Today we celebrate the 227th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution in Philadelphia, Penn., which was ratified at the Constitutional Convention on Sept. 17, 1787.
The Library recently released a series of interactive eBooks for tablets, including a set on the Constitution, which can be downloaded for free on iBooks. The new Library of Congress Student Discovery Sets bring together historical artifacts and one-of-a-kind primary source documents and objects on a wide range of topics, from history to science to literature. Interactive tools let students zoom in for close examination, draw to highlight interesting details and make notes about what they discover.
The set on the Constitution follows many of the drafts and debates that brought the historical document into being. With a swipe of a finger, students can scrutinize George Washington’s notes on the Constitution, read newspaper articles about the document or use prompts to help analyze such things as maps and letters.
Other sets available cover the Symbols of the United States, Immigration, the Dust Bowl, the Harlem Renaissance and Understanding the Cosmos.
The sets are designed for students, providing easy access to open-ended exploration. A Teacher’s Guide for each set, with background information, teaching ideas` and additional resources, can be found on the Library’s website for teachers.
The Library of Congress has excellent Constitution Day resources, including this page that pulls together a variety of materials from across the institution’s collections.
Comments (6)
We the people are great historic words.
It’s Inspiration, for all to live wisely, and wisely govern.
Wow, so great that you can comment here. Just wanted to note that as an adult I have re-read the Constitution which was a great exercise and it means so much more to me now.
I think that is a great idea for citizens as yeah, we have to learn about it in school as kids.
But I think we can only truly comprehend how great of a document it is and has been from an adult perspective.
Happy Constitution Day!
Too bad this type of resource isn’t available for android tablets as well.
A fifth grade teacher and I are working on some specific lessons surrounding George Washington. Thanks to this blog post, I realized that there are multiple resources for GW in the Constitution set.
It helped me realize that we should be aware of the primary sources in these sets for those who may not be teaching the specific topic of the set but may be able to use some of the sources in the set.
I’m really excited to use these resource sets. Thanks for broadening the scope of what I’ll be using with students.
Its ashamed that we don”t use the same dialect of words anymore!
Charles Wright , latest poet laureate, rds- 10/11/’14- a poet’s revue:
Glad that he will never see this- but, if he does, he will understand- just the fact that I review him is a tribute- but I am not into boosterism.
a gaseous, bs intro
” shadows and their cohorts, armada of clouds. electric paste, cadmium waters-nice- there are shades of Dylan Thomas, some colorful language so eschewed by most amurikan poets today…
great endings – wry-, “they say…they say”- necessary to hear him read them good folksiness
not easy to follow- influence of Pound, Wang Wei
negatives? Calif Dreaming” goes on- mawkish, prosey, “Polly and I and Bill Myers”- Do poets need editors (I rather think so) is the word “disc ursive”?
audience seems dead- saw one black person- poetry readings are really boring by and large- for mine I take questions from the audience- have some slides or something- many people asleep or pretending to b meditating but are actually sleeping- no applause
To me the best choice for poet laureate in my life time-