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I just subscribed to the Teaching with the Library of Congress blog, which gives a variety of ideas about teaching using primary source documents. The blog was actually recommended by History Tech blog that I already subscribed to. I was excited to see the recommendation and subscribed right away!
Last summer I attended a Library of Congress: Teaching with Primary Sources conference. This was a 3 day conference teaching us how to navigate the Library of Congress site and all of the useful tools it provides for our classroom. We were then required to create a lesson plan centered around one or more of their primary source documents. Before attending this conference I probably would not have used the site for much other than to conduct some research here and there. Now, I find myself using loc.gov as a tool in my classroom often.
After teaching 6th grade social studies for 3 years I have become obsessed with teaching about the Maya, Aztec, and Inca Empires. I decided to create a lesson plan on the Aztecs using paintings that show the Spanish encounter with the Aztec people. What is neat is that you can zoom into various details and read descriptions about what is happening and why those details were put into the painting. Most of the Library of Congress site revolves around United States history so I wanted to create something for World History. If any of you teach social studies and ever get the opportunity to attend a LOC conference I would recommend it! I was also paid to create the lesson plan!
I would also recommend subscribing to the LOC blog and using the site to find great lesson plans and ideas for your classroom.
www.loc.gov
Thanks for the "heads up" on the Library of Congress blog. I will look in to it. The conference sounds interesting. Maybe I'll look around for one. I've also noticed that there are a ton of pictures on Flickr that are released through The Commons that come from the National Archive. Those may be of some use to you also.
ReplyDeleteGreat site, Martina. The Library of Congress is an excellent resource for research papers, and the credibility of sources and usefulness of this site is undeniable. I find a real connection between some of the books I teach that have a foundation in history, such as Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," and my Survey of American Literature class is based on primary sources. I've bookmarked this one for sure!
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