Library of Congress Self-Paced Professional Development Modules Now Online

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

Educators interested in learning and practicing strategies for teaching with primary sources now have new resources from the Library of Congress to support their efforts. Two self-paced professional development modules recently launched on the Library’s Teachers site.

“Analyzing Primary Sources” provides an introduction to the foundations of primary source analysis. In this module, users watch a sample primary source analysis, practice the strategy by analyzing a historical photograph, and explore teacher resources from the Library of Congress.

“Multiple Sources for Multiple Perspectives” applies strategies for analyzing multiple primary sources to examine multiple perspectives. In this module, users analyze a primary source about a well-documented event in U.S. history, examine multiple points of view related to the source, and work with additional sources to further expand understanding of multiple perspectives.

Each module is self-contained, plays from a web browser, and can be completed in one hour or less. Each module models key strategies and the educator engages with the content by responding to prompts on the screen and reflecting in a journal. A certificate for 1 hour of professional development will be available upon completion. Please note that you must complete the module in one session, as the system does not save your progress.

Additional modules are being developed and will be placed online when available. We hope that you will find these new self-paced professional development modules helpful! If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at: [email protected].

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