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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
Posted by: Danna Bell
“The Library of Congress means many different things to many people,” wrote Stephen Wesson at the start of the second year of the Teaching with the Library of Congress blog. “But for teachers and students it represents a source of discovery and learning unlike any other.” He noted that the first year of the blog had looked at a variety of topics and provided teaching suggestions that help unlock the potential of our unique primary sources.
Posted in: Lesson Ideas, Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Anne Savage
Congress.gov, the official congressional information system from the Library of Congress, is a new public beta site for accessing free, fact-based information on the legislation and members of the United States Congress.
Posted in: Teaching Strategies
Posted by: Anne Savage
With winter arriving this month, my thoughts turned to a different kind of cleaning: snow removal. How were city streets cleared long ago, and what was life like before plows and snowblowers? I discovered some intriguing images that answer some of my questions and raise many new ones.
Posted in: Science Technology and Math, Teaching Strategies