The Learning Page: Community Center - American Memory Guide

Teachers know that the best content is created by teachers, for teachers. Like the community cookbook with all its tried and true recipes, the Community Center provides a place for sharing everything from teaching ideas to recommended reading.

Thematic finding aids

Community Center, part of the Learning Page, provides thematic finding aids featuring content useful to teachers of history, civics, science, and English. Simply click on the title of the theme or topic to find a list of select online resources, relevant lesson plans, a community-generated bibliography, links to Collection Connections, and a list of the best search terms for that topic. For example, the Exploration and Explorers topic offers select lesson plans for grades 3 through 12; lists recommended picture books, young adult novels, and non-fiction books; and features links to the best of the Library of Congress’ online resources for teachers and students about exploration. One notable element of this collection is the American Treasures online exhibit Exploring the Carolinas, which documents John White’s travels to the Carolina coast in the 1580s.

In addition to these selected resources, primary source sets have been compiled for the following topics:

Primary source sets save time, providing a variety of relevant media including documents, images, and recorded sound all on one page. Teacher’s guides to the primary source sets are thorough, providing context for the materials as well as teaching suggestions and additional resources. Each item in the primary source set can be printed or downloaded with one click, making offline classroom use simple. There are even links on the page to the analysis tools developed for working with various primary source formats including maps, poetry, and music. If you need a set of primary sources on a topic not yet available from the Community Center, you can make your own. Check out the teachers’ guides Creating and Using Primary Source Sets (PDF) and Recreating American Memory Materials for Off-line Use (Word Document).

Featured content

In addition to the thematic finding aids and primary source sets, the Community Center provides another way to access the American Memory collections, Learning Page resources, and other Library of Congress publications. For each theme listed on the home page of the Community Center, there is another column under the heading “featured content,” which links to selected American Memory resources that fit with that topic. For example, listed beside the theme “From Fantasy to Flight: Man’s Dreams, Experiments and Inventions for Flying” are two American Memory resources, the Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers and With Wings as Eagles…From Fantasy to Flight, a Learning Page feature. Given the vast online collections published by the Library of Congress, these themeatic connections provide busy teachers with selected content, a much-needed service.

The Source, a newsletter of practical teaching ideas for American Memory users, is available on the left side of the Community Center page under the heading “Don’t Miss.” Though it appears they are updating this content infrequently, the resources that have been published here are worth visiting. “Teaching Ideas” articles are grouped by grade level. Each one provides a glimpse of a way another educator uses American Memory in his or her classroom and many link to a complete instructional plan. Whether you are creating found poetry or teaching your students to use a timeline, The Source may have ideas that will inform your practice.

The front page of the Community Center section also includes a link to Learning Page email updates. Four newsletters are emailed annually to announce new professional development and opportunities, as well as new content of interest to educators.