My Take
This is great resource for finding primary source historical documents. The language of old documents can be difficult for many students, but with teacher support and scaffolding the text can provide a greater amount of depth and perspective to historical events. There are a variety of other kinds of resources beyond the traditional government documents, including personal journals, photographs, etc.
How I Use It
I would use this for close and critical reading activities connected to social science. The documents and photographs available in the Archives can also be used for student-driven inquiry projects into historical topics.
More community reviews for National Archives
Jay G.
Islamic Academy of Alabama
Birmingham, AL
Kris H.
Instructional Technology Specialist
Coraopolis, PA
November 9, 2015
Authoritative Resource for Teachers & Students
I really like all of the resources the National Archives provides, especially the high quality primary source documents. The lesson plans are organized in a way to engage students and to help them learn. The search tool can take some time to get comfortable with, but it gives you access to a lot of great and unexpected resources.
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Mary A.
Former Literacy Coach/Staff Developer, Current Teacher Consultant with the Great Valley Writing Project, a California Writing Project Site and an Affiliate of the National Writing Project
November 13, 2014
Great site to locate additional, possibly obscure information on an already narrowed topic
I liked the sheer volume of information about a single topic. It is comparable to the Internet Public Library, except that the information is not as easy to locate if the researcher has not narrowed the topic. I suspect this is because this national site has far more sources. Students will need to access this site with a specific knowledge of what they're looking for; they'll have to narrow their topic first; otherwise, they might be overwhelmed by the volume of information. This is not a site to search for a general topic. It is a great place to access additional information on an already narrowed topic.
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