Beating the Summer Heat This summer, I got to beat the heat of southern Maryland by attending a very cool week-long adventure at the Library of Congress. In the spring, I applied to be a part of the Teaching with… Read More ›
primary sources
Pairing Picture Books and Primary Sources: How the Cookie Crumbled by Gilbert Ford
When I first read Gilbert Ford’s book How the Cookie Crumbled where readers are introduced to Ruth Wakefield and the invention of the chocolate chip cookie, I immediately wondered what primary sources could be paired with the book. My searches led… Read More ›
Pairing Picture Books and Primary Sources: When Washington Crossed the Delaware by Lynne Cheney and Peter M. Fiore
Last month I helped to give a workshop in Lexington, Kentucky, through a grant called Project CHARGE (Civics History through Advanced Research and Geography Education). Over five days, elementary and middle school teachers focused on mid-17th-century history through the adoption… Read More ›
Picture Books and Primary Sources: Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution. By Rob Sanders and Jamey Christoph
I am always glad when an anniversary of an event coincides with a historically based picture book. It adds a greater purpose to bring that book and event into student learning. This is the case with the upcoming 50th anniversary… Read More ›
Pairing Picture Books and Primary Sources: A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women’s Rights by Kate Hannigan
There are times when reading a historically based picture book that I cannot help but make comparisons to today. Primary sources can help me focus that comparison. This was the case when reading the picture book A Lady Has the… Read More ›
Pairing Picture Books and Primary Sources: The Boo-Boos That Changed the World by Barry Wittenstein
There are times when I read a historically based picture book and hope that I can find great primary sources to accompany it. I felt this way when I read The Boo-Boos That Changed the World written by Barry Wittenstein… Read More ›
Pairing Picture Books and Primary Sources: What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
There are picture books that take a moment in history that I have a basic understanding of and expand it to the point that I realize that I know very little about that moment. That was the case with What… Read More ›
Picture Books and Primary Sources: Diana’s White House Garden by Elisa Carbone
In my state, Missouri, the Missouri Association of School Librarians has book awards for K-12 students. When the list for their picture book award, the Show Me Award, contains a picture book that focuses on an actual event or individual,… Read More ›
Picture Books and Primary Sources: Strong as Sandow by Don Tate
My students love the extraordinary. That is why I knew they would enjoy Strong as Sandow by Don Tate. Tate tells the story of Eugen Sandow, once known as the strongest man on earth. It also tells a story of… Read More ›
Pairing Picture Books and Primary Sources: Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney
When I read a historically based picture book, I am often amazed at how the author and illustrator can take a moment in history and explore it in just thirty-two short pages. The best of these stories help me feel… Read More ›