Last week I conducted a webinar on teaching with primary sources. The Library of Congress is one of the resources that I always mention when discussing teaching with primary sources. The LOC has many excellent collections of primary source materials. To help students analyze primary source materials the Library of Congress offers analysis guides.

The LOC’s primary source analysis guide for students can be used online or offline. The format is the same either way. The format asks students to record observations (initial impressions), reflections, and questions about each primary source item.

Applications for Education
The LOC offers ten primary source analysis guides for teachers. The guides (available as PDFs) offer some guiding questions that you can ask students about maps, documents, images, sound recordings, political cartoons, and more.