Library of congress intro

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TPS Module:Finding and Using Library of Congress Primary Sources

Teaching with Primary Sources

Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities

Illinois Council for the Social Studies

National-Louis University

Dominican University

Bradley University

Illinois Wesleyan University

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Introduction

The TPS Program of the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities focuses on

expanding the ways teachers can integrate primary sources in their classrooms. As part of the Online

Professional Development Project, we are providing a module that draws from the vast resources of the

Library of Congress to help professionals employ these important resources. This module draws

material from the Library of Congress, specifically the Teacher Section.

http://tps.nl.edu/

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/index.html






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What Will You Be Able to Do?After completing this module, you should be able to:

1. State why it is important to use primary sources.

2. Describe how to use primary sources with students.

3. Find Library of Congress primary sources.

4. Cite and bookmark primary sources.

5. Utilize teacher’s guides and analysis tools.






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Are You Ready?

You will need to be sure that you have an active internet connection to continue in this module.






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What Topics Will You Examine?

In this module, you will get an introduction to locating and using digitized primary sources found in the

Library of Congress . We will cover the following topics:

• Why use Primary Sources?

• Using Primary Sources with Students

• Finding Library of Congress Primary Sources

• Citing and Bookmarking Primary Sources

• Teacher’s Guides and Analysis Tools






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Topic One: Why use Primary Sources?

Why Use Primary Sources?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.






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Topic One: Why use Primary Sources?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.






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Your Task:

Reflect on how you might use Library of Congress digital sources in your classroom. Be specific. See

how many curricular areas you can address. Look for connections to state standards. Share what you

have learned with another teacher.






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Topic Two: Using Primary Sources with Students

Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects which were created

at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events

created by someone without firsthand experience. Examining primary sources gives students a powerful

sense of history and the complexity of the past. Helping students analyze primary sources can also

guide them toward higher-order thinking and better critical thinking and analysis skills.






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Your Task:

You will be using primary sources from the Library of Congress with your students. You will:

1. Engage students with primary sources.

2. Promote student inquiry.

3. Assess how students apply critical thinking and analysis skills to primary sources.

Before you begin:

1. Choose at least two or three primary sources from the Library of Congress that support the learning

objectives and are accessible to students.

2. Consider how students can compare these items to other primary and secondary sources.

3. Identify an analysis tool or guiding questions that students will use to analyze the primary sources






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Your Task:

1. Engage students with primary sources.

– Draw on students’ prior knowledge of the topic.

– Ask students to closely observe each primary source.

– Who created this primary source?

– When was it created?

– Where does your eye go first?

– Help students see key details.

– What do you see that you didn’t expect?

– What powerful words and ideas are expressed?

– Encourage students to think about their personal response to the source.

– What feelings and thoughts does the primary source trigger in you?

– What questions does it raise?






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Your Task:

2. Promote student inquiry.

– Encourage students to speculate about each source, its creator, and its context.

– What was happening during this time period?

– What was the creator’s purpose in making this primary source?

– What does the creator do to get his or her point across?

– What was this primary source’s audience?

– What biases or stereotypes do you see?

– Ask if this source agrees with other primary sources, or with what the students already know.

– Ask students to test their assumptions about the past.

– Ask students to find other primary or secondary sources that offer support or contradiction.






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Your Task:

3. Assess how students apply critical thinking and analysis skills to primary sources.

– Have students summarize what they’ve learned.

– Ask for reasons and specific evidence to support their conclusions.

– Help students identify questions for further investigation, and develop strategies for how they might answer

them.

– Analysis tools and thematic primary source sets from the Library offer entry points to many topics.






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Topic Three: Finding Library of Congress Primary Sources

The Library of Congress contains millions of digitized primary sources. The issue for teachers is “How

do I find what I want?” Fortunately, there is some help available. The Library has organized many of the

most commonly used primary sources into sets and provided guides to others.

The Library of Congress has also created an online video module to help teachers become expert in

locating primary sources that are not in primary source sets.






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Your Task:1. Explore the Library of Congress shortcuts to digital primary sources. Below are some shortcuts to

primary sources found in the Library of Congress:Primary Source Sets - Each set collects primary sources on a specific topic, all as easy-to-use PDFs, with historical background information and teaching ideas.

Primary Sources by State - Selected primary sources for each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.

Themed Resources - The best Library of Congress resources on the most frequently taught themes.

Browse by Topic - Easy browsing for primary sources across all the digital collections of the Library of Congress.

Web Guides - In-depth guides to resources on a wide variety of topics.

2. Complete the online professional development module titled “Finding Primary Sources” and print out

a certificate of completion for the module.

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/states/

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/

http://www.loc.gov/topics/

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/bibguide.html

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/selfdirected/finding.html






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Topic Four: Citing Primary Sources

How to Cite Electronic Sources

Citing primary sources correctly is one of the most important parts of studying primary sources, for a

number of reasons.

It is important--and ethically necessary--to provide full credit to the creators and publishers of

documents, and to allow future scholars to find the source quickly and correctly. Citing a primary source

is also crucial to critical thinking and analysis because it requires that the student think carefully about

where the source came from, who made it, and in what context the student first discovered it.

Today, most students have access to primary sources through electronic means, such as the Library of

Congress Web site. To be sure students are using the best citation format, you might want to consult the

examples listed below.






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Topic Four: Citing and Bookmarking Primary Sources

Citation Examples for Library of Congress Electronic Resources

Great variation exists among accepted styles, and different disciplines rely on different style guidelines.

It is not possible to give a single example of documentation for the digitized materials available on the

Library of Congress Web site. The examples below use style guidelines that are commonly used in

history (Chicago) and language arts (MLA) disciplines.

Bookmarking Digital Primary Sources

When you search the Library’s digital collections, the resulting pages have temporary URLs. Some

online materials require a special procedure for finding a permanent URL. Step-by-step instructions for

bookmarking items are found in Bookmarking/Linking.

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/chicago.html

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/mla.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/help/faq.html%23link






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Your Task:

1. Locate at least one primary source of the following types (document, photograph, map, audio

recording, and video recording) and prepare a reference citation for each.

2. For the sources you located above, locate the permanent URL (Digital ID) and bookmark each item.






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Topic Five: Teacher’s Guides and Analysis Tools

There are some excellent guides and tools available on the Library of Congress website as well as

articles in the TPS Journal to assist you with locating and using primary sources.






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Your Task:Explore the various Teacher Guides and Resources available below. Be sure to bookmark them for future reference!

From the TPS JournalNewman, Mark. 2009. What do you see? Exploring the nature of photographs as education resources.

TPS Journal, Vol. 1, Issue 1.

Paras, Emily, Briana Piche and Leah Nillas. 2010.The use of primary sources in high school history classrooms. TPS Journal, Vol. 2. Issue 1.

http://tps.nl.edu/TPSjournalnewman11.htm

http://tps.nl.edu/TPSJournalIWU22.htm






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Your Task:Explore the various Teacher Guides and Resources available below. Be sure to bookmark them for future reference!

Analysis Tool for StudentsPrimary Source Analysis Tool (PDF, 53 KB)

Teacher's GuidesAnalyzing Primary Sources (PDF, 56 KB)

Analyzing Books and Other Printed Texts (PDF, 61 KB)

Analyzing Manuscripts (PDF, 71 KB)

Analyzing Maps (PDF, 55 KB)

Analyzing Motion Pictures (PDF, 55 KB)

Analyzing Oral Histories (PDF, 73 KB)

Analyzing Photographs and Prints (PDF, 55 KB)

Analyzing Political Cartoons (PDF, 83 KB)

Analyzing Sheet Music and Song Sheets (PDF, 55 KB)

Analyzing Sound Recordings (PDF, 55 KB)

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Primary_Source_Analysis_Tool.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Primary_Sources.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Books_and_Other_Printed_Texts.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Manuscripts.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Maps.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Motion_Pictures.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Oral_Histories.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Photographs_and_Prints.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Political_Cartoons.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Sheet_Music_and_Song_Sheets.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Sound_Recordings.pdf






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What Are Your Tasks?• Reflect on how you might use Library of Congress digital sources in your classroom. Be specific.

See how many curricular areas you can address. Look for connections to state standards. Share what you have learned with another teacher.

• Use primary sources from the Library of Congress with your students. You will:o Engage students with primary sources.o Promote student inquiry.o Assess how students apply critical thinking and analysis skills to primary sources.

• Explore the Library of Congress shortcuts to digital primary sources

• Complete the online professional development module titled “Finding Primary Sources” and print out a certificate of completion for the module.

• Locate at least one primary source of the following types (document, photograph, map, audio recording, and video recording) and prepare a reference citation for each.

• For the sources you located above, locate the permanent URL (Digital ID) and bookmark each item.

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/selfdirected/finding.html






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What Resources Are Available?• Library of Congress – www.loc.gov

– Check out the Teacher’s Page with links to professional development modules, guides to primary sources, sample lesson plans and activities, tips for using primary sources, and student analysis guides.

• Teaching with Primary Sources Project tps.nl.edu/– This site has example projects using primary sources as well as an online journal.

http://www.loc.gov/






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ConclusionAs you reflect on what you have learned in this module, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why is it important for students to be able to use primary sources?

2. How can I use primary sources in various content areas?

3. Can I explain how to search for primary sources to another teacher?

4. Why is it important to teach students how to cite primary sources?

5. Can I locate the permanent URL of a primary source and successfully bookmark it?






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Module Index• Introduction• What Will You Be Able to Do?• Are You Ready?• What Topics Will You Examine?

– One: Why use Primary Sources?– Two: Using Primary Sources with Students– Three: Finding Library of Congress Primary Sources– Four: Citing and Bookmarking Primary Sources– Five: Teacher’s Guides and Analysis Tools– What Are Your Tasks?

• What Resources Are Available?• Conclusion

Education

Library of congress intro