Primary sources can also be selected to stimulate and support student investigations; look for primary sources that provoke intrigue and offer clues to give students starting points for further investigation.
The strategy of reading portraiture encourages the visual analysis of a piece of art, similar to closely reading a document. The visual clues found in portraiture may be decoded to learn about the individual featured in the artwork.
One hundred years ago next month, Alice Burke and Nell Richardson began a journey across the United States to promote women’s right to vote. Following their route can allow students to learn about them and their journey while also revealing more about the suffragist movement and women in the United States a century ago.
Imagine television and radio broadcasts from the last 70 years covering topics from economics to social issues, from science to politics. You’ll find that resource in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB), a collaborative effort between the Library of Congress, WGBH Boston and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
While a primary source may be only one resource within a larger lesson, deliberating during the selection process over where in the lesson the primary source will be used can lead to greater engagement, inquiry, and learning from the students.
It is difficult to miss talk of the upcoming presidential election. Speeches, debates, and soundbites fill television screens, newspapers, and websites. But unless you attend a live event for a presidential nominee, you may not hear his or her campaign song, typically a familiar, popular song selected to shape how voters perceive the candidate. Campaign songs from long ago, original scores or popular songs with rewritten lyrics, did the same.
Valentine's Day may be the perfect time to sink your teeth into advertising messages by studying ads about candy and sweets from historic newspapers in Chronicling America.
Various national awards celebrate authors in January, and January can also be a great time to learn more about hundreds of writers and their work by exploring videos of author talks from past National Book Festivals offered by the Library of Congress.