Every family has its own story, which each member has their own power to shape. Exploring the stories of the families that are depicted in historical artifacts can not only help students discover the rich variety of families that have formed and re-formed throughout history.
Those of you who are regular visitors to our twitter feed may remember seeing occasional tweets about the blog From the Catbird’s Seat from the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library. There are many wonderful posts From the Catbird Seat, but of special interest to many teachers will be the “Teacher’s Corner.”
In the Sources and Strategies article, we explained that receipts for personal expenses such as these - for initiation fees, annual and lifetime membership dues, taxes, and donations - can provide starting points for conversations with students about a wide variety of economic topics from personal spending to investing to stewardship, and more.
The Library also decided to try something new. Members of the Learning and Innovation team contacted two local high schools with active media production programs for students and asked whether they might be interested in learning about the Omar Ibn Said and helping us tell its story through film.
Recipes, like music scores, are especially interesting to me because they can still be used in the way the author originally intended. Though one cannot read historic newspapers to stay apprised of current events, or read historic letters to stay in touch with friends, "American orphan"; Amelia Simmons can speak through the centuries to help the reader get dinner to the table.
Football tends to be on students’ minds this time of year. What can they discover about football and American history through Library of Congress primary sources? An entertaining fictional film available on the Library's National Screening Room can lead students to discover a football legend from the early twentieth century.
As you start back to school in the new year, we wanted to highlight a few outstanding posts from other Library of Congress blogs that you may have missed. Hopefully they'll spur some ideas for classroom activities featuring the Library’s collections.
In the November-December 2018 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article focuses on one document used in the battle against mob violence against African Americans: a 1921 report from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary in support of a bill to make lynching a federal crime.
In the October 2018 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article focuses on a film featured in the Library's new National Screening Room,