+ Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institutes

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Every year, the Library of Congress provides the opportunity for K-12 educators to attend one of its Summer Teacher Institutes in Washington DC.

During the five-day Institutes, participants work with Library of Congress education specialists to learn the best practices for using primary sources in the K-12 classroom.  In addition, they  explore some of the millions of digitized primary sources available on the Library’s Web site.

After participating in the Summer Teacher Institutes, participants will

• Know how to access primary sources from the Library of Congress
• Become skilled at analyzing primary sources of different formats
• Learn various teaching strategies for using primary sources in the classroom
• Be able to successfully facilitate a primary source-based activity with students
• Gain knowledge of how to use primary sources to enable student to become engaged, think critically and construct knowledge
• Develop a Primary Source Activity Plan that will be implemented in the participant’s instructional setting

Here is the application link; deadline is February 4th, 2013: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/teacherinstitute/apply/index.php

Teachers and school librarians of all grade levels and curriculum areas are encouraged to apply.

Tuition and materials are provided at no cost to participants.  Breakfast and lunch are also provided.

Participants will provide their own own transportation to and from the Library of Congress in Washington DC and any required overnight accommodations.

Interested participants have the option of completing additional requirements (and paying a fee) to earn three graduate credits from George Mason University.

DATES IN 2013

• June 10-14
• Jun 17-21
• July 22=26
• July 29-August 2
• August 5-9

Information is provided by the Library of Congress at www.LOC.gov

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Teachers: Primary Resources at the Library of Congress

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Teachers can subscribe to a free quarterly newsletter, “Teaching with Primary Resources (TPS) Quarterly,”  offered by the Library of Congress.  Visit http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/quarterly/

In the most recent online issue, Danna Bell-Russel writes “Beyond Typescript and Photographs: Using Primary Resources in Different Formats.”

Bell-Russel is a reference librarian and archivist working in the Educational Outreach Division of the Library of Congress.  She answers questions from teachers who want to help their students engage in real inquiry, construct knowledge  and develop critical thinking skills.

She hopes to encourage teachers to use a wider range of formats than the standard photographs and photocopied documents so widely available.

Among the Library of Congress’s digitized collections are materials that students can use to explore multiple points of view and the varying documentary methods people have implemented throughout history.

Handwritten Manuscripts 

Before email and tweeting existed — people relied on pen and paper to document their experiences. 

Handwritten manuscripts offer unique and intimate perspective on historical events.  While some of the Library’s manuscripts have been transcribed, there is excitement and insight available when viewing a person’s original writing.

Bell-Russel suggests that students might value letters from Civil War participants and their families.  One of the collections is called “A Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment.”  This collection includes letters to and from Tilton C. Reynolds, who was a member of the 105th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers.  His correspondence documents the difficulties faced by the soldiers, and even covers his prisoner-of-war experiences among his Confederate captors.

Also available  is Orlando Gray’s letter describing the Battle of Williamsburg.  

“A Teacher’s Guide to Analyzing Manuscripts” is also available.  And students can complete the “Primary Source Analysis Tool,” in order to document and organize their thinking.   Bell-Russel suggests that the question, “How did Confederates view the Battle of Williamsburg,” could lead to analyzing manuscripts written by soldiers on the opposing side.

Posters, Prints and Drawings

Search the Library’s “Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.” This collection includes architectural drawings, baseball cards and cartoon drawings.

The WPA Poster Collection collects the posters commissioned to tell communities about upcoming events, healthcare messages and other information during the Depression.    Of course, teachers can use the Teacher’s Guide to Analyzing Photographs and Prints.  Students might create their own posters to highlight current issues.

History and the Movies

Before YouTube and Hulu, films were black and white, and some were silent.  Films provide a visual moving reminder of the ways people lived and thought at that time.

Check out The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures, or Raising Old Glory Over Morro Castle.  Of course, there is a Teacher’s Guide.

Oral Histories

The Library of Congress has a number of oral history collections such as American Life Histories, Born in Slavery, and Voices From the Days of Slavery which provide stories of life during the Civil War, Reconstruction and the early 20th century.

The Veteran’s History Project collects stories of American war veterans — from World War I to current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Students can read transcripts when available as they listen to interviews.

Historic Sheet Music and Sound Recordings

Check out the selections from the Historic Sheet Music Collection, 1800-1922.  Collections also include musical and spoken word sound recordings.  The Library also has several “folklife” collections that feature sound recordings of people’s songs, stories and history.  One example is Voices from the Dust Bowl.

Maps

 Maps are portable and provide images that document places at certain times in history.  They give visual documentation of terrain and claimed territory, environmental characteristics and more.  They can offer clues to a particular mapmaker’s point of view. 

Student might choose “A mapp of Virginia discovered to ye hills.”    There are Railroad maps, “Broadside and Printed Ephemera.”

“Endless Instructional Possibilities”

Bell-Russel suggests that teachers will find millions of digitized items to be used by students across all grade levels and subjects.

For assistance, she suggests that teachers check out the self-guided professional development modules, Themed Resources for Teachers, web guides developed by the Library’s Digital Reference Section, or Ask a Librarian.

sole source: Danna Bell-Russel’s article in the current TPS Quarterly from the Library of Congress.  Bell-Russel is an Educational Resources Specialist at the Library of Congress. 

She previously served as a member of the Library’s Digital Reference Section, the first reference division created to specifically answer questions about the online resources found on www.loc.gov.

tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

 

+ Library of Congress Rolling Exhibit Comes to Ohio this October

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A specially-designed 18-wheel truck will bring treasure and information from the Library of Congress to cities and towns across America.

Called “Gateway to Knowledge,” it will visit four sites in Ohio beginning October 5th, 2010. 

Ultimately, the exhibit will visit 60 sites across the Midwest and South over the next year.

The truck will be staffed and driven by two docents well-versed in the collections of the Library.  It will be parked at various universities, libraries, community centers and other public venues.

• Oct. 5-6 — Marietta College, Marietta OH
• Oct. 8-9 — Twinsburg Public Library, Twinsburg OH
• Oct. 12-13 — Oberlin College, Oberlin OH
• Oct 15-16 — Hobart Arena, Troy OH

For more information about the “Gateway to Knowledge,” or to learn about the Library of Congress and its many resources, visit http://www.loc.gov.   

tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Teacher Institutes from the Library of Congress

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If you’re interested in one day professional development opportunities, the Library of Congress has two for you: 

• “Creating the US”  Teacher Institute 

Interested in learning strategies to teach about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, using the Library of Congress primary sources?  Register to attend this Institute and leave with strategies and materials you can use in your school.

The Institute uses the Library’s exhibition, “Creating the United States,” as its foundation.

Learn how to make this era in our country’s history come alive for students, using images, manuscripts, letters, photographs, maps, and poetry. 

http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/creatingtheus/Pages/teacher_institute_form.aspx

• “Exploring the Early Americas” Teacher Institute

Interested in learning strategies to teach about European explorers in the Americas? 

Want to know more about the indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica (Maya, Inca and Aztec)?

Explore the cartographic knowledge of the world in the sixteenth century.  You’ll be able to do all this and more by using the Library of Congress primary sources.  Register and leave with strategies and materials to use at your school.

This Institute uses as its foundation the Library’s exhibition “Exploring the Early Americas.”

Learn how to make this era in history come alive for your students using the Library’s images, manuscripts, letters, three-dimensional objects, and maps.

http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/earlyamericas/Pages/teacher_institute_form.aspx

The Library of Congress has myriad resources and projects for teachers.  They will add you to its list of email subscribers, so you can find information relevant to your needs.  Visit http://www.LOC.gov

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Summer Update: Resources from the Library of Congress

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Here is the latest email update from the Library of Congress 

MyLOC.gov
http://myloc.gov/Pages/default.aspx

The Library of Congress has provided a new experience for those visiting the Library. Interactive technologies make the Library of Congress and its collections more dynamic and accessible than ever.

This Library of Congress Experience offers “hands-on” interaction with rare cultural treasures in ways that inspire and engage. In addition there are three new exhibits available both at the Library and online:

• Creating the United States,
• Exploring the Early Americas and
• Thomas Jefferson’s Library.

But the experience no longer ends when visitors leave the Library.

Continue the Experience at Home and at School

Using the MyLOC.gov site, visitors can continue the experience from home, looking at materials seen at the Library. So, teachers: make sure to visit the educational resources on MyLOC.gov.

There are

• five new multimedia activities to engage young people and get help them to think critically about primary sources from the Library’s collections.
• There are also teacher-tested standards-based lesson plans to provide educators with the tools they need to integrate artifacts from the exhibitions into their curriculum.

Visit  <http://myloc.gov/Education/Pages/Default.aspx > to see the many educational resources created to support the material found in the exhibits and on the MyLOC.gov website.

Digital Natives Programs

Young people today born into a digital world are experiencing a far different environment of information-gathering and access to knowledge than a generation ago.

Who are these “digital natives” and what are they thinking? How are they using the technology?   Are IT experts adequately responding to them?

These questions will be addressed in a new Library of Congress series titled “Digital Natives” which is sponsored by the Kluge Center.

The four-lecture series will examine the generation that has been raised with the computer as a natural part of their lives, with emphasis on the young people currently in schools and colleges today.

The series will seek to understand the practices and culture of these digital natives, the cultural implications of the phenomenon and the implications for education – schools, universities and libraries.

The speakers for this series are:

Edith Ackerman, Developmental Psychologist and visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Steven Berlin Johnson, author of “Everything’s Bad is Good for You”.
Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.
Douglas Rushkoff, author of “Screenagers: Lessons in Chaos from Digital Kids.”

Marc Prensky, who is credited with creating the term “digital native,” will act as respondent for these sessions. Derrick de Kerckhove, holder of the Harissios Papamarkou Chair in Education at the Kluge Center serves as the moderator for the sessions.

These lectures will be made available on the Library’s webcasts homepage at www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/

News from the Teaching with Primary Sources Program

The redesigned Teaching with Primary Sources newsletter will be launched on July 1st.  Each issue targets an instructional practice that can be supported with the use of primary sources.

The subject of the summer 2008 newsletter is Literacy Integration.  You’ll find online and PDF versions of the newsletter with articles, learning activities and links on the Teaching with Primary Sources Web site at: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/.

Library Resources of Interest:

New Primary Source Set – Baseball http://memory.loc.gov/learn/community/cc_baseball_kit.php
(attached to the Baseball and the Summertime Community Centers)

Learn more about the role of baseball in various parts of American society. Included with this primary source set are images of various groups playing baseball and going to watch baseball games, the sheet music for “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and analysis sheets to use with students who are working with these resources.

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

The Digital Reference Section has created a variety of web guides on a variety of topics to help users find resources on the Library of Congress website and other online resources.

The latest additions to this collection include guides on the

• Harlem Renaissance,
• Slavery,
• the state of Illinois,
• the New Deal,
• American Founders,
• tips on how to find a novel, short story or poem without knowing the author,
• where to find criticism on poetry,
• material on World War 2 and
• material on presidents James Monroe, James Polk and Andrew Johnson.

From the Veterans History Project: Experiencing War: The Global War on Terror
http://www.loc.gov/vets/stories/ex-war-waronterror.html

In 2007, researcher Larry Minear published, through Tufts University’s Feinstein International Center, a study of the National Guard’s role in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Minear found abundant source material for his study in the collections of the Veterans History Project, drawing on dozens of interviews with Guard personnel and active duty soldiers and on their photographs. This feature highlights some of the collections he employed and includes some of the interviews he did with National Guard personnel who have participated in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

New Webcasts of Interest

NEA Webcast: To Read or Not to Read http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4319

A 2007 research report from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) about the state of reading in the United States reached three startling conclusions that are still being debated:

• Americans are spending less time reading;
• reading comprehension skills are eroding; and
• these declines have serious civic, social, cultural and economic implications.

Sunil Iyengar, director of the NEA Office of Research and Analysis that produced “To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence,” discussed the report, its potential consequences and the public reaction.

Digital Natives Series: Edith Ackerman
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4294

This is the first in a series of four speeches focusing on the experience of digital natives. Edith Ackerman is particularly interested in helping shape the future of play and learning in a digital world. “I study how people use place, relate to others and treat things to find their ways — and voices — in an ever-changing world,” she said.

Stephen King, Tabitha King, Owen King discuss their work
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4302

The PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools program, in collaboration with the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, hosted world-renowned author Stephen King, his wife, novelist Tabitha King, and son, writer Owen King, in a reading and discussion for students at the Library.

The King family read and discussed their work with students from Cardozo High School, IDEA Public Charter School and McKinley Technology High School.

Where We’ll Be:

From June 24-27 Sherrie Galloway and Gail Petri of the Educational Outreach Team will be presenting at the Technology in Education Conference at Copper Mountain, Colorado.  Sherrie and Gail will be presenting “Books as Hooks to Online Primary Sources” (Wednesday, 8:30-11:30) and “Historic Travels with Online Maps (Thursday, 8:30-11:30).”

Come visit our booth at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC<http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2008/>) in San Antonio, Texas, June 29-July 2.  You’ll find us at Booth #9924 in the Exhibit Hall, where you can chat with us about the Library’s online resources for teachers, get a personal introduction to our Web site, and attend one of our hourly mini-presentations.  

There is still space available in the pre-conference workshop “Teaching with Primary Sources to Promote Media and Traditional Literacies,” scheduled for Sunday, 6/29/2008, 8:30a.m.-11:30a.m.  

This workshop will explore ways to enhance traditional, information, visual, and auditory literacies using free online primary sources from the Library of Congress.  Hands-on, inquiry-based learning will model interdisciplinary approaches.  Advance registration and an additional fee are required.

We are doing weekly RSS feeds featuring updates on new Web content, professional development opportunities, Library programs, events and services of special interest to educators. Register for RSS feeds at http://www.loc.gov/rss/.

source: email from the Library of Congress

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email   aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com