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TPS Colorado
TPS Western Region
Library of Congress
Teaching with Primary Sources
Metropolitan State University of Denver
@TPSMSUDenver
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
1900
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS TRIVIA
What was the original appropriation amount in 1814 establishing the Library of Congress?
What was the new appropriation on January 30, 1815 to acquire Jefferson’s Library? How many books?
As the largest library in the world, the LOC contains approximately how many miles of bookshelves?
How many items does the LOC receive each working day? Of those, how many are added to their collections?
The collections include:
The LOC has archived 400 billion of these items making it by far the Library’s largest collection.
- 38m books and other printed materials
- 3.6m recordings,
- 14m photographs
- 5.5m maps
- 8.1m pieces of sheet music
- 70m manuscripts
$5000
$23,950 & 6487
838 miles
15,000 & 11,000
Tweets
LINCOLN SELFIE
“Don’t believe everything you see and read on the Internet…especially when there’s a picture with a quote next to it”
- Abraham Lincoln
- 80% of middle schoolers couldn't tell “sponsored content” from real news articles
- Less than 20% of high schoolers questioned the validity of photographs
- The vast majority of undergraduate students struggle to evaluate social media posts (on Twitter and Facebook)
Source: Stanford History Education Group, “Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning.”
What is social studies?
What is history?
What is historical thinking and historical context?
What are primary sources?
Why is using primary sources important?
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 first hand experience.
Mystery Photo
Primary Source Analysis
Observe
Reflect
Question
Observe
Identify and note details only through simple observations
Reflect
Generate and test hypotheses about the source
Question
Ask questions to lead to more observations and reflections
Baseball game, Manzanar Relocation Center, Calif. / photograph by Ansel Adams.
*https://www.loc.gov/item/2002695992/
Zoom In Inquiry Activity
What stories do pictures tell?
Is this a photo or a drawing?
What objects do you see?
Is this picture old or new? (clues?)
What do you think this might be?
What new information do you have?
What ideas do you have about this photo?
When do you think this was taken? Why?
What do you think is happening?
What modern activities can you compare to those you see?
How would you explain this picture to someone else?
What additional information does the complete picture provide?
What do you know about the history of this photograph?
What could have happened prior to this captured moment?
What could have happened after this photograph?
What smells would you encounter?
What would you hear?
Who would you want to talk to?
What would you say or ask?
Create a caption for this picture.
Gay rights demonstration at the Democratic National Convention, New York City
*https://www.loc.gov/item/2005696365/
Thinking Critically as an Educator
Would you use this resource in your classroom?
How do you approach difficult topics and difficult language with your students?
Is it important to teach difficult topics?
Time to Dig Into
LOC.GOV
Time to Dig Into
LOC.GOV
The Good News:
Over 60 million resources
for your classroom
The Bad News:
Over 60 million resources
for your classroom
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CREDITS
Special thanks to all the people who made and released these awesome resources for free: