In the October 2014 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our "Sources and Strategies" article focused on the presidential election of 1864.
One way for teachers to engage students with poetry is to connect poems and poets to historical events. Students gain a deeper appreciation of poets and their work when they can see snippets of the writer's life in the work.
One way to engage students with the wealth of maps available from the Library of Congress is to discuss their value as sources of information as well as means to find a location or plan a route.