Newspapers offer rich examples of complex text, and they often have features to help readers understand and put it into context. Chronicling America offers digitized historical newspaper pages from 1836-1922, including a time-saving list of Recommended Topics. In this election season, I was drawn to the pages about presidential elections. Here are a few particulars that caught my attention, with teaching ideas that came to mind.
Like many readers of the Teaching with the Library of Congress blog, we have identified strategies related to the Common Core’s instructional “shift” toward integrating more informational texts into literacy programs. Today’s summer blog round-up pulls together five posts packed with ideas for using informational texts from the Library’s collections.
Common Core State Standards, and many state content standards, emphasize reading informational text. Explore primary sources from the Library of Congress to discover informational text in many formats--including some formats that might surprise you.
Staff from the Library of Congress will be in booth 151 at the annual convention of the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) in Houston on November 16-18, and 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.
Every four years, voters go to the polls to elect the next president of the United States. We find ourselves listening to campaign advertisements, news reports on the candidates and their activities and watching debates between the candidates. Bring the campaign to life with primary sources from the Library of Congress.
How can time-strapped teachers find and use free resources from the online collections of the Library of Congress to support the needs of diverse learners? Join us in a webinar on Thursday, May 7, at 4 PM ET, to learn strategies "to engage students in the analysis of evidence (Common Core), increase comprehensible input (diverse learners), and promote content learning and student engagement."
On March 25, 1911, a fire swept through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, killing 146 men and women, many of them recent immigrants. It was later discovered that the workers faced many obstacles as they tried to flee the fire: Doors were locked by the factory's management and the fire escapes were inadequate. This catastrophe, which led to a public outcry, prompted updates to labor laws and reforms to fire and safety regulations.
