 1 Comment
This is a guest post from elementary teacher and adjunct university instructor Kimberly Heckart, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “I developed the Predict and Infer strategy to help students develop historical comprehension skills while comparing, contrasting, and evaluating information from primary sources related to a particular time period. This strategy motivates students to predict the relevance and meanings of sources and then discover information that will help them make sense of the sources while … [Read more...]
Analyzing Primary Sources: Elementary Image & Text Analysis Sheets
May 21, 2015 by 2 Comments
Primary sources engage all students—elementary, middle and high school. Below are some worksheets to help elementary students, in particular, to analyze primary source images and texts. These worksheets were created in collaboration with master teacher Kimberly Heckart, who teaches third grade at Prairie Ridge Elementary in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Elementary Social Studies Methods at the University of Iowa. Kim whose accolades include Elementary Social Studies Teacher of the Year for both … [Read more...]
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