Professional Development Conferences For Teachers

Access recordings from the Library of Congress first online conference for educators that took place October 27-28, 2015

Education experts and subject matter specialists presented 15 different sessions discussing resources and teaching strategies for using primary sources in the classroom. Each session was recorded and certificates are available for a limited time to those who view the recordings. You must register to view the recordings.

Register for individual sessions by selecting titles below.

Listen to renowned photographer Carol Highsmith speak with in a conversation with Chief of the Library's Prints and Photographs Division, Helena Zinkham. Explore the reaches of Highsmith's archive as she discusses her work and her motivation for dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright-free access.

During this interactive session, participants will learn how to use free online assessments designed by the Stanford History Education Group that incorporate documents from the Library of Congress's archives. Participants will examine assessments, rubrics, and sample student responses.

Strengthen teaching by incorporating primary sources to build student literacy skills while also engaging them, increasing content knowledge and promoting inquiry. This session shares examples of instructional strategies which use diverse and thoughtfully selected primary sources to develop understanding, academic language and fluency, freeing students to focus on content!

Explore what the Library of Congress has for teachers, including lesson plans and primary source sets, webinars and professional development opportunities, social media channels, and more. Share your top tips and favorite resources, and learn from others.

This session will model how to use visible thinking strategies to enhance the power of primary sources in your classroom. A wide variety of easy-to-use routines will be introduced. Two educators will provide examples of how they have used these routines with primary sources to help students learn to think and think to learn.

As educators, we have answered the question: Why inquiry? This session will engage participants in answering the question: Why use primary sources during inquiry? We will investigate ways that primary sources bring inquiry alive in our students: creation of intellectual space, building authentic connections to the real world, integration of inquiry skills, and the development of empathy.

This interactive session will explore the Stanford History Education Group's Reading Like a Historian curriculum and the research behind this free online resource. Participants will examine a sample lesson plan and consider how to implement these materials in their classrooms.