Kearns High School goes back to the source via the Library of Congress
"Go to the source" is sound advice, especially when one is learning or teaching social studies. Kearns High Library and Media Specialist Rachel Murphy got some great tips on how to do just that during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.
The American Association of School Librarians held their Teaching With Primary Sources Summer Teacher Institute at the Library of Congress during the first week of August. Participating teachers had the opportunity to see many of the "primary sources"--famous documents such as letters, photographs, maps and more--that most people only see printed in textbooks. They also received training how to use the Library of Congress's Internet database for classroom instruction, a resource that provides millions of these documents copyright-free.
"I don't think I realized the wealth of information available," Murphy said.
The teachers at the institute also learned teaching strategies to use with these primary sources, such as having students study the documents and write down questions before the teacher even starts talking. This method helps encourage students to think more for themselves, Murphy said.
"It's something I'll definitely do with my students," she said.
Primary sources have many educational applications in the social sciences and beyond. Students can look for cultural contexts in old photographs, and see how early explorers thought their world looked through old maps. English classes can read letters that historical novels are based on, and science classes can study original sketches and patents of inventions.
"It's the visual aspect of primary source documents that makes you understand a concept," Murphy said.
Kearns High students will have an extra edge in their use of the Library of Congress database that few other schools have. The school-issued iPods that every student carries will allow them to access the database at any time, without having to wait for computer lab space. This will give instruction more immediacy, since they will be able to consistently see the primary sources while they are being discussed in class, Murphy said. This fact is part of the reason Murphy was accepted to the institute, as the AASL is interested to see how Kearns' unique situation will play out, she said.
The benefits of studying primary source documents go far beyond just understanding concepts taught in a classroom, Kearns U.S. History and Economics teacher Steve Miller said. Miller's interest in primary source documents was what inspired Murphy to participate in the institute.
The most important and relevant thing primary source instruction gives students today is simply this: when they read or see these documents for themselves they can draw their own conclusions from them. Instead of just relying on others to tell them what to think, they learn to be critical thinkers themselves, and are less likely to become victims in their own lives, Miller said. For example, they study photographs of the Holocaust and see what can happen when a group of decent people elects a bad leader. That insight can help them avoid making the same mistake in the future, he said.
"This year, we're going to try more and more to get into the Library of Congress and these resources that enrich what we do in the classroom here," Miller said.
