Rebecca Newland, 2013-15 Teacher in Residence, is supporting the needs of faculty and students in a school library. She also continues to contribute to the Library of Congress Poetry Center's blog, From the Catbird Seat.
Welcome back to the classroom, and welcome back to Teaching with the Library of Congress! Are you looking for powerful ways to incorporate primary sources into your classroom activities? Here are a few blog posts that will supply some ideas you can use.
In the January/February 2016 "Sources and Strategies" article in Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, Cheryl Lederle and I focus on helping students understand cartographers’ purpose through comparing two 16th century maps: Americae sive quartae orbis partis nova et exactissima descriptio by Diego Gutierrez and page 18 of Theatrum orbis terrarium by Abraham Ortelius.
Various national awards celebrate authors in January, and January can also be a great time to learn more about hundreds of writers and their work by exploring videos of author talks from past National Book Festivals offered by the Library of Congress.
Can you summarize the classic story The Cat in the Hat in one sentence? How about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or A Wrinkle in Time? This is just one small part of what librarians in the Children’s and Young Adults’ Cataloging Program or CYAC (pronounced kahy-ak) at the Library of Congress have been doing for decades. This week, the CYAC Program celebrates their fifty-year anniversary at the Library.
Film can be challenging to work with in the classroom. There must be a convenient way to show it to students. It takes a specific amount of time to view, and students often gain from multiple viewings. The benefits of analyzing a film in class must be worth the time spent with these resources.