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Archive: September 2012 (9 Posts)

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

Presidential Elections: Newspapers and Complex Text

Posted by: Cheryl Lederle

Newspapers offer rich examples of complex text, and they often have features to help readers understand and put it into context. Chronicling America offers digitized historical newspaper pages from 1836-1922, including a time-saving list of Recommended Topics. In this election season, I was drawn to the pages about presidential elections. Here are a few particulars that caught my attention, with teaching ideas that came to mind.

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

Analyzing Photographs: Child Labor from a Child’s Perspective

Posted by: Cheryl Lederle

How do 21st century children respond to photographs of child labor? Barbara Natanson, who works in the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress, recently wrote a blog post about what her children saw in selected photographs that Lewis Hine took for the National Child Labor Committee. Replicating what Barbara did would be an easy way to introduce students to learning with primary sources.