Eclectic Technology

The Library of Congress is an amazing resource. It is the largest library in the world and has put much of their collection online.

What is available?  "Spoken history, photographs, and iconic cultural resources are available as teaching resources, and many of them are neatly organized into lesson plans, collections, and themes, perfect for bringing them into the classroom."

Since searching for the resources may be "overwhelming" this post provides "a short guide to making the most of the Library of Congress, with tips and ideas for activities, plus links to guides, resources, and tools that you can put to work in your classroom."

The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents modified for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities.

This curriculum teaches students how to investigate historical questions employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on issues from King Philip's War to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.

"Welcome to the Nelson Mandela Digital Archive Project. Our aim is to locate, document, digitise, and provide access to all archival materials related to Nelson Mandela."

Currently there are six sections available: My Moment with a Legend, Early Life, Prison Years, Presidential Years, Retirement, Books for Mandela and Young People. A source rich with materials.

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience presents a new interpretation of African-American history, one that focuses on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent to remake themselves and their worlds. Of the thirteen defining migrations that formed and transformed African America, only the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trades were coerced, the eleven others were voluntary movements of resourceful and creative men and women, risk-takers in an exploitative and hostile environment. Their survival skills, efficient networks, and dynamic culture enabled them to thrive and spread, and to be at the very core of the settlement and development of the Americas. Their hopeful journeys changed not only their world and the fabric of the African Diaspora but also the Western Hemisphere.