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Posted by: Colleen Smith
Analyzing two different versions of "You're a Grand Old Flag" allows students both to hone their listening skills and to consider how music changes over time and how word choice may shift depending on historical and cultural contexts.
Posted in: Fine and Performing Arts, Primary Source Highlights, Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Michael Apfeldorf
Apply information literacy skills to WWI era media that appeals to emotion.
Posted in: Industrial United States, World Wars and the Great Depression (1914-1945), Literacy, Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Michael Apfeldorf
Using primary sources related to the women's suffrage movement, the blog includes information literacy strategies for understanding how persuasive arguments are constructed.
Posted in: Literacy, Teaching Strategies, Women's History
Posted by: Colleen Smith
In the March/April 2025 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article highlighted a political cartoon that appeared in the September 22, 1909, issue of Puck Magazine. The image, “Lights and Shadows”, contains a wealth of opportunities for students to explore connections between the environment, politics, economics, and public health.
Posted in: Development of the Industrial United States (1877-1914), Science Technology and Math, Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Michael Apfeldorf
This blog post illustrates how STEM teachers can use free primary sources related to the famous female inventor, Beulah Henry, to engage students in three-dimensional learning.
Posted in: Science Technology and Math, Teaching Strategies, Women's History
Posted by: Michael Apfeldorf
A key aspect of information literacy is evaluating the relationship between claims and evidence: Do claims follow clearly and logically from evidence? Can the evidence also support alternate claims? Guide students to apply information literacy skills to a 1912 article “Mars Peopled by One Giant Thinking Vegetable.”
Posted in: Literacy, Science Technology and Math, Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Colleen Smith
By engaging in a series of deliberate and evolving questions about a particular source, students may begin to recognize that whether a source is primary or secondary depends on the research question being asked.
Posted in: Contemporary United States (1945-present), Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Colleen Smith
Engage students in comparing perspectives in two newspaper articles about the Cold War.
Posted in: Contemporary United States (1945-present), Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Colleen Smith
With practice, students can apply new ways of thinking about events that otherwise might seem like foregone conclusions.
Posted in: African American History, Contemporary United States (1945-present), Teaching Strategies