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Teaching with Primary Sources

Arkansas

  • University of Arkansas

    Arkansas Primary Source Sets

    Arkansas Primary Source Sets were introduced to pre-service teachers through the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s social studies and language arts methods courses. Teachers from grades 1–12 attended a summer workshop and selected documents for primary source sets related to the Arkansas State Social Studies Frameworks. The master teachers instructed classroom teachers on how to teach using the primary source document sets. Further dissemination took place via the Arkansas Council for the Social Studies LiveBinders page and electronic listserv.

    Contact: Kristin Dutcher Mann

  • University of Central Arkansas

    Developing Reading and Writing Skills with Primary Sources

    This project, awarded to the University of Central Arkansas, conducted a three-day summer conference for training teachers from grades 4–12 about using primary sources to develop lessons and activities in content and literacy skills. Throughout the year, the project director supported and monitored teachers participating in the National History Day (NHD) cohort as they developed instructional activity plans and supported their classrooms with primary source materials. The cohort produced standards-based instructional activities that were posted on the NHD Arkansas website. NHD teachers presented their primary source activities and lesson plans at workshops. The ultimate goal was to improve students’ skills in using primary sources as evidence and for analysis in their History Day projects.

    Contact: Pat Ramsey

    Thomas Nuttall's Journey across Arkansas and into Oklahoma: A Cross-Curriculum STEM Teaching in the Classroom

    This project, awarded to the University of Central Arkansas, provided content and pedagogy training in the use of the Library of Congress's maps, photographs, and other digital primary resources for teachers in grades 4–12 who teach social science, science, and math teachers. The participating teachers utilized the training to write 5E lesson plans that were used with their students during the school year while being mentored by grant faculty. Participants attended four summer workshops with two follow-up school visits and online meetings during the academic year. The 5E lesson plans were posted on the UCA STEM Institute website and used in conference presentations.

    Contact: Umadevi Garimella

    This is Our Town: Using Geocaching as a Portal to Cross-Curriculum Teaching in the Classroom

    With this project by the University of Central Arkansas, a content-rich professional development course, "This is Our Town," was offered to public and private math and science classroom teachers in grades 4–12. The course strengthened participants' content knowledge, as well as developed their skills for incorporating primary resources from the Library of Congress and geocaching into cross-curricular lessons. Participants developed lesson plans and teaching materials for use in their classrooms. The course involved more than 30 hours of professional development, including a three-day intensive summer program followed by two one-day follow-up sessions during the academic year. During the follow-up sessions, the instructors observed participants in class as they implemented the lessons and teaching materials they developed.

    Contact: Dr. Debra Burris or Dr. Umadevi Garimella

  • Arkansas Community Institute

    The Big Muddy: The Mississippi River Through 500 Years of Humankind

    In this project by the Arkansas Community Institute, teachers from grades 5–10 developed teaching materials using primary documents from the Library of Congress. The educators also developed Mississippi River-themed teaching kits that integrated the Library's digitized sources. These teaching kits will be shared with seven museums within a 70-mile radius of Arkansas State University.

    Contact: Dr. Michael Dougan, Acting Director for the late Dr. Walter Nunn

  • Arkansas State University

    Library of Congress Resources to Teach Grade 7–12 Science, Social Studies, & Math with Floods & Droughts as a Theme (2013)

    In this project awarded to Arkansas State University, teachers from grades 7–12 who teach social studies, science, and mathematics were trained on using photographic collections and public documents for teaching integrated topics of Arkansas history. The professional development focused on using primary sources to help students better understand the natural disasters that shaped the environment and had social implications on farming life, race relations, modernization, and the decline of the Arkansas Delta. Disaster preparedness issues offered opportunities to study geography, scale models, proportional reasoning, geometry, and GPS skills through primary source instruction. Grant faculty observed and mentored teachers as they implemented their TPS lesson plans and activities with the classroom equipment and materials they received.

    Contact: Dr. Michael Dougan or Dr. Cynthia Miller

    Using Library of Congress Maps to Teach Grades 7–12 Science, Social Studies, and Math (2011)

    In a 40-hour professional development summer workshop by Arkansas State University, teachers from grades 7–12 teachers learned how to use the Library of Congress primary sources in science, social studies, and mathematics instruction. Educators were trained to use the Library's map and photograph collections for teaching integrated topics of Arkansas history such as tenant farming, Civilian Conservation Corps, Japanese internment camps river/rail/road transportation, the New Madrid earthquake, geography, scale models, proportional reasoning, geometry, and GPS skills.

    Contact: Cynthia Miller