The Teachers Page is a resource designed to help teachers and other educators
incorporate primary source materials, including those in American Memory, into the classroom. The Teachers Page includes lesson plans, primary source sets, and other resources related to poetry which are listed below.
Teachers Page Poetry Resources
Activities offer an interactive, "hands on" experience and focus on a specific topic, rather than broad themes. They require teacher direction, but invite students to participate.
Making Connections Through Poetry
In this activity, students analyze primary source documents from the Library of Congress, then share their understanding through the illustrated poems they create.
Review the Arts & Humanities section of each Collection Connection that has teaching resources for possible ideas about how to incorporate American Memory collections into a literature or poetry lesson.
Poetry lesson plans featured on this page include:
1900 America: Historical Voices, Poetic Visions
(Grades 10-12) Students work in groups to express themselves creatively through a multi-media epic poem.
Enhancing a Poetry Unit with American Memory
(Grades 7-9) Students create poetry based on the language found in Depression Era oral histories.
Sea Changes: A Study of New England History
(Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12) Students study photographs, maps and interviews with two New England fishermen of the early 20th century, construct "found poetry", and research in Thomas to understand legislation restricting the fishing industry.
NOTE: A number of other Web sites serve as excellent gateways to free lesson plans. These include:
Presentations look across the American Memory collections to investigate curricular themes. They include historical background, helping to tell the story behind the theme.
Lyrical Legacy helps teachers explore eighteen American songs and poems from the digital collections of the Library of Congress. Each song and poem is represented by an original primary source document, along with historical background information and, in many cases, sound recordings and alternate versions.
Presentations and Activities
Multimedia resources from the Library of Congress that support instruction about literature and poetry. These resources include expert presentations, exhibitions, bibliographies, Webcasts, and other online materials
Literature and Poetry
Multimedia resources from the Library of Congress that support instruction about literature and poetry. These resources include expert presentations, exhibitions, bibliographies, Webcasts, and other online materials.
Primary Source Sets
Sets of selected primary sources on specific topics, available as easy-to-print PDFs. Also, background material and tools to guide student analysis.
Using primary source texts on a variety of subjects, students select words to retell the historical content in poetic form.
The Harlem Renaissance
Photographs, authors' drafts, sheet music, an audio recording, and newspaper articles let students explore the artistic and literary legacy of the Harlem Renaissance.
A list of terms that may be useful when searching for items related to this poetry and literature in the Library's digital collections.