Hi Norma,
Lessons that come to mind are on the Learning Page, themes section (second
section is on lit and language arts):
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/theme.html
Images always provide great writing prompts. One of my favorite
collections for this is America from the Great Depression to WW II. The
special feature of this collection (black and white images) is on the item
record for each image. It's under the thumbnail and is "Display Images
with Neighboring Call Numbers". This link to neighboring images is a
creative writing teacher's boon. Once you find an image you like, click on
the neighboring image link to expand that image into the story of the
day/event/topic of the image.
One example is "Spectators at soapbox auto race during July 4th celebration
in Salisbury, Maryland.is with a soapbox auto derby." It's at
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8a34338))+@field(COLLID+fsa))
(cut and paste the whole URL, including end parentheses). The day's drama
unfolds in each image.
The Grandparent/Elder unit uses this technique to great effect with their
lesson on Gee's Bend to create a 60 Minutes-style documentary. The Jacob
Have I Loved lesson uses the technique to establish the context for the story.
Journalistic style can be taught with the collections that documented major
events. A couple of examples are:
Selected Civil War Photographs - first war to be photographed (the chaos of
Lincoln's assassination and the trial of the conspirators is also in this
collection)
The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures - Edison captured this in
motion pictures
Don't forget the San Francisco earthquake and others... Lessons for these
are under the appropriate era.
One other thought - subject indexes are great ways to expand
vocabulary. For vocabulary in context, the AM search engine helps by
putting the search term in bold within the text. This works well in the
American Life Histories. Students can go to various documents on the hit
list to see how the word is used, if it is a consistent use, what meanings
the word has, does the meaning vary by region/state, etc.
Hope this helps,
Judy
>>--
>>
>>The following is from Norma Thiese, AMF '99.
>>Please respond either to the list at [log in to unmask] or to Norma
>>directly at [log in to unmask]
>>
>>I'll start. Although not in American Memory, I like showing evidence of
>>the writing process using various drafts of the Declaration of Independence
>>from <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/declara1.html> and
>><http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr00.html>. The former address has
>>better narrative description and the latter has higher resolution images.
>>
>>Also on writing process, the Walt Whitman notebooks
>><http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wwhtml/> require considerable pre-screening,
>>but are quite interesting and tie nicely with other items on the Library
>>site. (Warning: his barely legible handwriting can't be machine
>>transcribed--younger kids will definitely have trouble reading it.)
>>
>> From <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wwhtml/gazette2.html>: Small enough to
>>fit in Walt Whitman's pocket or rucksack, the four worn notebooks contain
>>early pencil drafts of his poetry, cryptic observations on life on the
>>battlefield and death in Civil War hospitals, and detailed notes such as a
>>reporter would make for later reference.
>>
>>The American Treasures exhibit highlights pages 65 and 68-72 from the
>>"Earliest Notebook" (apparently also known as "1847 Notebook").
>>
>>
>>
>>For example, page 12 of Notebook 101 "Hospital Notebook" describes the
>>Antietam field hospital otherwise known as "Smith's Barn." A search
>>elsewhere in American Memory for "Antietam hospital" will turn up
>>photographs.
>>
>>Betty
>>
>>
>>In a few weeks, I am giving a presentation to language arts teachers,
>>grades 4--12, on the American Memory Collections. The focus of the
>>conference is on language arts and history. My session will be on how
>>documents from the AM collection can be used in the language arts classroom.
>>
>>Do you have any favorite AM documents or lessons that you use with students
>>in the language arts curriculum?
>>
>>Norma Thiese
>>Media/Technology Consultant
>>American Memory Fellow 1999
>>Keystone AEA #1
>>1400 2nd St. NW
>>Elkader, Iowa 50243
>>563-245-1480, ext. 231
>>800-632-5918
>>[log in to unmask]
>>
>> _________________________________________________________
>>
>> Elizabeth L. Brown
>> Digital Reference Specialist
>> Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-4604
>> [log in to unmask] telephone: 202/707-2235
>>
>> Library of Congress American Memory Home Page:
>> http://memory.loc.gov/
>>_________________________________________________________
Judith K. Graves
Digital Project Coordinator
Library of Congress
110 Second St, SE
Washington, DC 20540-4604
(v)202/707-2562 (f)202/252-3116
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