Artifact for today is the use of Primary Resources in your writing and storytelling. As you can tell from some of my other posts, photographs speak volumes when it comes to telling a story. Letters and diaries lead us personally into stories from times past. With access to digital resources, we have rich databases to research from. Dig in!
Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html
The Dust Bowl Era has always perked my interest, probably because my grandparents lived through these hard times and shared so many stories with me. I teach a workshop entitled "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" and concentrate on photographs from that time period (from the Library of Congress archives). I share the photograph above and ask my participants to jot down any factual observations they can make. No inferencing is allowed at this time. I guide them into deeper observations through questions about their observations. Finally, I allow inferences to be made which allows emotions into the picture. What happens often is my participants don't always see the baby Florence Thompson (Migrant Mother) is holding in her lap. The observations, guiding questions always leads into more questions, awwww's, and "where can I find out more?"
Primary Resources that I have found to be quite valuable!
National Archives
Library of Congress
Digital Vaultshttp://www.digitalvaults.org
Making Sense of Documents - this includes historical songs
Authentic History Center - great place to locate pictures, documents, videos, audio productionsStories from the Smithsonian Institute
The Portal to Texas History - I have to put this resource in since I'm a Texan. I'm sure if you do a google search for your city, state, country, you'll be able to find fantastic sites.
Lone Star History Links
Historical Photographs and Documents from the Smithsonian
Dust Bowl Photographs
Dust Bowl Audio Files, Maps, Photographs- Listening to families tell about their hardships is amazing and insightful!
Library of Congress
Digital Vaultshttp://www.digitalvaults.org
Making Sense of Documents - this includes historical songs
Authentic History Center - great place to locate pictures, documents, videos, audio productionsStories from the Smithsonian Institute
The Portal to Texas History - I have to put this resource in since I'm a Texan. I'm sure if you do a google search for your city, state, country, you'll be able to find fantastic sites.
Lone Star History Links
Historical Photographs and Documents from the Smithsonian
Dust Bowl Photographs
Dust Bowl Audio Files, Maps, Photographs- Listening to families tell about their hardships is amazing and insightful!
What are some time periods in history that you are interested in?
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