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Teaching with Primary Sources

Professional Development

Course Levels

The TPS Midwest Region at Illinois State University offers professional development courses at two different levels.

Fundamentals of Primary Source Instruction

Goal

Participants gain strategies for using primary sources to help students engage in learning, develop critical thinking skills, and build content knowledge.

Objectives

  • Justify conclusions about whether a source is primary or secondary depending upon the time or topic under study
  • Describe examples of the benefits of teaching with primary sources
  • Analyze a primary source using Library of Congress tools
  • Access teaching tools and primary sources from loc.gov/teachers
  • Identify key considerations for selecting primary sources for instructional use (for example, student needs and interests, teaching goals, etc.)
  • Access primary sources and teaching resources from loc.gov for instructional use
  • Analyze primary sources in different formats
  • Analyze a set of related primary sources in order to identify multiple perspectives
  • Facilitate a primary source analysis using Library of Congress tools
  • Demonstrate how primary sources can support at least one teaching strategy (for example, literacy, inquiry-based learning, historical thinking, etc.)
  • Create a primary source-based activity that helps students engage in learning, develop critical thinking skills, and construct knowledge

Advanced Primary Source Instruction

Goal

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

  • Gain a thorough understanding of effective instructional practices with emphases on inquiry-based and student-centered learning using primary sources
  • Learn to identify exemplary learning experiences
  • Create standards-based, content-informed learning experiences integrating primary sources from the Library of Congress that exemplify effective instructional 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

Registration

The TPS Midwest Region offers professional development opportunities each semester for K–12 educators. Participants gain the knowledge and skills needed to access and utilize digital primary resources from the Library of Congress while earning 25 CPDUs.

Complete the online registration form to sign up for the Fundamentals and Advanced courses. If you have any questions, email Dr. Judy Bee or call (309) 438-5468.