TPS Eastern Region, coordinated by Barbara Kirby at Waynesburg University

Level One: Foundation Program

These introductory workshops provide teachers with guides and technology tools to help their students think like historians and develop critical analysis using primary source documents from the Library of Congress digital archives. Participants become familiar with the breadth and organization of the Library of Congress collections, understand their value in instruction and create a basic inquiry-based learning experience using the Stripling Inquiry Cycle of Learning. ^[1] Each workshop takes the participants through a complete inquiry cycle as they explore the Library of Congress.

MyLOC  is your passport to experience the virtual treasures at the Library of Congress. You will collect primary source documents, turn the pages of rare manuscripts, interact with pricelesss artifacts, and explore inquiry based learning activities.  You will explore multi-media ways to transmit our cultural heritage to the next generation of students.

American Memory is an online archive of over 100 collections of rare and unique items important to America’s heritage. The collections contain more than 11 million primary source documents, photographs, films, and recordings that reflect the collective American memory. This workshop  is designed to help educators use the American Memory Collections to teach history and culture. It offers tips and tricks, definitions and rationale for using primary sources, activities, discussions, lesson plans and suggestions for using the collections in classroom curriculum.

Visual Literacy is defined as the ability to understand communications composed of visual images as well as being able to use visual imagery to communicate to others.  It is important that students learn to recognize and understand the often-complex messages of photographic images. This workshop will use primary source images from the Library of Congress to develop observational and critical thinking skills. These photographic artifacts from the past are authentic and will humanize the study of history.

Fall Institute 2009:  A workshop held on the Waynesburg University Campus for K-12 inservice teachers during the fall of 2009.  We met for four hours on four evenings for a total of 16 face-to-face lab hours.  These workshops introduced TPS Direct a new professional development tool that lets educators plan, customize, and deliver high-quality professional development to their colleagues using the PD curriculum from the Library of Congress.

Level Two: Advanced Program

The New Deal and the 21st Century (Link is under development.) is a topic-specific workshop providing participants with Library of Congress content about the Great Depression and The New Deal including webcasts, exhibitions, and primary source sets. Educators will use this content to create lesson plans or units of study that follow the Stripling Inquiry Cycle of Learning.^[2] In the final stages of this cycle, learners will apply their understanding of the New Deal in the 1930s to government solutions to economic and social problems in the USA today. Although the content will be national in scope, participants will be encouraged to apply that content to local and state primary sources related to the New Deal. These lessons will be taught and evaluated by the authors, their peers and the TPS staff. During the workshop, participants will be given time to reflect on the impact of primary source instruction on student learning.  The lesson plans and reflections will be shared in a public online wiki format. This workshop is an ongoing collaborative project sponsored by Waynesburg University and other Eastern Regional TPS participants.

Dr. Ann B. Canning © 2009