Virginia Partnership Lesson Plans and Activities

I am excited to recreate a paper-based activity I use in my class about why the US entered the Spanish American War. I found a LOC collection and a teacher primary set. My objective will be to allow students to use newspapers, primarily to understand the origins of Yellow Journalism and international policy impacted by journalists.

I really liked the blog, Development of the Industrial United States (1877-1914), there was a great article about various topics from Supreme court cases that predate Brown vs Board of Education and century-old Mosquito control measures.

I also appreciated the entry into boarding school. Native American History

I also enjoyed the article about Soldiers and poetry in the article Expanding Student Understanding of World War I: Soldiers' experiences with Poetry. Industrial United States, World Wars and the Great Depression (1914-1945)

I will use the blogs to add perspective to my current lessons. I like the idea of adding a comparing past and present activity with the mosquito control campaigns.

Mostly, I like the idea that the teacher blogs help me to become more knowledgeable in my area of content.

I know that it is old school but I really love providing paper-based activities for students. The LOC has such great printable resources that I already see my lessons becoming more richer in content.

We've always used a lot of paper-based activities in our session with teachers. The easily (and often beautiful) resources from the Library make all of our jobs so much easier!

I love the idea of incorporating sales and prices with my students for my math class! Such a cool way to show how much things cost these days versus back then. I could totally use the newspapers to show advances in technology as well and how the math we are learning is incorporated with this as well.

Some of the blogs I found enjoyable were dealing with Science, Technology, and Math and were talking about inventions that have been created and the science behind them. I also really enjoyed the one about Today in History where you could pull just a quick story with what was going on in the world on today's date. Finally, I enjoyed the one about Women's History and would love to show female news to my students as well.

I have incorporated sales and prices in both math and social studies. The kids are always amazed at how different things look and cost.

Using historic newspapers about events that are interesting to students is a way to get them to look at what people of the past experienced. Last year one of my reading groups chose a book on the Hindenberg explosion to read about, when they finished the book I had them look through some of the news coverage about it. They were surprised to see how little information was in the newspapers that initially covered the event. They thought there should have been more facts vs sensationalism. We then talked about how is that different from today's news on when an event just happens. They found that there wasn't much difference.

The Exploration, Colonization and Settlement blog looks like it has a lot of great ideas for use in class. I teach about the European discovery and colonization of America, and there were some good ideas about map views something that really impacts how people see the world.

The Civil War and Reconstruction blog had a post about using Portraits to teach complex topics. This seems like a great place to start for an introduction to that unit. The Civil War is the point when we start having a lot of photographs of people, not just portraits of the very wealthy. It is intriguing to start conversations by comparing people of different social classes, have students start thinking about what life would have been like for that individual.

I'm going to look at Memorial Day celebrations, observations, parades in the Newspapers so that my 2nd graders can not only see how Memorial Day has been celebrated overtime but get a glimpse into how things have changed over time. (Clothing, advertisements, prices, transportation, etc.)

For the blogs: The most powerful, as an adult, was: The Birth of Juneteenth which was very interesting to read but included an audio recording from Fountain Hughes who was 101 when he did the interview in 1949. He reflected on his life as a slave, shared how his Great Grandfather who died when he was 115 was a slave of Thomas Jefferson, and explained what life was like when they "were turned out like cattle" when they were set free in 1865 with "no school, home, money, with nothing." There are more audio recordings from other freed people that I want to listen to as well. It was really poignant and powerful.

2. When Rebecca the Racoon Ruled the White House- this focused on Presidential pets and included pictures which I know would intrigue the kids- especially how a racoon was an actual pet in the white house!

3. Dav Pilkey: How to paint Molly and Melvin- This blog included a video of the author sharing his techniques for drawing these popular characters and I think my students would LOVE this as they really enjoy his books.

I loved some of the Christmas stories that were printed in the old newspapers. The illustrations were beautiful in addition to the words. I will be finding stories for all of the holidays to incorporate into my reading class.

Oh I have so many! A couple: students research events we have been discussing to see how they were covered in newspapers at the time! I love the idea of having my world history students look at how American newspapers were covering events overseas. There is a GREAT one on Bleeding Kansas in the recommended collections that I can't wait to use! It is awesome having these at your fingertips!

Regarding the blogs:

The LGBTQ History one takes you to a collection of resources that will allow me to continue to bring marginalized voices into the curriculum.

In the Native American History, the post about updated resources regarding Native American boarding schools is timely and a great resource to have on hand. Within that same one, a great collection of resources about Cherokee Removal that I plan to add to my resources on that topic.

The World War II Rumor Project is really cool. It is interesting to look at how things were being interpreted here in America.

There are so many ways to incorporate historical newspapers into my lessons. The LOC has provided newspapers that can be used for guided reading, vocabulary searches, resources for performance based assessments on any level. I love the stories that I found in the newspapers for holidays. The language used in the 1800's is very different from today and having kids read for understanding can become more engaging with the different variations of the English language used then until now. For social studies, these newspapers provide different viewpoints to any issue and promotes thinking about how others view the same topic.

I find great interest in all the blogs but my Minera's Kaledoscope Resources for kids and families because of all the great kid activities and videos provided. Words Revealed Geography and Maps at the LOC because we have a unit on maps and the different maps can be used across the curriculum in math, reading, and science. Finally, Now See Hear! because I love movies. I will use the blogs as lesson ideas.

I'm so glad you found Minerva's Kaleidoscope (but perhaps you were already familiar with the highly engaging resources and activities that can be found there)!

I enjoy using the newspapers to show perspective and also to help students learn to evaluate sources. My three favorite blogs are : 4 Corners of the World; Worlds Revealed; and the Library of Congress blog.

With all of these, I simply enjoy expanding my knowledge which I anticipate will assist with Bell Ringers and other discussion ideas,

I am glad to attend these sessions. I would implement these research based Activities with my Students to explore content (Mathematics) related as well as the History behind the advancement.

One way I may incorporate historical newspapers into my lessons would involve examining monumental supreme court cases while covering the Judicial Branch of the US and a concepts such as judicial review and due process. The Teaching Tools category seems to have webinars fairly regularly with direction on how to use resources, and the Lesson Ideas category also has interesting entries such as the explore presidential inaugurations. The Constitution category has number of items that directly relate to the civics/econ curriculum that I teach. It would be interesting for students to search for a bill or resolution from the thousands from the 1799-1873 time period.

Historical newspapers can be a tough sell with students because while they are interesting to look at they are often hard to read. I do think, however, that they are excellent authentic examples of bias and perspective for English and History classes. Introducing a lesson with different headlines and engaging students with a wonder and notice activity could help put source evaluation at the forefront of their research.

I don't know that anyone would say copyright is a favorite anything, but the Copyright blog is useful and breaks the basics down into digestible bites for students. Primary Source Highlights is perfect for sparking ideas while being a reminder of the plethora of information available. Lesson Ideas is a goldmine! I never know how to collaborate with math teachers and one of the first things I saw was using information from the Spanish Flu for mathematical qualities. research Library Collaboration

I already responded to this hours ago, I wonder what happened to my original submission?? Oh well, here goes again:

At first when I was looking at the various topics I was struggling to figure out how I wanted to incorporate historical newspapers into my lessons. However, the more I started looking around at the different newspapers on presidential elections the more I became inspired. As I was reading, I was able to see how students could look at the role of the media in presidential elections in the past and see if they could detect bias in what they were reading. I would then ask students to compare historical headlines to newspapers from more current presidential campaigns to see if they could see similarities or differences.

In addition, I was able to find newspaper articles from when Roosevelt was running as a third party candidate. I thought students could use these to reflect on the role that third parties tend to play during presidential elections as well. So much that could be done here and students could really debate why, even with a strong candidate like Roosevelt, third parties aren't more effective.

In terms of the teacher blogs, I was really getting into the blogs under the Revolution and the New Nation topic. In particular, I thought the Negotiation and the Value of Notetaking During the 1787 Constitutional Convention would be a great teacher-plug for taking more notes (look at me being THAT teacher.) Under the same topic I also thought I could use the Online Activity: Rewriting the Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence in place of the activity I currently use to teach the Declaration. It's ready to go and would better celebrate the spirit of what I want to teach in that lesson.

Lastly, I also found under the Presidents topic a blog called Inaugurations: Stepping into History. I thought this would be a great warm-up activity before talking about the Executive Branch, asking students to identify what they thought was going on in the different images.

Students in American Literature study the evolution of the American Dream. Newspapers can supply a foundation and setting in which creative writing was produced.

The Great Gatsby could be supplemented with news from places alluded to in the book: NYC, WWII, Oxford, Gatsby's hometown or a midwest paper, etc. to compare the relative values between classes and areas of the US at the time.
Students also read "Death of a Salesman" and Linda and Willy discuss finances for the home expenses and mortgage. Papers from the day with home services could help students. There are numerous business world references in the play which can also be explored or briefly researched.

A bingo or scavenger hunt format with a follow-up discussion or reflection tying it to the historic allusions and enriching their comprehension of the author's world.

One blog that resonated with me in the Culture and Folklife section was "Developing Students' Discipline-Specific Thinking by Studying Cultural Documentation" When we read Langston Hughes' autobiography and read his poems, I knew that students would need visuals and videos about the many experiences Hughes' went through.

Additionally, I want to promote admiration for crafts and skilled artisans in cottage industries as a rewarding local option, beginning with a study of native life in colonial days and after. Specifically, I found the curated collection of "Native American Legal Struggles in Primary Sources" valuable and expect students will draw parallels to other minority and/or disenfranchised groups.

Another blog I really appreciate is the African American History blog. A former workplace offered this course, and in my current school, I find I require supplements to the course standards all year. As this year marked the centennial for the Tulsa, OK massacre, I wanted ways to tie in previously unanthologized segments of the American collective psyche. I planned on creating the materials myself, but a pro has made it convenient!

English/Language Arts Social Studies/History 9 - 12

I have not used historical news papers in my lessons, I love the idea of using them for a couple of reasons. With technology a lot of students have not seen a newspaper. Using it as a primary source for a particular time period, event or article about at particular person gives a different perspective. While I use Time For Kids, using a primary source newspapers from that time can lead to a lot of great discussion around the purpose of the article or the newspapers and whether or not everyone might have the same perspective around that topic.

Teacher Blogs-

10 Day National Book Festival- I am always looking for different books and discussions around books to bring new ideas to my classroom.

"What is the American Slave, Is Your 4th of July?"- I would use this as a lesson around Frederick Douglas. I feel like sometimes students only get on perspective around a particular topic and this will be a great resources as seen from a person who lived it.

"The Power of Audience and Purpose- Teaching Complex Topics through Primary Resource Portraits."- I would also use this as lesson around the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Using the portraits is a different way for students to look at a topic from the perspective of a person. We teach a lot of events that happen and putting a human face to that event is important and a great way for students to make connections.

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