I’ve been noticing my propensity for magical thinking lately.  It’s not just my reputation as a mermaid who levitates, but it might have something to do with my experience as an actor and Artist in Education prior to becoming a teacher.  Being ‘in character’ means understanding the nuances of living in someone else’s world, and finding the most authentic props (and shoes!), and understanding the geography and the political climate of the moment in which a character exists is really the best part of being an actor.  I try to mimic this experience in my middle school Social Studies and Language Arts classes.  The Library of Congress provides many of the set pieces that help me establish the world of a character, setting, or historical event, and it opens the door to magical thinking based in Primary Source evidence.

Exploring the resources of the Library of Congress encourages you to walk onto the stage of history, inviting the actor to skim or delve into a time and place that prompts deep questioning.  Teaching children to pose higher-level questions is a challenge, but the more frequently they are called upon to look carefully and wonder more intensely, the better they become at unfolding the nuances that open the curtain to the kind of magical thinking that makes you feel a subject, as opposed to simply collecting information.  Developing visual literacy skills in my classroom takes many forms.  I share photographs I’ve taken, many I find, and some I challenge my students to present, in order to give a sense of time and place. I use fabric, music and whimsical folk art to spark a sense of wonder, and I periodically give my students a Q-Chart to train them how to craft thoughtful questions.  (As you move farther towards the bottom right hand side of this chart, the questions are higher-level thinking.)  Each time I reintroduce this question-forming template, my students become more adept at crafting questions that move beyond the surface while drawing them deeper into the world that is depicted.

Navigating the LOC site is less intimidating each time I explore it, and there also seem to be new rooms to mine.  The librarians who are the gatekeepers of this treasure trove continuously develop teacher-friendly collections that help make the information more accessible to anyone who dares to venture inside.  Additionally, the artist-educators at University of the Arts have created more resources that make exploring primary sources an adventure that sparks inquiry thinking and encourages students to use visual resources as a springboard for understanding how it feels to walk in someone else’s shoes. UArts Photo Analysis Booklet    Transforming the information into a sensory experience that builds a connection between the student and the images is reinforced by the frequent reminders to respond to the question: What do you notice?  Another way into the subject matter is to have students take on the voice of the person or object portrayed in an archival image, and dare them to answer an actor’s primary questions: Who are you? Where are you? What do you want? 

As my LOC guides and trainers have reminded me, the information does not have to be limited to the Library of Congress.  The site makes it easy to explore beyond their rich American history-heavy collection into the wider scope of the World Digital Library, or dig through the sound recordings and uncover something you had no idea existed before, like the brilliant poet Naomi Shihab Nye discussing the poem “Guidelines” by Lisa Suahir Majaj; it’s the perfect antidote to the barrage of hate-speak that inundates the media these days.  Nye reflects on “the power of language to ease situations of potential conflict.”  Some of these random discoveries enrich lessons I’ve taught for years with fresh material, and some of what I find takes me to places I didn’t know I was looking for.  There’s often an “Oh, cool! I had no idea that existed” response to the material that is uncovered, and that’s the proverbial rabbit hole that grows from spontaneity and a willingness to just explore.

Dig around -- you’re certain to uncover something magical, then share it with your kids.  I’m confident you’ll find your way to “Wow!”

        Radnor Middle School students analyzing photo of their Ugandan pen pals planting trees.