Library of Congress
Using Primary Sources
Teachers page - Correlating to and Searching by the Standards
Search by >State>Grade>Subject (CCSS ELA Standards, Social Studies Standards)
You can also search which standards are met for each unit/lesson plan/ presentation, etc.
LOC Blog
Teaching with Primary Source Journal
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/journal/
Every issue has a sample lesson for elementary students and one for use with secondary students.
Archives are available
Each issue is available as a downloadable PDF
Classroom Materials - Primary Source Sets
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/
Lesson Plans
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/
Presentations and Activities
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/
"Fill Up the Canvas" Lewis and Clark expedition
Themed Resources - highlights the lesson plans, Primary Source Sets, exhibitions, etc. by broad topic
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/
Online Modules for understanding and using the LOC better
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/selfdirected/
Intro to the LOC
Supporting Inquiry with Primary Sources
Copyright and Primary Sources
Analyzing Primary Sources - Photographs and Prints
Analyzing Primary Sources: Maps
Finding Primary Sources
Teacher's Guide: Primary Source analysis Tool
Questions for students in the areas of
- Observation (What do you See?)
- Reflection (What do you think?)
- Questioning (What do you wonder?)
- Further Investigation
Also includes a few follow up activity ideas.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/guides.html
Why Use Primary Sources?
Why Use Primary Sources?
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/whyuse.html
Primary sources provide a window into the past—unfiltered access to the record of artistic, social, scientific and political thought and achievement during the specific period under study, produced by people who lived during that period.
Bringing young people into close contact with these unique, often profoundly personal, documents and objects can give them a very real sense of what it was like to be alive during a long-past era.
1. Engage students
- Primary sources help students relate in a personal way to events of the past and promote a deeper understanding of history as a series of human events.
- Because primary sources are snippets of history, they encourage students to seek additional evidence through research.
- First-person accounts of events helps make them more real, fostering active reading and response.
2. Develop critical thinking skills
- Many state standards support teaching with primary sources, which require students to be both critical and analytical as they read and examine documents and objects.
- Primary sources are often incomplete and have little context. Students must use prior knowledge and work with multiple primary sources to find patterns.
- In analyzing primary sources, students move from concrete observations and facts to questioning and making inferences about the materials.
- Questions of creator bias, purpose, and point of view may challenge students’ assumptions.
3. Construct knowledge
- Inquiry into primary sources encourages students to wrestle with contradictions and compare multiple sources that represent differing points of view, confronting the complexity of the past.
- Students construct knowledge as they form reasoned conclusions, base their conclusions on evidence, and connect primary sources to the context in which they were created, synthesizing information from multiple sources.
- Integrating what they glean from comparing primary sources with what they already know, and what they learn from research, allows students to construct content knowledge and deepen understanding.
Center for the Book
LOC Exhibitions
The richness and variety of the Library’s exhibitions reflect the universal and diverse nature of the Library’s collections. Four major themes underlie most of the exhibitions—the presentation of great libraries and written traditions; the exploration of America’s past and character; the examination of world cultures and history; and the celebration of events, individuals, and works that shaped the twentieth century and beyond.
NCCE's Library of Congress FREE two day training workshops during summer
There is a two-day session offered in Oregon every summer. Dates and place have not yet been decided for the 2014 sessions, but you can sign up to get on the mailing list to get updates.
This flyer was created by Erin Fitzpatrick-Bjorn, the Gresham-Barlow K-8 District Media Coordinator
Email: fitzpatrick@gresham.k12.or.us
Website: http://library-resources.www.gresham.k12.or.us
Phone: