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Posted by: Stacie Moats
Architecture offers a unique entry point for better understanding a historical era. Early in my career as a museum educator, I worked with professional architects and engineers to teach middle and high school students. From these experts, I learned valuable techniques for teaching with architectural drawings and photographs.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Danna Bell
Primary sources about snow and snow-related activities can be a great starting point for studying weather, comparing current winter pastimes to those of the past, and even studying clothing and snow-removal equipment.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Danna Bell
One of the things that makes teaching with primary sources wonderful is that they document what was happening at the time being studied. However, this is also why they can be problematic.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Anne Savage
Learn how to get started with an easy-to-use tool to guide students through primary source analysis.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies, Teaching Tools
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Is a newspaper a primary source? A political cartoon? A map? A lithograph? Is an excerpt in a textbook a primary source? How about a digitized facsimile? All of these questions came up during the Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institutes.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
How can students be inspired to look closely--and think carefully--while they observe?
Posted in: Teaching Strategies, Teaching Tools
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
The first time I tried facilitating a primary source activity during my post-graduate museum education studies, I only had to guide my peers’ analysis of a single artifact for five minutes. Yet so much of what I learned from this experience later proved invaluable to me when teaching with primary sources “for real.”
Posted in: Teaching Strategies, Teaching Tools
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Primary sources from the online collections of the Library of Congress can be powerful instructional tools. Analyzing these photos, films, maps, and audio recordings can help students engage with content, build their critical thinking skills, and construct knowledge.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies, Teaching Tools
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
What’s the most frustrating part of teaching with primary sources? They’re often incomplete and have little context. What’s the most rewarding part of teaching with primary sources? They’re often incomplete and have little context.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies, Teaching Tools