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Citizen Historian: Submitting Chronicling America Newspapers

Introduction

This Citizen Historian lesson teaches students to search on the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America website (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/), a repository of newspapers, for primary sources showing how people responded to the Lincoln assassination. After they find sources, students will submit them to the Remembering Lincoln website.

Note: We recommend that the teacher has introduced primary sources to the students before conducting this lesson. Here are some recommended sources for teaching an introduction to primary and secondary sources:

Guiding Questions

  • How did the different people in the United States and the world react to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln?
  • How do you find primary sources related to a specific event in history?

Objectives

  • Discover and analyze primary sources related to the Lincoln assassination
  • Summarize those sources
  • Share these findings at large

Standards

Procedure

Lesson Activity One: Introduction to Remembering Lincoln
Students are introduced to citizen history projects and the Remembering Lincoln website.
Lesson Activity Two: Research and Submission
Students use Chronicling America to find and submit articles related to Lincoln’s death.
Lesson Activity Three: Summary of Learning
Students use corporative graphing to identify connections between their sources. Read More »

Materials

External Resources

  • Grade Level

    9 to 12

  • Timeframe

    2 to 3 classes (45 min/period)

  • Class Subject

    History

  • Skills

    digital history, interpreting, primary sources, reporting/journalism, research, research structures

  • Teacher Information

    Krista McKim

    Rockville High School, Rockville, Maryland

    11

    English

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