Guided Primary Source Analysis: U.S. Must Set Pace for Racial Tolerance

Guided Primary Source Analysis: U.S. Must Set Pace for Racial Tolerance

Read the article, then answer the questions below. If you need help, click the links in the Related resources section below. What was happening in the world at the time this article was published? Who was Mrs. Roosevelt and why was what she had to say important? Who else attended the conference and what groups…

TPS Spotlight: Read.Inquire.Write.

TPS Spotlight: Read.Inquire.Write.

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…

Primary Source Learning: Asian American Pacific Islanders

Primary Source Learning: Asian American Pacific Islanders

Primary Source Sets with Teacher Guides Japanese American Internment During World War II Veterans’ Stories: Struggles for Participation Guided Primary Source Analyses Chinese Citizenship in Hawaii Entrance to Manzanar Collection Connections After the Day of Infamy: “Man-on-the-Street” Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor Ansel Adams’s Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar Lesson Plans Analysis…

Learning from the Source: Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?

Learning from the Source: Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?

Overview By pairing primary sources with poetry, students consider the proverb, “Good fences make good neighbors” in the context of their own lives as well as in a local, national or global context. Lesson Steps Display the primary source image and analyze it together as a class using the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis…

Primary Source Learning: Inaugural Poems & Poets

Primary Source Learning: Inaugural Poems & Poets

Poetry has a long history of addressing and illuminating public issues and events but a disjointed and relatively short history of inclusion in presidential inauguration ceremonies. These moments, however, provide additional nuance to the state of the country during these important transitional moments in our nation. Use the links below to read and listen to…

Primary Source Learning: LOC.gov Teacher-Created Lesson Plans

Primary Source Learning: LOC.gov Teacher-Created Lesson Plans

The Teacher’s section on LOC.gov features close to 100 teacher-created lesson plans. As you can see from the image above, lesson plans are listed in alphabetical order and there is a handy search bar to help you easily conduct a keyword search. Use the links below to jump to select groupings of the LOC.gov lesson…

Teaching Now: Examining Social Justice Through Historical, Classic and Contemporary Sources

Teaching Now: Examining Social Justice Through Historical, Classic and Contemporary Sources

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…

Analyzing Primary Sources: Technology & Presidential Nominating Conventions

Analyzing Primary Sources: Technology & Presidential Nominating Conventions

Political conventions have been part of the presidential nominating process for many years, but where conventions are held, who attends, and what happens at them has changed over time. First, analyze sources related to the Democratic Party’s national conventions in 1928 and in 1960. What similarities do you see? What differences? In particular, look for…

Analyzing Primary Sources: Middle School (6-8) Image Analysis Choice Board

Analyzing Primary Sources: Middle School (6-8) Image Analysis Choice Board

This choice board is targeted to students in grades 6-8 They may use images found in the home; in newspapers, magazines or books; on television (if there is a pause feature); or online to complete the activities and may write or record (audio or video) their responses. If students have online access, below are several…