About the Program

Mission

The Teaching with Primary Sources Program builds a consortium that fosters collaborations between the Library of Congress and the educational community to increase instructional use of the Library's digitized primary sources. The Teaching with Primary Sources Program contributes to the quality of education by deepening content understanding and improving student literacy in our nation's schools.

Goals

The goals of the Teaching with Primary Sources Program are to work with an educational consortium to:

1. Provide online and in-person primary source-based professional development programs nationwide.
2. Increase the ability of educators to design student-centered primary source-based learning experiences that use effective instructional practices.
3. Implement standards-based learning experiences that improve student ability to critically examine primary sources.
4. Build patronage of the Library's digitized resources that expand the community of educators dedicated to the improvement of education through the use of primary sources.

Overview

The aim of the Teaching with Primary Sources Program is to embed the use of digitized primary sources in curricula and the classroom to deepen content understanding and student literacy. Teaching with Primary Sources consortium members and their partners will follow a process of planning and development, implementation, and dissemination of procedures and products that meet member and Teaching with Primary Sources Program goals. External and internal evaluation will be integrated into all phases of the program.

Teaching with Primary Sources consortium members and their partners will create professional development strategies and curricular resources on using the Library's digitized primary sources to improve learning. These strategies should be ongoing and progressive to allow for college/university and K-12 educators to improve their competencies to: design primary source-based inquiry-oriented learning experiences, implement these experiences in the classroom, evaluate these experiences and learning outcomes, and share their expertise.

The Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources at California University of PA is a southwestern Pennsylvania teacher professional development provider funded by the national Teaching with Primary Sources program at the Library of Congress.

Campus staff include:

Dr. Michael J. Brna, Director
Lynne Berdar, Clerk Typist II
Linda Muller, Training Specialist

To see a list of past and present Cal U TPS faculty affiliates, click here.

About TPS Quarterly

Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Quarterly is an online publication created by the Library of Congress Educational Outreach Division in collaboration with the TPS Educational Consortium.

Published quarterly, each issue focuses on pedagogical approaches to teaching with Library of Congress digitized primary sources in K-12 classrooms. The TPS Quarterly Editorial Board and Library staff peer review all content submitted by TPS Consortium members and their partners. Please email questions, suggestions or comments about TPS Quarterly to Stacie Moats, Educational Resources Specialist, at smoa@loc.gov

TPS Quarterly Editorial Board
Michael Brna, California University of Pennsylvania
Elaine Larson, The Center on Congress at Indiana University
Mark Newman, Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities
Cindy Rich, Eastern Illinois University
Sherry Levitt, Northern Virginia Partnership (school districts of Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax and Falls Church)
Courtney Kisat, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale

Teaching with Primary Sources Quarterly - Fall 2011

This Issue's Theme:  Primary Source Formats

This issue explores how teachers can use primary sources of different formats.

Analyzing primary sources in various formats such as letters, maps, drawings, newspaper articles, motion pictures, and sound recordings can deepen not only content knowledge but also students’ understanding of the human condition. On the Library of Congress Web site, teachers and students can find the correspondence of presidents and pioneers, recordings of fiddle tunes and opera scores, interviews after the attack on Pearl Harbor and interviews after the attacks on September 11, 2001. This TPS Quarterly issue gives strategies for using digitized primary sources in different formats to help students investigate the evidence of everyday lives and extraordinary legacies left behind by those who came before them.

Previous issues of the Teaching With Primary Sources Quarterly are available through this archive.

We offer a range of professional development opportunities, not limited to in-class and community presentations, in-service workshops, and professional and academic conferences. Upcoming opportunities for professional development are listed below.

Upcoming Workshop Information

To request additional information and for a list of upcoming workshops please call 724-938-6025 or email Lynne Berdar at berdar@calu.edu

Professional Development

Professional development activities under TPS progress along three program levels. Teachers have the option of taking workshops and courses, offered by TPS Consortium Members, under all or some of these levels, depending on their interests.

Under the TPS Regional Program, interested organizations can incorporate parts of the TPS curriculum that meet their professional development goals for teachers with support from Regional Coordinators and online resources for professional development.

Level I-Teachers become familiar with the breadth and organization of the Library of Congress' digital primary sources, understand their value in instruction and create basic inquiry-based learning experiences.

Participants:

• Learn what primary sources are and understand their value in teaching
• How to locate and navigate the Library of Congress Web site
• How to access, save and present primary sources from the Library of Congress' Web site
• Gain a foundational understanding of effective instructional practices for teaching with primary sources
• Create instructionally sound learning experiences that integrate primary sources from the Library of Congress

Level II- Teachers evaluate, create and teach topic-specific, content-informed lessons that integrate primary sources from the Library of Congress and exemplify effective instructional practices.

Participants:

• Gain a thorough understanding of effective instructional practices using primary sources and can identify exemplary learning experiences
• Learn to identify exemplary learning experiences
• Create standards-based learning experiences integrating primary sources from the Library of Congress that exemplify effective practice
• Teach, assess and reflect on their experiences using primary sources in instruction
• Evaluate primary source-based learning experiences
• Investigate the effects of primary source-based instruction on student learning

Level III - Experienced teachers advocate the use of primary sources and help disseminate the ideas, methods and products of the Teaching with Primary Sources program.

Participants:

• Mentor colleagues on the effective instructional uses of primary sources
• Evaluate learning experiences for widespread dissemination and use
• Interact and collaborate with other teachers who are using Library of Congress primary sources
• Conduct research into the effective use of primary sources in education
• Contribute to the use of effective practices for using primary sources in instruction by speaking at gatherings of educators and/or leading professional development activities.

The Library's partners offer professional development free of charge, with the exception of for-credit undergraduate and graduate courses. Most award continuing education credit.

For more information please contact Dr. Brna at brna@calu.edu

Cal U TPS has recently established the TPS Center for Oral History, which focuses on the preservation, educational use, and creation of oral history primary source materials.  To read the Mission & Vision Statement of the Center, please click here.

Listed below are the Oral Histories collected from our Nation's conflicts.  Please click here for all Oral Histories from the TPS Center for Oral History Project.

Afghanistan/Enduring Freedom

Cold War

Desert Storm/Gulf

Grenada

Iraqi Freedom

Korea

Vietnam

World War II

Yugoslavia/Allied Forces 

Cal U TPS is involved in a number of community outreach initiatives. Here is a partial listing:

Brownsville Historical Society Guest speaker at their 50th Anniversary Celebration

Chartiers-Houston Library Summer Reading Program - Civil War

Brownsville Library Summer Reading Program - Civil War

Marianna Library Summer Reading Program - Civil War

Scottdale Library Summer Reading Program - Civil War

Mt. Lebanon Library Reading Program - Civil War

Veterans Oral History Project (VOHP)

Donora Smog Museum Project

Donora Digital Collection (DDC)

National History Day

Social Media Links
Cal U TPS Blog
National TPS Blog
LOC on YouTube
LOC on Facebook
LibraryThing
Summer Institute blog
Our Del.icio.us bookmarks
TPS on Twitter
TPS on Flickr
LOC Webcasts
LOC on iTunes (requires iTunes)
Social Media and the Library of Congress" (.ppt slideshow)

Other Library of Congress Links
Library of Congress
LOC Digital Collections
myLOC
World Digital Library
LOC Exhibitions

Other related links
Congressman Mark Critz
National History Day
Heinz History Center

The TPS @ CALU Art Exhibits are a collection of artwork available from the Library of Congress online resources that have been selected and compiled by the TPS staff at California University.  Visitors can click on the images to: obtain larger views of them or, occasionally, to view the bibliographic information of the images.

If you have any questions, contact Lynne Berdar at berdar@calu.edu.

Happy Holidays from the Teaching with Primary Sources Department.  Please enjoy our holiday photos from The Library of Congress:

Cal U TPS related press releases and other public relation publications are listed here.

TPS, IU1 Continue Collaboration

California University Journal, Volume 13, #23, Sept 26, 2011, Page 3

Cal U History Day Competition 2010

Herald Standard, Thursday, July 21,2011

Conference Celebrates Music, Literature of Appalachia, Appalachian Culture Focus on Conference

California University Journal, Volume 13, #12, April 11, 2011, Page 3

Cooperative Projects with California University of Pennsylvania

The California Crier, Volume 18, No. 1, March 2011, Page 4

Contest Preps Students for History Day

California University Journal, Volume 13, #7, February 28, 2011, Page 2

Students Ready for History Day

California University Journal, Volume 13, #4, February 7, 2011, Page 3

Summer Institute a Success

California University Journal, Volume 12, #21, Sept, 20, 2010, Page 2

Cal U Primary Source History Day

California University Academic Affairs News, September 2010, Page 4

Recent Grant Awards

California University Academic Affairs News, Summer 2010, Page 3

Cal U Review, Summer 2010, Page 7

Groundbreaker Recalls ROTC Training

California University Journal, Volume 12, (12), Page 1

April 19, 2010

Library of Congress Designates Cal U a Founding Partner

California University Journal, Volume 12 (10), Page 2

April 5, 2010

Young Historians Square Off

California University Journal, Volume 12, (8), Page 2

March 22, 2010

Local Students Brush Up For History Day

California University Journal, Volume 12 (4), Page 2

February 8, 2010

'Million Dollar Achievers' Honored

California University Journal, Volume 11 (33), Page 1

December 7, 2009

Campus Briefs - Brna Speaks at Conferences

California University Journal, Volume 11 (22), Page 4

September 21, 2009

Should any questions arise, please contact us at 724-938-6025 or email Lynne at Berdar@calu.edu