Teaching with Primary Sources Partner Program (TPS)

Overview

<p>The TPS Regional program promotes the widespread, sustained and effective use of primary sources from the Library of Congress in K-12 classrooms by increasing access to the TPS program. Through this effort, hundreds of organizations from all 50 states, and the District of Columbia have enhanced their programming for educators. School districts, universities, cultural institutions, library systems and other educational organizations may apply for grants of up to $20,000 to incorporate TPS materials and methods into their existing education and professional development programs for pre and in-service teachers, librarians, and other K-12 educators.</p> <p>Grant recipients may use TPS funding to meet a variety of programmatic needs, including:</p> <ul> <li> Delivering online or face-to-face TPS workshops</li> <li> Embedding TPS materials and content into broader professional development programs</li> <li> Revising undergraduate or graduate course syllabi or curricula to include a TPS focus</li> </ul> <p>Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) is the Library of Congress premier educational program, focused on helping educators enhance students’ critical thinking and analysis skills and content knowledge using the Library’s collections of millions of digitized primary sources.</p> <p>The TPS program seeks to:<br> • Provide online and in-person primary source-based professional development programs nationwide;<br> • Enhance the ability of educators to design student-centered primary source-based learning experiences that use effective instructional practices;<br> • Increase standards-based learning experiences that improve student ability to critically analyze primary sources; and<br> • Build patronage of the Library’s digitized resources to expand the community of educators dedicated to the improvement of education through the use of primary sources.</p> <p>TPS Consortium members and regional grantees create professional development, curriculum and apps/online interactives designed to support educators’ ability to achieve some or all of the following goals.<br> • Goal 1 - Justify conclusions about whether a source is primary or secondary depending upon the time or topic under study<br> • Goal 2 - Describe examples of the benefits of teaching with primary sources<br> • Goal 3- Analyze a primary source using Library of Congress tools<br> • Goal 4 - Access teaching tools and primary sources from loc.gov/teachers<br> • Goal 5 - Identify key considerations for selecting primary sources for instructional use (for example, student needs and interests, teaching goals, etc.)<br> • Goal 6 - Access primary sources and teaching resources from loc.gov for instructional use<br> • Goal 7 - Analyze primary sources in different formats<br> • Goal 8 - Analyze a set of related primary sources in order to identify multiple perspectives<br> • Goal 9 - Facilitate a primary source analysis using Library of Congress tools<br> • Goal 10 - Demonstrate how primary sources can support at least one teaching strategy (for example, literacy, inquiry-based learning, historical thinking, etc.)<br>• Goal 11 - Create a primary source-based activity that helps students engage in learning, develop critical thinking skills and construct knowledge</p>