Library of Congress
Loc: Immigration History Firsthand
Immigration History Firsthand has been designed to provide elementary children with experiences which enable them to begin understanding primary sources. Middle schoolers move from personal artifacts to the vast Library of Congress...
Library of Congress
Loc: The New Nation, 1783 1815
The links in the New Nation, which is provided for by the Library of Congress, will lead you to sets of selected primary sources on a variety of topics,such as the Constitution, governmental policy on Native Americans, and problems and...
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Using Primary Sources
The Library of Congress provides teachers with a framework that will help integrate primary sources into all areas of the curriculum. Sections include "Why to Use Primary Sources," "Citing Primary Sources," and "Finding Primary Sources."
Library of Congress
Loc: Interviews With Today's Immigrants
This site, part of a larger lesson plan about immigration from the Library of Congress, provides interviews that students had with immigrants from around the world.
Library of Congress
Loc: Civil War Photographs: What Do You See?
In this lesson students analyze a single photograph from the Library of Congress collection Civil War Photographs, 1861-1865. Using the skills developed, students then find and analyze other images. Conclusions reached will allow...
Library of Congress
Loc: Immigration and Migration:today/during the Great Depression
Students address these questions through activities using oral history methods and investigating life in the 1930s. They compare the immigration/migration experiences of their families to those of people living through the Great...
Library of Congress
Loc: The Great Depression in North Carolina: Experiences
This lesson plan will result in imaginary Works Progress Administration (WPA) interviews similar to those found in American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 of the Library of Congress that...
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Indian Boarding Schools
The Library of Congress provides a series of lessons that taddresses historical efforts of assimilating Native American children into white culture through boarding schools.
Discovery Education
Discovery Education: Creating Dramatic Monologues From the Grapes of Wrath
This lesson plan engages young scholars in creating dramatic monologues from certain scenes in The Grapes of Wrath. Primary sources from the Library of Congress are used to provide essential background content about the setting of the...
Library of Congress
Loc: Rise of Industrial America: Railroads in the Late 19th Century
A compilation of primary source documents addressing building and running the railroad system in the late 19th century.
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Declaration of Independence: Created Equal?
What does the Declaration of Independence mean with the phrase, "All men are created equal"? Students examine "equality", and what it means now and what it meant during the time of Thomas Jefferson, and "develop a rationale for...
Library of Congress
Loc: After Reconstruction: Problems of African Americans
After reading a collection of primary texts, students will identify problems facing African Americans in the South following Reconstruction and propose solutions to those problems. In addition to providing guidelines for teachers leading...
Library of Congress
Loc: Child Labor and the Building of America
Students are immersed in primary source materials that relate to child labor in America from 1880-1920 to gain a personal perspective of how work affected the American child within a rapidly growing industrial society. This project is...
Library of Congress
Loc: Political Cartoons: Finding Point of View
A careful analysis of political cartoons can provide a glimpse into key moments of U.S. political history. In this activity, students will closely examine political cartoons about the Stamp Act; make inferences about the political,...
Library of Congress
Loc: The American West: Images of Its People
Different peoples have contributed to the history of the western United States. To gain an understanding and appreciation of this history, middle schoolers investigate the region's cultures and identify the contributions that each make...
Library of Congress
Loc: The Grapes of Wrath: Voices From the Great Depression
By examining primary sources, including songs, newspapers, interviews, and photographs of migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression, students create a scrapbook from the point of view of a migrant worker, providing...
Library of Congress
Loc: Collection of Lesson Plans
This collection presents in-depth lesson plans on American history from the 18th century to the present. Lessons include African American history, women's history, Native American history and many other topics.
Library of Congress
Loc: Photo Analysis Presenting the Statue of Liberty
The ability to examine a primary source is a gateway to building critical thinking skills and constructing knowledge. This lesson provides the students an opportunity to observe similarities and differences between 2 visual images,...
Library of Congress
Loc: Lesson Plans: Political Cartoons: Finding Point of View
Lesson plan on analyzing a political cartoon that satirizes the Stamp Act.
Cyberbee
Cyberbee: Election Lessons
These Election Lessons contain a variety of activities to use in your classroom, including a history of campaign buttons. Many of the links use primary sources from the Library of Congress.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Great Depression and the 1990s
Students frequently echo sentiments such as, "The government is too big," or "The government should make welfare mothers pay for their own needs." It seems that many citizens, high schoolers included, have begun to believe in reduced...
Library of Congress
Loc: Family Customs Past and Present: Exploring Cultural Rituals
In this activity, students will use photos, documents, and music from the Library's digital collection. Then they will students investigate rituals and customs of various cultures.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Huetzotzinco Codex
Through the ancient natives of Puebla, Mexico, teachers can use this lesson plan to help students relate math and reasoning skills to primary sources discussed in social studies. Primary sources are available to figure out more about the...
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Personal Stories and Primary Sources
Students will explore the value of personal stories and first-hand accounts when exploring history, in this case, the events of the early twentieth century, which included World War I and the Great Depression. Through this five-unit...