Aerial view of U.S. Capitol and crowd on the grounds of the east front of the U.S. Capitol, during the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, March 4, 1933

Teaching Now: Determining the Main Idea of a Text

This is a guest post from Glenn Jensen, a national board certified U.S. and world history teacher at Kennedy High School in Chicago, Illinois. Glenn has developed an exercise that is a great way to begin analyzing primary source texts because it has students focus on what they know, what they can extrapolate from that knowledge,…

Building a Sod House in Western Nebraska

Literature Links: My Daniel – Hunting Dinosaurs in Nebraska

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…

Analyzing Primary Sources: Sensory Exploration

Analyzing Primary Sources: Sensory Exploration

The sensory exploration graphic organizer is a great way to introduce students, especially younger ones, to primary source analysis. It also helps with vocabulary development. Encourage students to write words in each column for each sense or allow them to draw pictures. After, you may have students create a poem of their choice using the words they brainstormed;…

Emigrants coming to the "Land of Promise"

Primary Source Learning: Immigration

Primary source sets with teaching guides Immigration Challenges for New Americans Mexican American Migrations and Communities Primary Source Learning: Immigration Primary Source Set Puerto Rican Identity Primary source lesson plans The American West: Images of Its People 6-8 Child Immigrant Experiences of Early 1900s and Today 3-5 Creating a Primary Source Archive: All History Is…

Mulberry Street, New York City

Literature Links: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

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…

Thinking deeper with the primary source thinking triangle.

Teaching Now: Thinking Deeper with Primary Sources

This is a guest post from Ruth Ferris, an elementary school librarian from Billings, Montana, and a grantee in the TPS Regional Grant Program. I originally learned about the TPS-Barat Primary Source Thinking Triangle through Martha Kohl of the Montana Historical Society. I loved it! I work with K-6 students and many of them struggle academically so I am always looking…

TPS-Barat TTT Cohort creating a frozen living picture

Analyzing Primary Sources: Frozen Living Pictures

We know that primary sources engage students, helping them to personally relate to persons and events of the past and develop a deeper understanding of history as a series of human events. One way to enhance the connection and empathy is to have students analyze a primary source image, then create tableaux or frozen living pictures. The goal is…

Take me out to the ball game

Primary Source Learning: Baseball

Baseball: Across a Divided Society (primary source set) Baseball, Race and Ethnicity: Rounding the Bases Baseball, Race Relations and Jackie Robinson Black Diamond! Satchel Page and the Negro Baseball Leagues Past and Present: Using Baseball Statistics to Teach Math (student worksheet) Tinkers to Evers to Chance Collection Connections: Baseball Cards Collection Connections: Jackie Robinson Recreation Yesterday and…

Twelve Years a Slave

Primary Source Learning: Oral Histories & Personal Narratives

LOC.gov contains numerous oral history and personal narrative resources. Check out the lists below! Teaching resources Analyzing Primary Sources: Learning from Oral Histories Learning from the Source: Chicago Meatpackers & the Unions Learning from the Source: Digital Stories of Our Heroes Learning from the Source: Media & Migrant Laborer Perspectives Primary Source Learning: September 11,…