Archive for the Teaching Tools Category (19 posts)

May in History with the Library of Congress

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Many teachers like to include mini-lessons or bell-ringers about “this day in history.” The Library of Congress offers two resources that recount what happened on a particular day using the Library’s collections of digitized primary sources: Jump Back in Time (introductory) and Today in History (advanced). Choose the one that best matches your students’ reading levels to build both content knowledge and research skills with primary sources in context.

May highlights include the first Mother’s Day (introductory; advanced) and the origins of Memorial Day (introductory; advanced), as well as milestones related to:

Empire State building. From south

The Built Environment

Exploration

  • May 6, 1856: Robert E. Peary, who claimed discovery of the North Pole, was born (introductory; advanced),
  • May 14, 1607:  the first permanent British settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia (introductory; advanced);

Law

  • May 16,1868: the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson (introductory; advanced),
  • May 18,1896: The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate-but-equal facilities were insufficient to satisfy the Fourteenth Amendment (introductory; advanced);

The Arts

Illustration from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”

Invention

  • May 24, 1844: Samuel F. B. Morse dispatched the first paper tape code message over an experimental telegraph line (introductory;  advanced).

To engage your students immediately,  distribute or display one primary source from an entry and invite them to jot down a single detail they notice and then share. To draw your students deeper into analyzing the primary sources, ask them to record observations, reflections and questions on the Library’s primary source analysis tool. Anne Savage offers tips in  Blog Round-Up: Using the Primary Source Analysis Tool.

Students can also:

  • Compare a secondary source account, such as a textbook explanation, to a primary source account. What can be learned from each? What cannot be learned from each? What questions do students have?
  • Consider how a series of primary sources support or challenge information and understanding on a particular topic. Ask students to refine or revise conclusions based on their study of each subsequent primary source.
  • Use the bulleted list of additional resources at the end of each Today in History entry to search for additional primary sources.

Some of our favorite ideas for using these resources came in the comments reacting to Primary Sources Every Day from the Library of Congress. Let us know how you use them!

 

 

 

Mexican American Migrations and Communities: A New Library of Congress Primary Source Set

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Fierce newspaper and pamphlet debates in Spanish and English. Sewing handbooks designed to advance “Americanization”. Tales of divided sympathies during the Civil War and patriotic service in World War II. Each of these historical artifacts is a part of the history of Mexican American communities in the 19th and 20th centuries. And each one can …

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Informational Text: Multiple Points of View in Multiple Formats

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Common Core State Standards, and many state content standards, emphasize reading informational text. Explore primary sources from the Library of Congress to discover informational text in many formats–including some formats that might surprise you. The more complex the issue, the more varied the perspectives on it, and those perspectives are expressed in sometimes unexpected documents, …

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Assessing Historical Thinking Skills Using Library of Congress Primary Sources

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When we ask teachers how they use primary sources, they often have rich and creative answers about how they hook students’ attention, deepen understanding, and even review concepts and content. We hear less about assessment, and most of the responses are questions about how to construct assessments using primary sources.

The Stanford History Education Group has created formative assessments using primary sources from the Library of Congress. With these tools, teachers can gauge students’ historical understanding and ability to apply critical thinking skills by evaluating their analysis of primary source materials.The Spring 2013 issue of the TPS Journal, an online publication focused on pedagogical approaches to teaching with the Library’s digitized primary sources in K-12 classrooms, looks at how a teacher can assess not only content knowledge, but also critical thinking skills.

New Library of Congress Primary Source Set for Teachers: The Spanish-American War

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A battleship explodes in Havana harbor—and across the pages of American newspapers. Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders stage a heroic charge—against a movie camera. The United States declares war to protect U.S. citizens in Cuba— and finds itself fighting around the globe. A new primary source set from the Library of Congress, “The Spanish-American War: The …

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