Educator Resources

Assessing Historical Thinking

• The Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Journal contains relevant articles on using primary sources. This link is to the Spring 2013 article on "Assessing Historical Thinking Skills" Using Library of Congress Primary Sources.

Using Primary Sources

• The Library of Congress has created a special page for teachers on Using Primary Sources.

• National History Education Clearinghouse includes examples of best practices, videos of actual use and much more. They also describe how to adapt documents for classroom use.

• North Carolina Digital History includes best practices, process guides, worksheets and other resources.

• The School District of Palm Beach County has created a libguide for teaching with Primary Sources with an abundance of helpful links.

• The Indiana Historical Bureau has created resources for educators, including how to use historical markers in the classroom.

• The Library of Congress has a growing collection of short videos created for teachers on how to use primary sources in the classroom. Many of the videos focus on the collections at the Library of Congress but offer helpful incites on how these materials can enhance the classroom experience.

• The Center on Representative Government at Indiana University is a member of the Library of Congress' Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium. The Center is a founding member of the consortium, and has developed a wide array of products over the last 10 years. Our most recent TPS project is the civics interactive Engaging Congress.

• Smithsonian Source is a resource for teaching American history in grades 5 through 12 that includes images of documents and artifacts, videos designed to introduce the concept of artifact analysis and teacher created lesson plans.

• DocsTeach created by National Archives offers interactive online tool for analyzing primary documents from the collection.

• The National Archives has created document analysis worksheets available as PDF documents.

• These analysis worksheets were created by Eden Kuhlenschmidt for the Jeffersonville Township Public Library as part of its 2015 LSTA Digitization Grant project and used with sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

• • Student Analysis Worksheet A — Description
  • Student Analysis Worksheet B — Opinion
  • Student Analysis Worksheet C — Connection
  • Student Analysis Worksheet D — Architecture
  • Student Analysis Worksheet E — Photojournalism tags
  • Student Analysis Worksheet F — Restaging
  • Student Analysis Worksheet G — Time and Place

The following Indiana Memory collections have educational resources.

• Lesson plans and additional resources

• Civil War & Cause and Effects of the First Year of the War

• Historical Debate: How to deal with the slave states/border states

• Morton versus Cameron

• The Role of the States: Morton's Obligation to the Nation or State

• Socratic Seminar: Governor vs. President "Who has the most Responsibility?"

• Social Studies Educational Resources for Use with Conner Prairie Historic Clothing Collection — Study of Culture and Cultural Diversity by Shannon White