Welcome back to the classroom, and welcome back to Teaching with the Library of Congress!
The Library is a cultural institution like no other, and provides countless opportunities for teachers and students through its vast online collections of free primary sources. These photographs, maps, letters, music, posters, films, and other artifacts have great instructional power, and can support students across disciplines as they build their critical thinking skills and create new knowledge.
The best place to start is the Library’s Web site for teachers, loc.gov/teachers, where you’ll find ready-to-use classroom materials, teaching strategies, and opportunities for professional learning.
To keep up with the latest news for teachers from the Library, as well as to learn about intriguing artifacts and ideas for educators, follow @TeachingLC on Twitter and subscribe to this blog. We’d love to learn about what you’ve done with Library resources in your own teaching and learning, and we’d be happy to hear about what more we can do to help.
In the meantime, are you looking for powerful ways to incorporate primary sources into your classroom activities? Here are a few blog posts that will supply some ideas you can use.
Ten Ways to Enrich Your Classroom with Primary Sources parts 1 and 2
Explore some easy ways to incorporate Library of Congress primary sources into daily classroom activities.
Back to School Night: Parents and Primary Sources
Want parents to learn how their students will use primary sources during the school year? This blog post provides ideas on how to introduce parents to the benefits of primary sources and to help them them become engaged with their children’s classroom activities.
Who Knew Analyzing Primary Sources Could Be So Exciting?
Intern Arline Troncoza talks about how bringing primary source analysis to students can take a classroom of bored kids and help them become engaged and excited to learn more.
Primary Source Sets for the K-2 Classroom
Looking for primary sources for students in early grades? Here are a few resources you can use.
Timelines for Teachers: Historical Primary Sources from the Library of Congress by Era
Timelines are a great teacher timesaver. Explore a few of the timelines found on the Library’s Web site for teachers.
Introducing Primary Source Analysis to Students: Lessons from the Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institute
Eden Kuhlenschmidt discusses how she uses a single map to help start a mapping unit and primary source analysis for 6th grade students at her school.
What are some of your ideas to introduce students and their parents to the wonder of primary sources? Let us know in the comments.
Comments (4)
I think the library is another way of teachers teaching.. this is wonderful. Primary sourcing is the way to introduce children to the different areas in the library.. It starts with meeting meeting the librarian whom takes you around to the different areas and teach you the way to: check out a book or look for one.. These were some of the issues of primary sourcing that i was taught..— shirley williams
P.S. i think some of the others may have not understood what you were talking about when you said: primary sourcing… the picture just says: observe and questions… when you think of primary you think of elementary (k-5) when you think of sourcing.. you think of the different ways (sources)…. this is how i came up with the answer that you wanted for primary sourcing..Ex: primary colors:red blue purple orange yellow etc..Thanks.
Please considering about the today very fast have world’s digitally develop how to libraries can be help to users and how to can be use published material
You may want to look at the blog, The Signal, which is presented by staff interested in digital humanities, preservation and other issues relating to the development of digital content. They would be the part of the Library that focuses on the development of digital libraries.
It’s a better way of doing and alternative , very good resource.