Book Backdrops are teacher-curated primary source sets linked to books and accompanied by teaching ideas and/or teaching notes. They are continually added to the TPS Teachers Network using the album tool. A sampling of some great ones are listed below. All of the ones included here are accessible by anyone. But if you want to search for others and access comments on the sets from Network members, you'll need to login or join this free educational online community. TPS Teachers Network Book … [Read more...]
Literature Links: The Great Gatsby & Primary Sources from the Roaring Twenties
December 6, 2020 by Leave a Comment
This three-part lesson from the Library of Congress* provides students with insight into the historical context of the 1920s and helps them recognize how popular culture reflects the values, mores, and events of the time period as they synthesize fictional events and primary sources. In a culminating project, students create a newspaper containing multiple types of content using both historical resources and content from the The Great Gatsby. Lesson resources Part I: Using Primary … [Read more...]
Teaching Now: Examining Social Justice Through Historical, Classic and Contemporary Sources
September 7, 2020 by 1 Comment
This is a guest post from Kasey Short, an eighth-grade English teacher at Charlotte Country Day school in North Carolina. When I moved from 6th to 8th grade last year, one thing I thought about a lot was how I would approach teaching To Kill a Mockingbird. I knew that I wanted to provide historical context as well as the perspective of recent cases in which people of color have been unjustly found guilty. I also wanted to showcase the voices of people who had been wrongly accused and the … [Read more...]
Literature Links: The Women of Copper Country
March 5, 2020 by 1 Comment
Anna Klobuchar Clemenc (Clements), also known as “Big Annie” and America’s Joan of Arc, is the central character in The Women of Copper Country, a historical novel by Maria Doria Russell. Set in Upper Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula in 1913, the novel chronicles the work of Anna and the Ladies Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Miners. A significant event is the Italian Hall disaster. Christmas Eve, 1913, a citizen falsely shouted fire in the crowded building as children of union members were … [Read more...]
Literature Links: Esperanza Rising
December 12, 2019 by 1 Comment
This lesson is available through Emerging America, a TPS Consortium partner from Massachusetts and was created by Elena T. Danek. Access the full lesson plan by clicking the link below. Historical Fiction: Setting Study through Primary Sources of the Novel Esperanza Rising This two-day lesson is based on students acquiring a better understanding of the effects the Great Depression had on migrant workers and their children as portrayed in the novel: Esperanza Rising. The use of photographs, … [Read more...]
Integrating Tech: Post-It App & Primary Source Analysis
October 21, 2019 by 1 Comment
In a TPS Network resource album available to the public, elementary teacher librarian and former teacher in residence at the Library of Congress, Tom Bober (@CaptainLibrary), outlines how his students analyzed an historical newspaper article using the See Think Wonder strategy that layered in the Post-it® app for iPad to help organize students' thinking. The analysis activity was followed up by a reading of A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women's Rights. Resources … [Read more...]
Literature Links: Ruth and the Green Book
June 26, 2018 by 1 Comment
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 3 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...]
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