Popular songs often carry political or social messages or commentary on the events of the day. Music offers teachers a lens to explore the culture of a time and to help students understand issues of importance during that period in history. The Library of Congress archives a vast repository of sheet music and song sheets, and many of these rich primary sources are available online. Several Teaching with the Library of Congress blog entries point to music-related primary sources and ways to use them with students.
Teachers agree that ease and fluency in writing come with frequent practice for a variety of purposes, whether making personal connections, analyzing information or constructing an answer to a document-based question. One way to incorporate more writing in the classroom is to create assignments using high-impact primary source images from the Library of Congress. Their real-world authenticity can rivet students’ attention, spark inquiry and draw them into a writing topic or task.
Today, we’ve collected posts from the Teaching with the Library of Congress blog discussing disasters, unexpected events in American history which had important ramifications, and how they can be approached in the classroom.
The Library of Congress recently launched an interactive online version with built-in sample questions to offer students guidance and to prompt further observation, reflective thinking, and questioning.
