Where can you find a wide range of authors writing from varied points of view, making arguments with appeals to evidence, rich with rhetorical strategies and figurative language, often using a number of different media, all in one package? In historic newspapers.
With National Poetry Month around the corner, let's consider a very basic question: what makes a poem a poem? Noted poet and former Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish, considers this in his poem Ars Poetica.
Think of the last video you watched that made you laugh. Does the video capture someone taking a fall, misspeaking or getting caught doing something they shouldn't?
How can you share your response to a major world event? In the 19th and early 20th centuries, you might have put your thoughts down in a poem and sent it to a newspaper. The 1918 entry of the United States into World War I triggered an especially dramatic outpouring of these personal responses in verse.
Using the Library of Congress Found Poetry Primary Source Set, students hone their reading comprehension skills while creating poetry based upon text and images on topics as diverse as Helen Keller, Walt Whitman, women’s suffrage, and the Harlem Renaissance.
If you’ve ever wondered how early elementary students develop historical thinking skills, check out this lesson with a group of kindergarten historians. The Class of 2025 demonstrated their educational readiness while engaged in analyzing primary sources from the Library of Congress.
If you’re attending either the Computer Using Educators (CUE) Conference in Palm Springs, California March 14-16 or the ASCD conference in Chicago March 16-18 please visit the Library of Congress booth on the exhibit floor.
Sometimes one page can say more about a subject--and about the writer--than a thousand. Short texts from the Library of Congress, including letters and telegrams, can be used to help students unpack meaning and make inferences about the authors.
National Deaf History Month, March 13 to April 15, celebrates deaf history and promotes awareness of American deaf culture. Library of Congress primary sources provide interesting glimpses into this rich cultural heritage for your students to explore.