Resources from the Library of Congress for Teaching English and Language Arts

Staff from the Library of Congress will be in booth 1010 at the annual convention of the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) in Anaheim on November 18-20. We’d love to chat with you and give you a personalized tour of the Library’s primary source collections, teaching materials, and professional development resources.

Whether or not you join us in person, we invite you to explore these online resources and to share your own discoveries.

Teaching Literature

• The Great Gatsby: Establishing the Historical Context with Primary Sources
• Of Mice and Men: Exploring the Context with Primary Sources
• Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn: Controversy at the Heart of a Classic
• William Shakespeare through the Ages: Different Visions of the Bard in Primary Sources
• “GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story” – Bringing the National Ambassador’s Ideas to Your School

Teaching Poetry

• Poetry and Primary Sources
• The Evolution of Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!”
• Just Launched: “Living Nations, Living Words” Guide for Educators
• Finding Inspiration in Nature: Reading and Writing Poems about Animals
• Using Poetry to React to Historical Events and Causes
• Turning a Poem into a Play
• Spotlight on Humorous Poetry

Information Literacy

• Information Literacy and Historical Primary Sources: Addressing Difficult Topics
• Information Literacy: Why Does the Source Matter? Gilmore’s 1869 Peace Jubilee
• Information Literacy: Building Observation and Questioning Skills with Newspaper Ads
• Information Literacy: How Does the News Change Over Time? The Sinking of the Titanic

Reading

• Reading is for Everyone
• Teaching with Historical Children’s Books
• Supporting Students with Dyslexia: Free Resources from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled

Learn about the Library of Congress Literacy Awards. Download this flyer–and share with colleagues!

We encourage you to examine the collections and teaching materials, to poke around this blog, and to stop by and say hello if you’re at NCTE. And please take a moment to leave a comment letting us know what you discover!

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