Tools for Analyzing Primary Sources and Close Reading

I love EDSITEment! If you haven’t been there, you really need to head over and check it out.

Joe Phelan, an educational liasion, describes EDSITEment as:

the K-12 digital outreach program from the National Endowment for the Humanities. We are especially strong in US History, government, American and British literature as well as art and culture. Our online lesson plans are built around guided reading of  primary sources which are carefully contextualized and  stress critical thinking and other 21st century skills.

There are tons of lesson plans and other handy resources. One of their sweet pages highlights a variety of tools for analyzing primary sources and close reading. These links direct you to other websites and references to resources available through government, nonprofit, and commercial entities.

• Using Primary Sources in the Classroom (American Memory Project, Library of Congress)
• History in the Raw (National Archives)
• Document Analysis Worksheets (National Archives)

Close Reading Guides

• How to Do a Close Reading (Harvard University Library)
• Reading Critically (Harvard University Library)
• How To Read a Poem by Edward Hirsch
• Poetry: Close Reading (Purdue OWL)

Close Reading Webinars

• Teaching Through Close Reading: Historical and Informational Texts (National Humanities Center archived webinar)
• Teaching Through Close Reading: Poetry and Fiction (National Humanities Center archived webinar)

Sat photos, change over time, and a sweet teaching tool

Four things:

• Google Earth.
• Landsat images.
• Change over time.
• Cool tools for instruction.

What do they all have in common?

Psst. I’ll give you a hint. They were approved last month.

That’s right! The new Kansas social studies standards and even some of the Common Core literacy pieces are asking kids to analyze change over time and to evaluate relationships between people and place. And it’s a good thing.

But are there tools floating around that I can use to help kids do that?

Smithsonian Quests – Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges

The 1948 movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre worded it a bit differently but I’m sticking with Mel Brooks and the classic Blazing Saddles:

“Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!

It’s a great line.

But in 2013, it would be wrong. In 2013, badges are a big deal. And used appropriately, badges can help us do our jobs better.

Teaching with the Library of Congress blog

Hey. I get it. You’re busy. It’s the end of the year and stuff is starting to pile up. And so you might not have a ton of time right now for reading a new blog.

So here’s the deal. Just head over the Teaching with the Library of Congress blog and bookmark it. Subscribe to an email or RSS feed. Then forget it till this summer.

Then go back and read, read, read. Cause it will change your life. Seriously. I don’t often say stuff like that but the Library of Congress is just that good. And their online content is seriously awesome.

So what makes it so good?

Tip of the Week: MapStory. It’s Wikipedia for Maps

Okay. Not sure if I should be impressed or freaked out by the fact that the founder of MapStory was also one of the original officers of In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel, as we all know, is the venture capital group working to keep the CIA equipped with the latest in information technology.

I’m gonna go with freakishly impressed.

Because MapStory looks like a very handy tool for teachers looking for ways to incorporate high-level discipline specific thinking skills into their geography and history instruction. And I’m sure there’s not any chance of teachers getting caught up in some sort of illegal international information gathering syndicate through MapStory.

Pretty sure.

Yesterday I shared some thoughts about using maps to to help generate great questions related to the Kansas state social studies standards and the Common Core. Part of what I didn’t talk about was the last part: