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...]
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...]
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...]
2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival
August 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment
The 19th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019. The event is free and open to the public. If you can't make, don't worry, as recordings of author presentations will be available at a later date. More than 140 authors, illustrators, and poets will make presentations dedicated to kids, fiction, history, biography, poetry, science, and more. Fascinating thematic programs … [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: 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 1 Comment
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...]
Guided Primary Source Analysis: Round the World with Nellie Bly
January 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Zoom into a more detailed image of this source. Explain what you can determine about Nellie Bly just by looking at this source (be sure to point out the details that support your findings). Read the following articles to learn more about Nellie Bly, Jules Verne and Elizabeth Bisland. Describe what you learned. Nellie Bly from America’s Library “Bly and Bisland.” The St. Paul Daily Globe (St. Paul, Minn.), December 16, 1889 (left column) Play the game with some friends. Then use a … [Read more...]
Analyzing Primary Sources: Learning from Newspapers
December 10, 2014 by 1 Comment
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) strike a balance between the reading of literature and informational texts and promote the use of a wide range of text types: “Through reading a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational texts in a range of subjects, students are expected to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspective.” [English Language Arts Standards: Key Design Considerations] Some items in … [Read more...]
Learning from the Source: Shifting Perspectives of Iran
December 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Enduring Understandings* Politics is a process to determine who governs and for what purposes. Time, place, and culture influence our perspectives on people and issues. Different perspectives affect the interpretation of history. Activity Have students collaborate to compare and contrast how visual and text sources have described and depicted the country of Iran over time. Sources Maps/infographics Iran, ethnic distribution, created 2004 by the United States Central … [Read more...]
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