Elementary teacher librarian and former teacher in residence at the Library of Congress, Tom Bober (@CaptainLibrary), details a plan for pairing primary source analysis with the book, Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey, to help students make connections to history and geography. In his post on Knowledge Quest from the American Association of School Librarians, Tom also says the activities will help students to "look at the experiences of African Americans prior to the passage of … [Read more...]
Teaching Now: Using Primary Sources to Create a Lincoln Assassination Newscast
February 12, 2018 by 2 Comments
This is a guest post from Tim Anderson, a middle school English teacher and Google Certified Educator at Sulphur Springs Elementary School in Jonesborough, Tennessee. There often seems to be a disconnect between students and historical events. Connecting literature to history helps make it come alive for students. Since my eighth graders are studying the Civil War, I chose to have them read Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, a fast-paced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth pieced … [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...]
Literature Links: Her Right Foot
October 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Tom Bober (@CaptainLibrary), teacher librarian extraordinaire and former teacher in residence at the Library of Congress, put together a fantastic primary source set to accompany the picture book, Her Right Foot, by Dave Eggers. In a post on Knowledge Quest from the American Association of School Librarians, Tom details a plan for pairing primary source analysis with the book to help students explore how and why the the Statue of Liberty was built and to deepen their understanding of this … [Read more...]
Integrating Technology: Linking Primary Sources to Literature
November 17, 2015 by 1 Comment
This is a guest post by Ruth Ferris, an elementary school librarian from Billings, Montana, and a grantee in the TPS Regional Grant Program.It is always a pleasure when I can connect my love of books with my love of history, seasoned with technology. One favorite tool is ThingLink, which allows you to take a picture and embed links to other types of media within the picture. I live in Montana and most of my students are more familiar with country music than jazz music. So how do I … [Read more...]
Literature Links: To Kill a Mockingbird
June 15, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the selections in the Books That Shaped America online exhibition. The curator's note reads: This 1960 Pulitzer Prize winner was an immediate critical and financial success for its author, with more than 30 million copies in print to date. Harper Lee created one of the most enduring and heroic characters in all of American literature in Atticus Finch, the small-town lawyer who defended a wrongly accused black man. The book’s importance was recognized … [Read more...]
Literature Links: Alice in Wonderland
June 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Find out some intriguing ways to connect to one of the most beloved stories of all times with various primary sources.The Immigrant Experience: Down the Rabbit Hole Library of Congress Relocating to a new country can be a disorienting experience. Immigrants often find themselves in a strange new world where the rules have changed, the surroundings are unfamiliar, and the inhabitants speak in strange tongues. In some ways, the immigrant experience is like the dizzying journey taken by the … [Read more...]
Literature Links: Predicting & Inferring about Woman Suffrage
May 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment
This lesson uses the Predict and Infer strategy; both the lesson and the strategy were created by elementary teacher and adjunct university instructor Kimberly Heckart, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Focus Question What did women do to get the right to vote?Content GoalStudents build background knowledge of what it was like to be a suffragist and discover how women persistently fought for over 100 years until they were granted the right to vote.Primary SourcesSusan B. … [Read more...]
Literature Links: My Daniel – Hunting dinosaurs in Nebraska
September 18, 2014 by 2 Comments
Below you will find numerous primary source activity ideas to use in conjunction with the novel My Daniel by Pam Conrad. Let us know which ones work for you.Publisher overview "All I want to find is one dinosaur," Daniel was saying. "And I'll find it right here. Like I do all my fossils." Wandering through the Natural History Museum with her grandchildren, Julia Creath feels the presence of her dead brother, Daniel, she remembers a time when fossil fever hit everyone, old and young -- a … [Read more...]
Literature Links: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
July 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Theodor Geisel—a.k.a. Dr. Seuss—was born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was the first of many children's books that he wrote and illustrated. Geisel supposedly received 27 rejections before the book was published by Vanguard Press in 1937 thanks, as the story goes, to a chance run-in with and old friend from Darthmouth College. After reading the book, engage your students with some of the following primary source activities. Have your … [Read more...]
George Washington penned a letter about religious freedom to prominent Jewish leader Moses Seixas. Check out our 
