This post is by Rebecca Newland, the 2013-2015 Library of Congress Teacher in Residence.
This year’s NCTE conference, Story as the Landscape of Knowing, will take place November 20-23 in the Library’s hometown, Washington, D.C. You will find us at booth number 236 in the exhibit hall Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Whether or not you can attend, check out this selection of our favorite ideas and resources for English and language arts teachers from the Teachers page from the Library of Congress.
You might start with primary source sets, one of which focuses on American Authors in the Nineteenth Century: Whitman, Dickinson, Longfellow, Stowe, and Poe.
The Library’s K-12 education team also publishes regular blog posts. Search for “poetry,” “books,” and “writing” in our blog archives, but here are a few highlights:
- Focus on specific works of literature, with posts such as this one related to controversies surrounding Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
- Take a look at this post featuring drafts of “The Ballad of Booker T.” by Langston Hughes, when studying the writing process.
- Explore the question ”What is a poem?” with poet and former Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish’s poem “Ars Poetica,”
- Read strategies for working with informational text in historic newspapers from Chronicling America.
- Engage students in discussion about how stories connect us with National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Kate DiCamillo.
Explore poetry and literature lesson plans, and the presentation Lyrical Legacy: 400 Years of American Song and Poetry.
Find additional resources through The Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. Discover digitized classic books as well as author webcasts along with a variety of other resources including a free app for Aesop’s Fables.