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2020 Invitational Summer Institute

Exploring loc.gov

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Overview

Today, we analyzed a set of primary sources that might help us build and reflect on community with our students. While not all of the images we analyzed were from the Library of Congress, the Library has a number of digitized texts that we might use in our classrooms, available at loc.gov.

Watch the videos on slides 2-4 about how to find primary sources at loc.gov.
Then, on a new slide, (i) add a primary source, (ii) provide a link, and (iii) describe why you selected this item for potential classroom use. (You may write your description or embed a voice recording.)

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Video 1: Teachers Page at loc.gov/teachers

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Video 2: Teachers Blog at blogs.loc.gov/teachers

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Video 3: Navigating and Searching loc.gov

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Jada’s Found

Primary Source

We use the “Collections” curriculum and one collection is Culture and Belonging. In this collection, it discusses what culture is and what it means to belong. It is focused on immigrants coming to America.

I chose this picture because it can be used as a see/think/wonder (just like we did today) on immigration.

One thing to pay close attention to is the bottom of the political cartoon. It reads “Uncle Sam: You’re welcome in---if you can climb it!”

This will help spark discussions of immigration, how immigrants are viewed and treated in America, the stereotypes put on immigrants by the media and current president.

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Tiffani’s Found Primary Source

I chose this item because of the link to African Americans’ roles in the MLB. I want to give students a visual to how music is tied to an idea of what baseball is about and how the addition of Blacks to the genre shaped how we view sports today.

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Ariel’s Found Primary Source

I selected this primary source (to the right) for potential classroom use because it relates to some of the things happening in our marches today. I think it would be something that could get discussions happening around the Black Lives Matter movement, but also open the door for history to be discussed. I think this photo can be a stepping stone for so much more on a sometimes brushed over topic (race) in school.

Click Here for Primary Source Set (NAACP)

Click Here for Larger View of Image

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Shelly’s Found Primary Source

https://www.loc.gov/item/2016648768/

The primary source I chose is a poster from The Black Panther Party. I selected this primary source for two reasons. First, I plan to read One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. In the book the sisters attend a Black Panther summer camp,so to see actual literature from that time period makes the book “real”. Second, we’ve seen this symbol of the raised fist with the backdrop of the city many times this summer and I would like to have conversations around what does this symbol mean to my students especially with the addition of chains around the fist and arm.

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Katie’s Found Primary Source

See notes

Link to item: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002624003/

Why I might use this in my classroom (and any questions I have): This map of Philadelphia could be used in a “Where I’m From” exploration or in an interrogation of problems in the community. We could compare this map with Google Maps street view and talk about how who makes the map, and when it’s made, changes what the map looks like. Students can draw their own maps of where they are from from memory and where they live now. They could also use it to chart out problems of their local community and interrogate ways of fixing those problems. Where I’m From could be part of getting to know you activities at the beginning of the year, and looking at community problems could be part of the “Becoming Researchers” unit in ReadyGen to talk about migration and how people’s lives change depending on where they live.

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Mary’s Found Primary Source

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Gwen’s Found Primary Source

My initial reasoning for selecting this photo was that I thought it captured the uniqueness of the various neighborhoods in Philadelphia. As once a literacy/arts specialist (prep teacher), I took students on a tour of the Mural Arts Program. We visited over 20+ murals among the Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Working with first grade students, I thought it might be a nice entry into a study on neighborhoods, as well. Similar to the I See-Think-Wonder activity, students might pose questions, wonderings, and thoughts about this photo as we constructed a familiarity with our class commonalities and differences.

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Emmy’s Found Primary Source

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Zoë’s Found Primary Source

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Hannah’s Found Primary Source

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Sherese’s Found Primary Source

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Javaha’s Found Primary Source

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Lisa Lapina’s

Found Primary Source

Link to item: https://www.loc.gov/resource/npcc.20071/

Why I might use this in my classroom (and any questions I have): I like using photographs, especially those with minimal text, with early learners since many of them are not yet readers. I would invite students to examine a weather instrument represented in the set. This photo shows a child in front of a snow gauge. In first grade, students learn how to measure changes in the weather. We study temperature, thermometers, rain gauges, and wind scales. I would encourage my students to explore the weather instrument that is shown in the primary source. I would use the I See, I Think, I Wonder protocol with my first graders at the beginning of a lesson about weather instruments. We usually create our own flag to measure the wind and our own rain gauge. Presenting this set of primary sources at the beginning of the unit would support student learning and build student engagement within the topic. Another primary source in this set shows two men with a weather balloon. Using primary sources in this science unit would also help support student understanding of past and present. We would be able to build an inquiry around how studying the weather has changed over time.

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Melissa’s Primary Source

Link to item: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/90712911/

Assimilation through Education Set: https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/assimilation/pdf/teacher_guide.pdf

Context (not the easiest to see) Title: Educating the Indians--a female pupil of the government school at Carlisle visits her home at Pine Ridge Agency / from a sketch by a corresponding artist.

Why I might use this in my classroom (and any questions I have): In light of recent actions to “return” lands to the Muskogee Creek Nation in Oklahoma (1 of 5 civilized tribes forced to relocate in the Indian Removal) and the letter to teacher from the Native American father we read for day 3, this theme of assimilation through education caught my eye. This image could be paired with other images from the loc set (linked above), an exploration of the effects of Indian boarding schools by listening to this npr story (American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many) and read alongside “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian” that also deals with the theme of assimilation and rejecting culture/ identity.

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An’s Primary Source

Link to item: https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/mexican-americans/pdf/mural.pdf

Why I might use this in my classroom (and any questions I have): I have been thinking about how we can work “within the system,” meaning work with the curriculum, but still tweak it as we find necessary. While I find strengths in the current ELA curriculum I use (Wit & Wisdom), there is always room for improvement. Utilizing visual arts as a “text” is a major component of the curriculum as it lends itself into discussions such as “notice/wonder” and searching for the main idea and details. The students always enjoy looking at the art, but I thought this primary source would be a great addition to our art, as students may encounter mural arts in their daily lives. I also appreciate how this is a Mexican-American mural in front of a Mexican food mart, a culture that is reflective in my school’s student population. I can envision my students making strong connections to the mural.

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Malcolm X and Dr. King waiting for a press conference

I choose this picture because I plan to teach “Betty Before X” this year. It is a fictionalized account written by Illyasah Shabazz about her mother Dr. Betty Shabazz who was an activist at a young age, long before she met Malcolm X. When searching the Library of Congress, I couldn’t find her.

So, I found this picture instead. Which I still found amazing because we often are sold a story that makes it seem like these men were in opposition and disliked each other. Here, they are speaking and waiting to participate in the same event.