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Teaching with Primary Sources

Indiana

  • Indiana State Library

    Indiana Escape Room Project: Starring Primary Sources from the Indiana State Library and the Library of Congress

    Using a variety of primary sources available from the Library of Congress and the Indiana State Library, six Indiana themed escape rooms were created for Indiana’s public libraries to be used in youth programming. Students in grades 6-12 are presented with a puzzle that must be solved in a limited amount of time by analyzing a variety of primary source documents and cracking codes. Each escape room arrives in a specialized kit shipped through the Indiana State Library’s courier service. Indiana Escape Room kits can also be used by Indiana teachers interested in Indiana history and problem solving.

    Contact: Suzanne Walker

  • Indiana Historical Society

    Teaching Media Literacy and Empathy Through Primary Sources

    This project, awarded to the Indiana Historical Society, reached one-hundred-fifty high school educators who taught US or World History, Indiana Studies, or Ethnic Studies through statewide workshops. The workshop focused on providing the tools needed to incorporate primary source material into the classroom. Through partnerships with local Holocaust education experts, workshop participants explored how primary sources build empathy in students and connect them more personally with history as well as increase media and source literacy. Specifically, participants learned about media literacy in the scope of Holocaust education and how to use primary sources to increase student awareness and empathy on topics related to the Holocaust. Analyzing primary sources in different formats, participants identified source bias and how a medium influences the message. To increase access and knowledge of primary sources and archival materials, a portion of the workshop was dedicated to educating participants on how to access Library of Congress sources and incorporate them into classroom instruction and instructional materials.

    Contact: Wendy Adams

  • St. Mary's College

    Learning from Inclusive Voices Summer Workshop

    Drawing from inclusive primary digital sources at the Library of Congress and other archives, faculty in the departments of Education and History at Saint Mary’s College co-hosted a week-long inclusive primary sources summer workshop for K–12 social studies teachers in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan, together with undergraduate pre-service teachers. The five-day workshop provided tools for educators to teach inclusive history and bring underrepresented voices into classrooms. In this event, teachers found and analyzed inclusive primary sources for local, national, and international historical narratives; teachers also prepared and implemented the educational use and instruction of those primary sources. Educational materials created by the participants were featured in a new online repository for teachers nationwide.

    Contact: Jeff Greiner

  • University of Indianapolis

    Book Bentos: Using Historical Fiction to Increase Relevancy of Primary Source Materials

    Pre-service teachers in the elementary social studies sequence at the University of Indianapolis explored the use of book bentos as a visual and interactive online alternative to the traditional book report. Using children’s historical fiction books and technology, pre-service teachers learned to navigate the Library of Congress website, identified and selected age-appropriate primary sources, and presented them to their students in a relevant way. By doing so, pre-service teachers created a tangible product that was tactile, visual, and memorable, and also employed the key concepts of how to conduct research and analysis while building a primary source-based activity. A professional development workshop trained area educators on the resources available through the Library of Congress and how to implement book bentos into the curriculum.

    Contact: Emily Miller

  • Ball State University

    Promoting Racial Equity and Civic Engagement in Social Studies Curricula

    This multi-year initiative awarded to Ball State University involved Muncie Community School’s social studies teachers and deepened their understanding about being anti-racist. The aim was to generate curricula and teaching methods that promoted racial equity and civic engagement in grades 6–12 using primary source documents. Anti-racist curriculum and instruction promoted education and critical thinking required to identify and understand racism through the examination of diverse people’s perspectives and experiences, think about ways to dismantle racism through democratic processes, and also develop a wider concern for promoting human dignity. Teachers planned and carried out a participatory action research project. This involved a professional community of inquirers who identified problem areas in the curricula, co-designed and implemented curricular interventions using the Library of Congress’s digitized resources, supported TPS resources, and monitored curriculum effectiveness through impact on student engagement and achievement.

    Contact: Dr. Sheron Fraser-Burgess

    George Rogers Clark and the American Revolution through the Library of Congress

    In this grant project awarded to Ball State University, elementary school teachers in northeastern Indiana learned how to use digitized resources from the Library of Congress.They created sample materials and received direct instruction on how to create their own project on George Rogers Clark and the American Revolution, an important part of the state standards for grades 4 and 5. Teachers were shown how the Library's materials connect to local resources available in their community, and they worked together to form a network in their schools where they can share information.

    Central Indiana Teacher In-service: Local History and the Library of Congress

    Elementary in-service teachers were trained to use the Library of Congress website at three sites in Central Indiana. Collaborating with their local historical society to create a support network, teachers drew upon local primary source photographs from the Ball State Universityphoto collection to find connections between their local resources and the Library's sources. They were required to create a teaching packet of a historical collection, a 7-lesson plan unit, and an assessment task for each collection. All materials were widely distributed throughout Indiana.

    Pioneer and Antebellum Midwest Life

    Elementary social studies graduate students from Ball State University who completed their social studies program were taught the skills and knowledge to access and utilize digital primary sources from the Library of Congress. Students created materials to teach 3rd- and 4th-grade students about pioneer life and antebellum issues in the Midwest and the Ohio River Valley. Key staff received training on the use of the Library of Congress website so they could help students prepare their instructional materials. This staff training also helped to sustain the efforts initiated by the project.

    Contact: Dr. Ronald V. Morris

  • Indiana University – Purdue University Columbus

    Journey Box Read-Alouds: Promoting Historical Inquiry in the Elementary Grades

    Pre-service elementary teachers at Indiana University – Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) engaged in a multipart project involving Journey Box Read-Alouds, lessons centered around a high-quality or award-winning children’s book and a physical “journey box” of related primary and secondary source artifacts. Through a university course, pre-service teachers selected a book of their choice, created primary and secondary source artifact boxes, and wrote and taught their work in local elementary schools to support historical understanding. Pre-service teachers also presented their Journey Box Read-Alouds at the Indiana Council for the Social Studies (ICSS) conference, as well as at an exhibition for local elementary teachers as mutually beneficial professional development.

    Contact: Stephanie Serriere

  • Indiana Council for the Social Studies

    Using Primary Sources to Explore Civil Rights in Social Studies

    The goal of this project awarded to the Indiana Council for the Social Studies was to provide high-quality professional development centered on primary source instruction across the state of Indiana. Strands at the Indiana Council for the Social Studies (ICSS) conference focused on TPS training and primary sources based on civil rights. Regional workshops held after the conference trained more educators and pre-service teachers in TPS techniques and the use of resources from the Library of Congress. Teachers trained at these sessions presented in the TPS strand at the following year's conference. Materials produced through the grant were disseminated via a section devoted to grant activities and workshops on the ICSS website, panel presentations, and social media.

    Contact: Andrew Smith

  • Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township

    Rock Stars of Curation: Leveraging Primary Sources to Promote Student Learning

    The Office of eLearning, a branch within the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE), brought together its cohort of digital learning teachers known as the Rock Stars of Curation. This group of English language arts and social studies teachers from grades K–12 received Level I training and then created learning activities using digital primary sources. The learning activities were shared through a content repository for all Indiana teachers to access and use in their classrooms. These trained teachers also shared their TPS knowledge and showcased their learning activities through social media, webinars, and professional development sessions at the IDOE’s Summer of eLearning conferences.

    Contact: Molly Yowell

  • St. Pius X Catholic School

    Thinking Thematically: A Professional Development Series based upon Primary Sources and Technology

    A year-long professional development series focusing on the integration of digitized Library of Congress primary sources and instructional technology was created into the curriculum for grades K–8 at St. Pius X Catholic School. Classroom teachers worked through a series of activities to learn how to access and utilize various types of primary sources while creating lessons that align with the Common Core Standards and the Indian Academic Standards. The entire St. Pius X faculty was able to participate in this professional development opportunity, which helped to sustain the project's efforts by having a building-wide support system.

    Contact: Elaine Holmes

  • Michigan City Area Schools

    Teaching with Primary Sources

    Librarians from Michigan City Area Schools formed a cadre to teach and support classroom teachers to use primary source documents from the Library of Congress website. A summer professional development workshop introduced teachers to the value of primary source documents and how to locate and use the Library's website materials. Provided with an understanding of effective instructional practices for teaching with primary sources, teachers then created lessons that were posted online for other teachers to access. The cadre maintained an asynchronous online workshop to support teacher inquiry and provided additional learning opportunities about primary sources documents for teachers.

    Contact: Mary Gish

  • Christ the King Catholic School

    Infusing Primary Sources & Technology into K–8 Curriculum

    A year-long professional development program was generated to focus on the integration of the Library of Congress digital primary resources and instructional technology into the curriculum for grades K–8 at Christ the King Catholic School. The professional development program will consist of three workshops covering digital primary sources from the Library's concept mapping software, creating a photo book, and utilizing the Library's resources within digital videos.

    Contact: Stephen Hoffman

  • Indiana University South Bend

    Understanding Copyright Through the Use of Primary Resources

    Using digital primary resources from the Library of Congress, an instructional unit focusing on the role of copyright as it applied to teachers was developed and embedded within a required instructional technology course. Pre-service teachers identified and explained copyright issues that impacted classrooms in grades K–12, accessed and utilized primary resources, aligned the digital resources to the Indiana Standards, and created a teaching product that included primary sources focused on an academic standard.

    Creating Digital Movies with Primary Resources

    With this award granted to Indiana University South Bend, the curriculum of a required social studies methods course was modified. Pre-service teachers learned how to use collections from the Library of Congress for creating digital videos and designing a lesson plan which aligns with Indiana Academic Standards for United States History. This project reached pre-service teachers and the modified syllabus is intended for future use.

    Contact: Dr. Judith Oates Lewandowski

  • History Educators Network of Indiana

    Teaching with Primary Sources: Using “American Memory”

    A two-week sustainable graduate professional development experience was designed to encourage teachers' continual use of resources from the Library of Congress and the Indiana digital archives. Participants focused on the knowledge and skills needed to navigate the Library's website, then created high-quality learning experiences utilizing digitized primary sources. Participants gave their team project presentations, which were followed by feedback from the History Educators Network of Indiana (HENI) and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis(IUPUI) educators.

    Contact: Kendra Clauser

  • Indiana University

    Enhancing the Deliberation Process Using Primary Sources II (EDPUPS II)

    This award was granted to Indiana University's Center for the Study of Global Change and included the following cosponsors: Indiana University–Center on Congress, Geography Educators' Network of Indiana, and the Brown University Choices for the 21st Century program of the Watson Institute for International Studies. The skills of integrating primary sources from the Library of Congress were applied to the deliberation process as defined by the Integrating International and Civic Education Project. This project also broadened the use of digitized primary sources by Indiana teachers in general, particularly with regard to international topics. With the utilization of a train-the-trainer model, teachers throughout the state of Indiana were impacted.

    Enhancing the Deliberation Process Using Primary Sources (EDPUPS)

    Indiana University’s Center for the Study of Global Change was awarded a grant to build upon the experiences of those who participated in EDPUPS I. The TPS Midwest Region's Level I and Level II programs were used for personnel and instruction in the Integrating International and Civic Education (IICE) deliberation process. Participants incorporated the use of primary sources to create learning experiences with an international focus that were presented to other participants and posted to relevant websites.

    Contact: N. Brian Winchester