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Coming Summer 2021: Free Library of Congress Educator Webinars

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This post is by Michael Apfeldorf of the Library of Congress.

Picture of teacher holding a photograph while another watches
Summer Teacher Institute, Connecting with Primary Sources, on Monday, June 10, 2013, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Photo by Shealah Craighead

Join the Library of Congress this summer for five webinars covering a variety of core skills and strategies for finding and analyzing primary sources, with a focus on K-12 education.

These “Foundations” webinars are an encore of our popular 2020 offerings. Participation is free and open to the public. Attendees staying for an entire one hour session will receive an automated email certifying their attendance to that session.

For more information, and to register, visit the Webinars and Workshops page. To request ADA accommodations, contact (202) 707-6362 or [email protected] at least five business days in advance.

More on the Sessions:
Each Foundations webinar will take place on a different Tuesday in June or July, from 2-3 pm Eastern Time. In a typical webinar, education specialists from the Library will lead an interactive session in which participants practice core strategies related to primary source analysis, then reflect on how these strategies may be applied to their own educational settings. Individual sessions include:

  • June 22 – Foundations: Analyzing Primary Sources from the Library of Congress
    Participants practice making observations, drawing inferences, and developing questions. They will also learn about free teacher resources available from the Library’s refreshed and updated Teacher’s site. Come see how these resources and strategies can facilitate student engagement, critical thinking, and the construction of knowledge!
  • June 29 – Foundations: Analyzing Complex Images
    Participants learn and apply foundational strategies for analyzing primary sources that are particularly rich and complex in detail. When working with such images, how can we help students notice and examine details that may otherwise go unnoticed? And how can we help them relate these details to one another in order to arrive at a fuller understanding of the whole?
  • July 13 – Foundations: Finding Resources on LOC.gov
    Library of Congress education specialists share tips and strategies for finding resources on the Library’s web site (loc.gov), which contains millions of freely accessible digitized primary sources, as well as a variety of free teacher resources. Emphasis is placed on navigating the site and using the search engine.
  • July 20 – Foundations: Analyzing Multiple Perspectives
    How can students identify different perspectives from which a single primary source may be examined? And how can examining multiple sources with different perspectives add to their understanding of a topic? We’ll practice a number of related strategies and reflect on how they may be used in your educational settings.
  • July 27 – Foundations: Information Literacy and Primary Sources
    Participants apply a variety of information literacy skills to historical primary sources from the Library of Congress. Skills include: identifying where information comes from; evaluating claims and evidence; evaluating bias; and researching for additional information.

Register here for one or several sessions! Please email [email protected] with questions or comments on the sessions.

Comments (2)

  1. I love the LOC teacher webinars! I always take away tips and resources I can implement in my class.

  2. Thanks for offering free webinars. I am a new educational media specialist in a public school.

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