What are Primary and Secondary Sources?

Contents of President Abraham Lincoln's pockets on the night of his assassination. 

Contents of Abraham Lincoln's Pockets on the Night of His Assassination on Exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibit. Library of Congress           Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. Digital image. Library of Congress. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

A few years ago I took an excellent online class which was all about the Library of Congress and utilizing its primary sources. It was amazing to see how many resources had been digitized, (they are not done quite yet with all the items) and how they could be used in the classroom. 
Ask your students if they can explain the difference between primary and secondary resources, and you will probably find that they do not know the answer. 

A primary resource is the original document, including photos, newspapers, birth certificates

Secondary sources evaluate or discuss primary sources.

Here's a short video explaining primary and secondary resources:

This table shows you the differences side-by-side:

Here are some digital photographs and primary sources from the Library of Congress'
Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints Collection: 

Officers of General Grant's Staff,City
Point, Va. 

March 1865

Federal dead on the field of battle the first day Gettysburg, PA

Guest Post: Engaging Students Through Photos

I think it’s an incense bottle.   Could this be an old coin?

Teachers attending a workshop are asked to select a photograph of a digital artifact to examine and share with the group. Within seconds they are sharing what they see or wondering what the item is.   A group of teachers and media specialists in an online class shared photos and maps of their hometown. A Wisconsin teacher wrote these 37 miles of river have been part of my life for the past 50 years.  The Fox River runs through my hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin.  [The river] is massive and drew many settlers to this area due to its ability to support a variety of industries.  The river specifically attracted many paper mills to build on its banks.  My grandfather worked at Fox River Paper Mill as a pipe fitter. Ten years ago I lived in the old mill, which had been converted to apartments.  . . .I would often wonder if I was walking in the same spot my grandfather walked or looked upon the river out the same window he once had so many years before I was even born.    A Louisiana history teacher used photos and documents to introduce a topic the first day of school. She shared her excitement: I allowed my first period class today to start the {activity} I had assigned for homework.  They got so into it!   Between mocking Burnside’s facial hair, talking about the names, talking about the autographs – they really – without knowing it – started to get excited about primary documents!  Students and teachers in all three of these groups instinctively shifted into photo analysis, reflection, and discussion when they viewed the photos.  Photos, maps broadsides, posters, drawings and other visuals are powerful tools to stimulate our senses and thinking.  Photo analysis activities can be used to introduce a topic, as a discussion icebreaker, a writing prompt, or research catalyst.

The incense bottle is actually a watch fob; the coin is a button.  Both are part of Lincoln’s Pockets, a Library of Congress Teachers’ Page professional development activity.  Participants examine artifacts found in Lincoln’s pockets the night of his assassination and discuss how primary sources engage and motivate students.  The Teachers Page has a multitude of classroom-ready materials to help busy teachers and media specialists get started using photo analysis and primary sources in the classroom quickly.  Primary Source Sets, another Teachers Page feature are designed for busy teachers who want to use primary sources but are short on time for searching and selecting resources.  Over 30 sets provide  “ready to use” PDFs and MP3 files of primary sources on topics commonly taught in schools. Sets include Japanese Internment, the Dustbowl, the Harlem Renaissance, Baseball Across a Divided Society, Assimilation through Education (Indian Boarding Schools), Civil War Music, the Spanish American War, and Symbols of the United States. Teachers’ guides for each set provide background information, teaching ideas, links to related classroom materials, and other Library of Congress resources.  Reproducible primary source analysis tools are part of with each set.  The observe, reflect, question, and investigate further model is used in a generic analysis tool. Students can use it with a primary source in any format.  Teacher’s analysis guides for a diverse primary source formats (interviews, text, manuscripts, sheet music etc.) have question prompts and suggested teaching activities. A self-paced online professional development module “analyzing photos and prints” has a built-in analysis tool which can be completed online and printed out.

I keep discovering that too few people know about these wonderful tools and resources. The quickly approaching start of the school year is a wonderful time for media specialists to share these wonderful tools with teachers or use them during their own instruction!  It won’t take long before you see photo analysis and engaged discussion!

_____

Teachers quoted: Susan Buss, Appleton, Wisconsin; Robin Vogt, New Orleans, Louisiana

Library of Congress Teachers Page, Professional Development Plan Builder, “Lincoln’s Pockets” http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/tpsdirect/pdplanbuilder/

Library of Congress Teachers Page, Take Online Module http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/selfdirected/

Library of Congress Teachers Page Teachers Page Classroom Materials   http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/

Library of Congress Teachers Guides and analysis Tools

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/guides.html

Guest Blogger Info

Mary Alice Anderson is a former school media specialist for the Winona, Minnesota, schools. She currently is as an online instructor for the University of Wisconsin-Stout where she teaches a course in using primary sources.  She also teaches for Minnesota State University-Mankato where she teaches courses for future media specialists. She was a member of a Library of Congress Professional Development Review committee, is the author of the local history chapter for Interacting with History, a book to be published by ALA later this year.  A column about classroom ready materials will be published in her ongoing “NEW Media Center” column in Internet @ Schools this fall.  Past columns are available through her Random Thoughts blog, Maryalicea.wordpress.com.  Her web page is:  http://www.uwstout.edu/faculty/andersonmary/index.cfm

46 Sites and Lessons About The Civil War

As I continue to reorganize the blog resources, here is another installment for the new "HISTORY" tab. I will publish the tab after adding a few more posts and then add the new ones over the course of the rest of the year. Any posts from a while back (i.e. The Holocaust) will automatically be located in that section.

American 3D Civil War- use the Google Earth plug to view

The American Civil War- from EDSITEment

American Civil War Collections- includes letters, texts, newspapers, student projects

American Civil War Flashcards-27 cards (Flashcard Machine)

The American Civil War Lesson Plans- from Teacher's Guide

The American Civil War Online Simulation 

The American Civil War Resources- from EyeWitness to History; some sites listed are interactive

Animated Gettysburg Address:



The Center for Civil War Photography- retouched photos, 3D exhibit

The Civil War- PBS film by Ken Burns

The Civil War Across Disciplines- from the Library of Congress; how to use primary sources when teaching about the Civil War

Civil War Animated 

Civil War Battlefield Medicine- primary sources, Civil War doctors, common medical terms

The Civil War Collection- over 30 million documents

Civil War Flashcards- 35 cards (Quizlet)

The Civil War Home Page- includes official records, photos, battle maps

Civil War Interactive Poster- from Teaching History.org

The Civil War For Kids

Civil War Letters Collection- from libraries at the University of Washington

Civil War Potpourri- list of links

The Civil War and Reconstruction Era- free Yale course taught by Professor David W. Blight; view the course here

Civil War Sheet Music Collection- Library of Congress

Documenting the American South- thousands of links on this site

The Fight for Civil Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War

Flashcards About the Civil War- (StudyStack)

The Gettysburg Address- from the Library of Congress

Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library- around 20,000 items, including correspondence and papers; Library of Congress

NeoK12 Civil War Videos and Quizzes 

Outline of the Civil War- from Great American History

Pennsylvania Civil War 150- interactive map, interactive timeline, interactive soldier, artifacts showcase

Portraits of Named Civil War Enlisted Men- from the Prints and Photographs Reading Room (Library of Congress)

Teaching the Civil War With Technology- this wonderful blog is all about the Civil War, including curriculum resources (webquests, lesson plans) NOTE: not all links are up-to-date.

Timeline of the Civil War- from the Library of Congress


LESSON PLANS
14 Lessons on the Civil War- includes interactive and printed quizzes

Civil War Lesson Plans- from social studies teacher

Civil War Lesson Plans- for all grades K-12; other resources and activities listed

The Civil War: A Nation Divided- for grades 6-8 from Discovery Education

Civil War Photographs: The Matthew Brady Bunch Collection- from grades 6-12 from the Library of Congress

Civil War: A Terrible Swift Sword- for grades 9-12 from EDSITment

Library of Congress Civil War Themed Lesson Plans

Map the Civil War Lesson Plan- grades 4-7

TeacherVision Resources for the Civil War- includes lesson plans, slideshows, printables, quizzes, reference

Teaching with Historic Places- nice listing of lesson plans from the National Park Service

Voices of Bull Run- for grades 5-8

Women in the Civil War: Ladies, Contraband and Spies- for grades 6-12 from the Library of Congress

Women's Role in the War Effort

14 Things You Might Have Missed: Why Not Try Them in 2012?

 Happy New Year, everyone!  I am back from an extended vacation and ready to get back to work. (Thank you for being patient!) I would love to hear what you would like to see on the blog in 2012. Please leave your comments and suggestions at the end of the post. Here are are few things you might have missed in the past and are worth mentioning again.

12,000 Newspapers From Around the World
The world's 400 largest cities are represented on Newspapers24.com,with just about every language covered. This is a great resource for any world language teacher.  


Capture, Annotate and Share
I've been using SnagIt screen capture at work. Although it's not a free program, it has so many great features. At home, I've tried several trials of programs and just never found anything I liked as much as SnagIt. This FREE program has just about everything I need! Some features include capturing a selected area of a page, the entire page and annotation with rectangles, arrows, lines and text. You can also blur out information you don't want your students to see. Here's a great way to do a handout for your class or a tutorial. Although sizing your image capture is not an option, I'm okay with that; Photoshop is always waiting in the wings. Just install the browser plug-in (Chrome and Safari only right now) and you are ready to go! I'm excited to get started with Awesome Screenshot.

Bookins: Swap Books With Other Readers
Recommended by USA Today, Bookins provides free shipping to send any books and a flat rate of $4.99 when you receive an order of books. The trades are arranged by Bookins, so you don't have to contact anyone. The site claims the only 100% "trade risk-free" guarantee, which assures you will receive payment and/or "quality items".

Edudemic: What's Happening in Education and Technology
Edudemic is a "7,000+ person global community designed to keep educators, administrators, and everyone up-to-date on what’s happening in the world of education and technology." There is a section of "How To", ideas for "In the Classroom", current items "In the News", "Tips & Tricks", "Top 10 Lists", guides and a job board. There are RSS feeds for daily access through your reader. 

Google Body Browser
Anatomy classes will find this amazing: 3D rendering of the human body.
Zoom in and out; explore all systems of the body. HTML5 allows you to view the rendering without needing Flash or Shockwave. Viewing must be made in Google Chrome.

The Library of Congress' Digital Collection is One of the Largest
This video explains how items are scanned at the Library of Congress and what's available in their online collection. There are thousands of incredible primary source documents on their site. To visit the Library of Congress site, click here.

Newsmap Is a Visual Palette of Current Events Stories
You can choose from 15 countries as well as how recent the news was posted on the site. Simply roll over a story and you will see a sample of the news article. Click and you are directed to the original page of that article.

The Open Library Offers 1 Million Books For Free
Created by the Internet Archive, this site currently has 612,643 works and 959,053 eBooks published between 1099 and the present. With 20 scanning centers in five countries, they are constantly adding to their collection. Read a book online, download a pdf of the book, or read on your Kindle or eReader device.

"Outside My Window" Connects People Through Photos
Students at Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose, California started Outside My Window in 2003, hoping to make new friends from around the world through photos. "This network helps people see the worlds as other people see it- the first step toward understanding and friendship." I took a look at the gallery of photos and was very impressed. Perhaps your students would be interested in contributing to this wonderful project.

PosteRazor Makes Posters From Smaller Pictures
Take one letter size picture (8.5 x 11) and make it as large as you want, just by using this free program. PosteRazor saved me $$ when I needed to print a fund raising poster.

Squrl:Organize Your Videos
Manage your videos in one spot and then watch it on the iPad, PC. iPhone, or TV. The Squrl App will search for videos, allow you to bookmark videos and make collections of your videos.

Ten Excellent Research Resources to Use Instead of Google
Your students love Google. But if they have to locate trustworthy, educational sites for their research, they need to understand that Google merely finds the sites; it doesn't review them, make sure they will offer reliable information and give them resources which will accurately cover their topic. Here are ten great resources  your kids never knew existed:

Academic Info-subject guide descriptions provide relevant sites.

Bubl- selected Internet resources covering all academic areas.

Infomine- annotated academic sites and subject databases

Infotopia- educator selected sites

Intute- annotated academic sites

IPL- information you can trust

iSeek Education- search a topic or ask a question

LibGuides Community- over 100,000 pathfinders from thousands of libraries

SurfWax- search your topic and find similar, broader or narrower ones

Sweet Search- selective searches for students

Use SpeedyMarks to Create Visual Bookmarks

The 'ABOUT' page on the SpeedyMarks website says that you can "quickly open your favorite websites." Students who are doing research can easily gather their information by just clicking "Add" at the top left part of the screen. This will store the sites on the computer the student is working on. Storing the sites on the SpeedyMarks server requires registering, (FREE) but it will allow students collaborating on a project to access their 'marks' wherever they have Internet access. You can choose a background color from many choices. I left mine with the default black since it looked the best to me.

Why Most PowerPoint Presentations are Bad
This is a wonderful presentation which gets right to the point with easy to follow slides. Everyone should be required to view this presentation.

You Suck At PowerPoint! by @jessedee

View more presentations from @JESSEDEE

Library of Congress Has So Much to Offer Teachers!

A few summers ago, I took a wonderful course called Teaching Information Literacy Using Primary Sources.Using The Library of Congress' American Memory Collection, I was exposed to an incredible amount of information, including photos, maps, journals, audio tapes and videos. The name of the course has recently changed, but the content seems to be the same and is still taught by Mary Alice Anderson. Check here if you are interested. This digital collection is constantly evolving, as new items are added all the time. The Library of Congress even has its own YouTube channel.

The teachers' section is filled with classroom materials, (lesson plans, themed resources) professional development, (online modules and more) a section on additional resources, ( slide shows from past LOC events, historic American newspapers, American Memory Timeline and more!) a blog entitled Teaching With the Library of Congress and so much more.

If you haven't checked out the Library of Congress yet, you must find time to explore this amazing resource!!

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