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Posted by: Stephen Wesson
I love getting to see the students in Teresa St. Angelo's kindergarten classroom engage with the films and photographs and carefully identify evidence, of course. But the photos and stories in this post are also a valuable reminder that primary sources are powerful teaching tools at any grade level.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies, Young Learners
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Common Core State Standards and many other standards require that students compare informational texts in different media. However, multimedia texts aren’t limited to the 21st century. In fact, one of the most compelling multimedia campaigns in U.S. history was launched more than one hundred years ago, using paper, glue, and an effective set of persuasive techniques.
Posted in: Development of the Industrial United States (1877-1914), Lesson Ideas, Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Danna Bell
Primary sources are original documents and objects which were created at the time under study. We know that primary sources can show a certain point of view or a certain perception about an event. But students may not think about the reasons why a particular primary source was created.
Posted in: Development of the Industrial United States (1877-1914), Lesson Ideas, Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Cheryl Lederle
It didn't occur to me until recently that my math lesson was missing a primary source. After a simple search for "tetrahedron" or "tetrahedral kites" on the Library of Congress Web site, I was fascinated to find primary sources that could have enriched my geometry and measurement lessons.
Posted in: Science Technology and Math, Teaching Strategies, Young Learners
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Where can you find a wide range of authors writing from varied points of view, making arguments with appeals to evidence, rich with rhetorical strategies and figurative language, often using a number of different media, all in one package? In historic newspapers.
Posted in: Lesson Ideas, Teaching Strategies, Teaching Tools
Posted by: Anne Savage
Using the Library of Congress Found Poetry Primary Source Set, students hone their reading comprehension skills while creating poetry based upon text and images on topics as diverse as Helen Keller, Walt Whitman, women’s suffrage, and the Harlem Renaissance.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Cheryl Lederle
If you’ve ever wondered how early elementary students develop historical thinking skills, check out this lesson with a group of kindergarten historians. The Class of 2025 demonstrated their educational readiness while engaged in analyzing primary sources from the Library of Congress.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies, Young Learners
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Sometimes one page can say more about a subject--and about the writer--than a thousand. Short texts from the Library of Congress, including letters and telegrams, can be used to help students unpack meaning and make inferences about the authors.
Posted in: Science Technology and Math, Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Stephen Wesson
Informational text is more important to teachers than ever before, especially with the rise of the Common Core standards. The Library of Congress is an excellent resource for finding and using texts to build students' reading skills.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies