Synergy: John Hancock and Samuel Adams

John Hancock (1736-1793) was a wealthy merchant and Samuel Adams (1722-1803) was a politician and activist. As a result of the Stamp Act, they joined forces to create a peaceful boycott of British goods. For a decade, they led protests in Boston prior to the Revolutionary War.

Read the recently published children’s picture book, then learn more at the websites:

MOST WANTED written by Sarah Jane Marsh and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham explores the partnership of John Hancock and Samuel Adams in Boston. Readers follow Hancock and Adams through the ten years leading up to the Revolutionary War. The picture book features both well-known and lesser-known quotes from primary source documents. It concludes with additional background information, a timeline, and author notes.

THE COMING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1764-1776 is a web project of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The project focuses on over a dozen key primary source documents. Many of these documents are featured in the Marsh’s picture book.

The Coming of the American Revolution
http://masshist.org/revolution

ARC courtesy of Disney/Hyperion.

Website Review: World Digital Library

The WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY makes available primary materials from all countries and cultures around the world.

Sponsored by the Library of Congress, users can discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures and historical documents through the World Digital Library (WDL) website. WDL content includes information and images that can be explored by place, time period, topic, item type, language and institution. Users will find items organized in themes, timelines, and interactive maps. The WDL project is supported by the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) and cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations around the world.

Librarians will find primary source materials in a variety of forms; books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings, and films are not translated but presented in their original languages. Weave these resources throughout the information literacy curriculum and across content areas.

To visit the website, go to https://www.wdl.org/en/.

Website: Crowd

CROWD is a crowdsourcing project from the Library of Congress.

This web-based project encourages volunteers to help make historical documents more searchable by the public. Participants can transcribe, review, and tag documents.

Users begin by choosing a campaign such as transcribing letters or diaries. Each project provides an overview, timeline, blog, and and statistics about progress and contributions.

The website also contains project news, a discussion area, and help for participants. Resources for educators wishing to involve their students include guiding questions, primary source analysis materials, and lessons.

Librarians will find this crowdsourcing project to be a effective way to actively involve youth in critical thinking and information literacy activities. Work with the history teacher to build lessons that incorporate primary sources and crowdsourcing.

To visit the website, go to https://crowd.loc.gov/.

Website Review: Library of Congress: Free Sets

FREE TO USE AND REUSE SETS from the Library of Congress provide dozens of useful teaching and learning resources.

The Library of Congress contains millions of digital objects. Their free sets of materials makes it easy to locate useful content based on themes. Because the materials have no known copyright or are copyright cleared, they can be used by students in products such as web-based reports and presentations.

This section of the Library of Congress website currently contains over a dozen collections on themes such as dogs, classic children’s books, travel posters, and holidays.

Librarians will find this theme-based resource to be useful in introducing primary source documents. Of particularly note is the set called “Your Favorites” from Flickr.

To visit the website, go to https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/.

Digital Spotlight: Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians

DISCOVERING LITERATURE: ROMANTICS AND VICTORIANS from the British Library is a digital collection containing literary treasures and related resources.

Contents: This focused digital collection provides users with access to 1,200 Romantic and Victorian literary works, insights by 60 experts, 25 documentary files, and 20 teachers’ notes. A search tool can be used to locate specific historical materials such as diaries, letters, and photographs. Users can explore by author, work, theme, article, or video. A teacher resource section provides teaching ideas and educational materials.

Classroom Connections: English and history teachers will find this website to be a useful teaching resource.

Featured Digital Objects:
Goblin Market http://www.bl.uk/…/articles/an-introduction-to-goblin-market
Anthropomorphism in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland http://www.bl.uk/…/anthropomorphism-in-alices-adventures-in…
Child Labour http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victor…/articles/child-labour

To visit the collection, go to http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians

Digital Spotlight: Japanese Relocation During World War II

JAPANESE RELOCATION DURING WORLD WAR II from the National Archives features twenty digital objects related to Japanese Internment.

Contents: After providing background information and other resources, the page provides access to specific objects housed at the National Archives. From Executive Orders and reports to photos and posters, this easy-to-use page provides a brief description, identifier, and link to each document.

Classroom Connections: Teachers of all ages will find this page to provide quick access to key documents useful in teaching about Japanese relocation during World War II. These primary resources will bring the event alive for students reading historical fiction about this time period.

Featured Digital Objects:
Executive Order https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=74
Children in Internment Camp https://www.archives.gov/…/japan…/images/children-pledge.gif
High School Students https://www.archives.gov/…/japanese-…/images/high-school.gif

To visit the collection, go tohttps://www.archives.gov/educat…/lessons/japanese-relocation.

App Review: Spies of Mississippi

SPIES OF MISSISSIPPI: AN APPUMENTARY brings the well-known book and documentary film by Rick Bowers alive for students.

Focusing on the activities of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission from 1956 to 1997, the app explores important stories of democracy, racial segregation, and even murder. The app actively engages users through text, audio, video, maps, photographs, and other historical, primary source materials. After a video introduction, users can watch a summary of the file, listen to a song, examine a visual timeline with photographs and other primary source documents, explore an interactive map featuring key locations, and view excerpts from the film.

In addition, lesson plans and resources for teachers are provided along with discussion questions.

Librarians will find this fascinating app to be an excellent resource for students and teachers exploring the Civil Rights movement in their social studies or history classes.

To download the app, go to https://itunes.apple.com/…/spies-mississippi-ap…/id853903402.

App Review: The New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924

THE NEW IMMIGRANTS: NYC 1880-1924 by Vanguard Direct and the New York Department of Education invites users to explore the immigrant experience in America.

This outstanding history app is divided into six sections: a new beginning, the migration process, tenement life, earning a living, nativism, and assimilation and cultural preservation.

Users begin by scrolling down to the first topic, a new beginning. Or, they can click on one of the six sections. Each section provides an overview along with a sidebar containing three areas to explore. The sidebar options reveal a primary source document and an explanation. Users can then swipe through additional examples, choose the information icon for related materials, reveal questions and prompts geared at particular grade levels, save materials to a collection, or use the crop tool to zoom and crop an area of the screen.

Navigation is very intuitive making the app easy to explore and use. The images and other elements are high-quality. Students can create a collection of their materials, print or email PDFs from their collections, and use the search tool to explore related documents.

Teaching materials are provided for elementary, middle school, and high school levels. They include document based performance tasks along with instructional strategies and activities.

Social studies teachers and librarians will enjoy the focus on the carefully curated primary source collection of over 100 artifacts woven into the app including documents, newspaper articles, cartoons, photos, audio, video, and more. The New Immigrants app deals with a broad spectrum of topics from the journey and hardships to the triumphs of the immigrant experience. As such, it should work well in a classroom situation where it’s important to explore multiple perspectives and experiences.

Librarians will find this to be an excellent addition to the school’s history app collection. There’s a need for an app like this on every topic in American history!

To download the app, go to iTunes. 

Website Review Europeana 1914-1918

EUROPEANA 1914-1918 is a huge website sharing both the official histories as well as the untold stories of World War I.

Co-funded by the European Union, the website brings together three major European projects focusing on different materials including documents from the public, national collections, and film archives.

Users can browse materials by type, subject, or front. Within each section, participants can explore sources from Europe as well as New Zealand, United States, Australia, and Canada. In addition, related items are presented that might be of interest. The interface is easy-to-use and presents high-quality digital representations that can be embedded, shared, or downloaded. Copyright information is provided for those who would like to share the resource. Users are encouraged to re-use the materials in projects.

The TYPES section provides access to letters, diaries, photographs, films, documents, and postcards. Of particular interest are the thousands of videos included in the collection.

The SUBJECTS section explores remembrance, propaganda, prisoners of war, trench life, aerial warfare, navel warfare, and women. Youth will be particularly interested in the wide range of propaganda posters, cartoons, and other materials.

The FRONT section features the Italian front, home front, Eastern front, and Western front. Break your high school history class into four groups. Each team can dive into the resources related to one of the four fronts.

The ADD YOUR STORY section is collecting Great War era stories from website visitors.

Brimming with easy-to-access primary source documents, this website provides excellent resources to address Common Core standards related to primary source documents. With commemorations being planned around the world during the next few years, this digital collection is likely to grow.

Many other excellent websites are emerging that focus on the World War I era from 1914 through 1918. Be sure to check out the International Encyclopedia of the First World War at http://www.1914-1918-online.net/.

The World War One area of the British Library contains over 500 historical sources and more than 50 original articles and lessons for teachers to use in their classrooms. To learn more about this source, go to http://bl.uk/world-war-one.

To visit the EUROPEANA 1914-1918 website, go to http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en.

App Review: Think Like Churchill

THINK LIKE CHURCHILL is an outstanding biographical app produced by Touchpress. This high-quality app tells the engaging true story of Winston Churchill, a statesman from Britain who had a major impact on world history.

The app begins with an introduction by Boris Johnson explaining that the app is intended to focus on Churchill’s most difficult dilemmas. The biographical experience is divided into chapters beginning with THE BRIDGE in 1893. As users move through the short, true stories, they learn about the increasingly difficult decisions Churchill faced in his life and career.

At the end of each chapter, readers are asked to “stand in Churchill’s shoes” and make a decision. Users then learn how their choice was like or unlike the decision Churchill actually made. Participants are invited to identify the reasons for their decision, learn about traits involved with this type of decision, and examine how they compare to Churchill. It’s also possible to “challenge a friend” using social media to see how they would react in the same situation. This sharing aspects has many possibilities for teachers who could ask students to email them about their thoughts and actions. Each chapter concludes with an archive showing primary source materials related to the incident. This emphasis on historical documents connects well with the Common Core standards.

Displayed using an interactive, graphic-novel style approach, this beautifully illustrated app incorporates audio narration, sound and music effects, along with animation elements that contribute to the appeal of the experience. Hot spots woven throughout the app display informational pop-ups associated with the narrative. Orange boxes indicate Churchill’s own words.

Each fast-paced, thought-provoking chapter brings Churchill’s experiences to life. From a daring prison escape to making difficult war decisions, each new, dramatic situation draws readers deeper into the life of this fascinating statesman. The app is regularly updated and the producers plan to continue adding episodes to the experience.

THINK LIKE CHURCHILL is a stunning example of the potential of apps as engaging environments for learning. It’s an important addition to middle school and high school library app collections. Ask students to use this app as a model for writing their own story about another important figure and the decisions he or she made.

Touchpress is known for their high-quality, content-rich apps. Check their website for other apps for you library at http://www.touchpress.com/.

To learn more about this app, go to http://thinklikechurchill.com/.

Website Review: Tracked in America

TRACKED IN AMERICA focuses on the history of U.S. surveillance. An outstanding tool for exploring the constitutionally guaranteed rights of Americans, the website contains a section for educators containing lesson plans, worksheets, and links to primary source materials.

Sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, California Teacher’s Association and others, the website explores seven time periods in history including Pre-World War I, World War I, Pearl Harbor, McCarthy Era, Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam, Sanctuary, and After 9/11. Each era contains a narrative with hyperlinks for additional information. Primary source documents such as posters and photographs bring the time period to life. Audio files provide historical perspectives from historians and a timeline detailing key events.

By exploring the stories of individuals who were targeted for surveillance, students are able to better understand the dangers of government surveillance and the courage of the individuals affected.

When using this website with students, it’s important to discuss the role of the American Civil Liberties Union in advocating for individual rights.

Go to http://www.trackedinamerica.org/.

To connect this idea to libraries, go to the ALA Liberty, Privacy & Surveillance page at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacyconfidentiality.

Book Review: The Port Chicago 50

THE PORT CHICAGO 50: DISASTER, MUTINY, AND THE FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS by Steve Sheinkin is at the top of many nonfiction awards lists for 2014. Consider purchasing both the print and audiobook versions. 

A finalist for YALSA’s 2015 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award, the book traces the little-known story of 50 African American sailors convicted of mutiny by the U.S. Navy during World War II. Refusing to follow orders to load dangerous explosives onto ships, their story became a rallying cry for those who felt the military’s segregation policies were discriminatory.

Sheinkin brings the story alive through his compelling, well-researched narrative. Woven throughout the story are primary resource materials including historical photos, interviews, and court records. The print and ebook versions contain extensive references and notes that support the narrative.

Middle and high school students often skim works of nonfiction and miss the impact of the narrative. Consider sharing the audiobook version of this story with youth. Dominic Hoffman is a superb storyteller who masterfully switches among a wide range of voices to keep listeners actively engaged in the story.

Many students and teachers who thought they knew about the Civil Rights Movement will be amazed by this gripping, little-known piece of history.

To learn more about the author, go to http://stevesheinkin.com/.

To see a slideshow on historical photos from the book, go to http://us.macmillan.com/theportchicago50/SteveSheinkin.

Watch a short documentary that explores the Great Port Chicago Explosion athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaIphGJt5NU.

Website Review: National Archives

The NATIONAL ARCHIVES features key Congressional Documents of interest to young history scholars. 

Did you know that the first Federal Congress passed a resolution recommending a day of thanksgiving in 1789? Or, that in 1941 Congress established a fixed-date for the holiday? The National Archives contains dozens of digitized documents associated with the holiday of Thanksgiving.

These documents are a fun way to focus on primary source documents throughout the year. Create a bulletin board featuring a different document every few weeks. Whether remembering the anniversary of the Homestead Act of 1862 to celebrating the Civil Rights Act of 1942, primary source documents can bring history alive for students.

To locate the Thanksgiving documents, go to http://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/thanksgiving/

For a list of featured documents, go to http://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/

For many more ideas for using primary source documents in the classroom, go to http://docsteach.org/

Special Event Website Review: Veteran's History Project

In honor of Veteran’s Day, spend some time exploring the Library of Congress Veteran’s History Project.

The VETERAN’S HISTORY PROJECT from the Library of Congress gathers the personal accounts of American war veterans and makes them available online. First-hand accounts from U.S. veterans from World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, and the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts have been posted. From Army medical volunteers to Air Force pilots, a wide range of military positions are represented. Primarily an oral history program, most of the interviews are available in audio- or video-recorded formats along with transcripts. In many cases, memoirs and collections of photographs, letters, diaries, maps, and other primary source documents have been digitized and are included.

Since the project began nearly fifteen years ago, thousands of interviews have been uploaded to the database. Users can search by era, branch of service, gender, media type, and other categories. It’s also possible to search within fields such as location of service and highest rank.

Encourage students to seek out areas of interest such as female nurses of the Vietnam War, African American airmen of the Korean War, or Japanese American soldiers of World War II.

Visit the website at http://www.loc.gov/vets/.

Website Review: iCivics

The ICIVICS website provides interactive learning resources including lesson plans, games, and digital interactives. With local, state, and national elections being held around the country, it’s a perfect time to promote civic learning.

Founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the website actively engages students in activities that promote democratic action.

The Play section provides a wide range of online games for youth. After completing a free registration process, learners can collect badges, follow the leaderboard, and collect impact points. Games include “Do I Have a Right?”, “Branches of Power,” “Supreme Decision,” “Argument Wars”, “Bill of Rights”, “Immigration Nation”, and more! Play time ranges from 5 to 30 or more minutes per game, perfect for a class period.

The Teach section provides standards-based curriculum units, lesson plans, DBQuests, and WebQuests along with other tools and resources for planning on a wide range of topics including Foundations of Government, Branches of Government, The Constitution, Civil Rights, and others.

Whether focusing attention on the elections or teaching to a particular social studies standard, ICIVICS is a great choice for librarians working with teacher to promote an awareness of the democratic process.

To visit the website, go to https://www.icivics.org/

Book Review: Strike! The Farm Workers' Fight for Their Rights

STRIKE! THE FARM WORKERS’ FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS by Larry Dane Brimner explores the complex history of farm workers movement. Like many works related to this topic, union leader César Chávez plays a central role in the story. The narrative traces the creation of the United Farm Workers union and the use of protest techniques such as boycotts along the way.

What makes this work of nonfiction for youth exceptional is its focus on the cultural, social, and political tensions of the time period. Brimner’s well-research narrative and balanced approach addresses controversial topics such as racial tensions and issues of religion related to the movement.

The book’s design will appeal to middle grade readers. Visual elements can be found on almost every page and quotes from key players are woven into the text. However, additional headings and subheadings could be useful in assisting readers in locating information within the chapters.

The inclusion of photographs, maps, and other primary resources (e.g., telegraph message, cartoons paintings, posters, sketches) make it a useful book in addressing Common Core Curriculum standards. In addition, the author’s note, timeline, further readings, source notes, index, and other elements add to the quality of the text and its usefulness in student research.

Larry Dane Brimner is known for his well-researched, visually rich works of nonfiction for youth. Other titles include Birmingham Sunday, We Are One, and Black & White. Learn more about the author at http://brimner.com/.

This book would be an excellent addition to any nonfiction collection for youth.

Publisher ARC used for review

Website Resource: Our Documents

Looking for a way to talk with teachers about the Common Core? Start with primary source documents. Sit down together and work your way through the Our Documents website at http://www.ourdocuments.gov/