In the May/June 2016 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article featured The Rocket Book, a children’s book published in 1912.
The details contained in both the story’s prose and its illustrations—from the names and occupations of the tenants to the pastimes and inventions depicted—provide a unique glimpse of urban life in America in the early years of the twentieth century.
In the October 2015 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article featured a letter written by Thomas Jefferson a little more than 200 years ago. We suggested that Jefferson’s single page letter to his friend Samuel Harrison Smith, founder of the National Intelligencer, might serve to remind students that events in history often overlap one another.
I have never been to Syria. I had only read about and seen images of the ancient ruins in Palmyra. I knew the 2,000-year old Greco-Roman structures were falling apart and had been for centuries. I had, however, no personal experience with them. But late last month, when news reports detailed their destruction, I found myself very upset, and tried explaining why to my children.
On May 13, 1900, using stationery of the Wright Cycle Company, Wilbur Wright handwrote a letter to fellow aviation pioneer Octave Chanute of Chicago, Illinois. I love this 5 page letter!
It contains some of the very best human emotions--there is passion, optimism, tenacity, curiosity, and recognition that together we can solve big problems.
In the March/April 2014 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our "Sources and Strategies" article described the invention of the phonograph and how it was used by the 19th century American ethnologists, Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, to record music and interviews with Omaha Indians.
In the October 2014 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our "Sources and Strategies" article focused on the presidential election of 1864.
Because the Library of Congress is The Largest Library in the World, just for fun, I did a search on "world's largest" in the library's online catalog.
Last year the Educational Outreach Team provided a collection of primary sources that documented what we did on our summer vacation. This was such a popular post that we decided to share how we spent our summer vacations using primary sources. Enjoy this year's adventures and hopefully get some ideas on how you might incorporate primary sources to help you learn more about your students and their interests.
In the March/April issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article focused on technologies and ideas related to effective communication.
