Aguilar Library, 1938 - Librarian w/ students. Want to know more about our current educational initiatives? See From the Collections to the Classroom by NYPL President Tony MarxWe have just shuttered the doors on our first Education Innovation @ NYPL Summer Institute. During this three week Institute, master teachers from NYC (and further afar) met curators from our Research Divisions, explored our Archives, and connected with members of our Strategy Department—all with the intention of addressing how we can better identify materials from our collections for use in the classroom, and how we can better connect these materials to teachers. The New York Public Library offers some of the best collections in the world. Our Digital Collections alone encompasses more than 700,000 images including historical photos, political cartoons, maps, and more that you can explore digitally. The challenge for us becomes—how do we curate this wealth of material in an accessible and efficient way for classroom use, especially to help meet Common Core State Standards?
Over three weeks, August 5th-August 23rd, this is exactly what the Institute teachers did. Each teacher choose a research topic to build a lesson plan around, and then explored our archives to uncover primary source materials to enhance their knowledge and teaching of this topic. In some cases, teachers discovered forgotten treasures in the archives. The teachers then collected these primary source materials into curated lists alongside complimentary secondary source materials. The next step was turning these lists into Texts and Task Units for Lesson Planning. Over the next few weeks we will roll out blog posts written by the teachers on their topics, which include topic descriptions, suggestions for lesson planning, and downloadable Texts and Task Units for each topic with information on text complexity and text dependent questions. Until then, check out their amazing annotated lists of primary and secondary materials on the following topics for classroom use:
Classroom Connections: Lists for Lesson Planning (Gr. 6-12)Declaration of Independence - the documents, the signers, and the social and cultural history of the era—including many lesser known primary sources of the period such as colonial maps from both the British and French perspectives (Grades 9-12)
Double V Campaign: African Americans in World War II—Primary and secondary source resources describing the efforts of African-Americans to achieve victory in the war effort abroad, and in the civil rights struggle at home. This list gives particular focus to the role of the Pittsburgh Courier—then the highest circulating African American newspaper—in mobilizing this campaign, and in the role of women who joined the war effort through the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (Grades 9-12)
Grace Aguilar's American Journey - Did you know that the NYPL Aguilar Library, founded in 1886, is named for Grace Aguilar, a nineteenth century writer and feminist who never made it to the United States? Ever wondered, 'why?' This list gives teachers and students the resources to begin a common core-aligned research journey rebuilding the bridge between this influential nineteenth century figure (seen here on the right), and how and why her impact was still felt an ocean away in NYC more than 40 years after her death (Grades 11-12)
Latinos on Broadway - Resources to research Latino cultural contributions and developments to the American musical theater (Grades 9-12)
Reconstructing Reconstruction - A historical analysis of how twentieth century textbooks have changed in their teaching of Reconstruction. The list includes excerpts from early twentieth century textbooks and from more recent ones. Trends include the shift from the ‘Dunning’ school of thought – in which African Americans were seen as minimal or obstructionist players in Reconstruction – to the more modern view from the 1970s onwards, and the omissions in earlier textbooks of pivotal events, such as the Brooks-Baxter War in 1872 (on right) that ultimately led to the end of Reconstruction in Arkansas two years earlier than the rest of the country (Grades 11-12)
Kids in African-American Civil Rights Protests - describes three civil rights events in which children and young adults played pivotal roles including: the 1939 sit-in at the Alexandria, Virginia library; Claudette Covin's bus arrest in 1955 (nine months before Rosa Parks); and the Birmingham Children's March in 1963—also called the 'Children's Crusade' (Grades 6-8)
Immigration to Washington Heights, NYC: Immigration Then & Now - Using maps, first hand accounts, and secondary sources this collection of texts tracks changes over time in Washington Heights from the colonial period to present day (Grades 6-8)
Social Darwinism - A reading list for advanced high school students, or college students, on the historic use of Social Darwinism as a justification for European imperialism between 1871 and 1939; includes primary source materials on influential figures like Cecil Rhodes—founder of the Rhodes Scholarship, self professed beliver in the 'superior Anglo-Saxon race'—and the subject of this infamous political cartoon (on right) that depicted his vast colonizing plans for the African continent (Grades 10-12)
A Doll's House: A Social and Cultural History of the Era - Provides primary source historical background on women's lives as affected by property and marriage laws in the 19th century; commentary on women's education and role in society; and information on Norwegian feminists who influenced Ibsen. This list also looks at more recent responses to Ibsen's A Doll's House and sequels written to help explain the difficulty of a wife walking out on her husband and children as depicted in the play. (Grades 11-12)
Travel Journals and Depictions of the Mongol World - From Marco Polo to Ibn Battuta, this Social Studies list chronicles impressions of the Mongol imperial world as observed by early explorers (Grades 9-12)
African Americans and the American Revolution - Primary, secondary, and historical fiction titles (including Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson at right) representing African American participation in the American Revolution. List includes information on the social, political, and legal issues surrounding slavery, manumission, and military participation as a means towards emancipation at the time—from both the American and British perspectives; can be used for an English Language Arts (ELA) or Social Studies classroom (Grades 6-8)