Featured Resources

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Frederick Douglass Newspapers Digital Collection from Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has digitized a number of its collections, making it accessible to the public at all times. These are great ways to get primary source documents into the hands of your students. Being in Rochester, today we highlight the collection of newspapers edited by Frederick Douglass.

These three papers were:

The North Star (Rochester, N.Y.), 1847-1851

Frederick Douglass’ Paper (Rochester, N.Y.), 1851-1860

New National Era (Washington, D.C.), 1870-1874

 

Frederick Douglass Digital Collection from the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has digitized a number of its collections, making it accessible to the public at all times. Being in Rochester, today we highlight the collection of papers from abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery and went on to become one of the most famous public speakers in the United States. The papers in this collection span the years of 1862 to 1865.

The collection is organized in the following series:

  • Diary. A single diary that Douglass kept during his tour of Europe and Africa, 1886-87.
  • Family Papers. A highlight is the biography of Anna Murray Douglass, Frederick Douglass’s wife of forty-four years, written by their daughter, Rosetta Douglass Sprague.
  • General Correspondence.  Includes letters Douglass received from prominent reformers and politicians, including Susan B. Anthony, Grover Cleveland, William Lloyd Garrison, Benjamin Harrison, Russell Lant, Gerrit Smith, and Ida B. Wells.
  • Subject File.  Reveals Douglass’s interests in diverse subjects such as politics, racial prejudice, and prison reform.
  • Speech, Article and Book File.  Contains the writings of Douglass and his contemporaries in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements and includes autographed copies of editorials and opinion pieces from Douglass’ antislavery weekly, North Star, and a partial handwritten draft of Douglass’s third autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
  • Financial Papers.  Includes bank books, receipts, checks, ledgers, contracts, stocks and bonds, and insurance policies.
  • Legal File.  Holds wills, deeds, mortgages, copyrights, lawsuits, and miscellaneous legal documents.
  • Miscellany.  Includes newspaper clippings and photographs.
  • Addition I.  Includes scrapbooks that document Douglass’s role as minister to Haiti and the controversy surrounding his interracial second marriage.

For further reading, our SORA account also has a number of books about the life of Frederick Douglass, a few copies of his autobiography, and a book about his friendship with Abraham Lincoln.

Susan B. Anthony Digital Collection from the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has digitized a number of its collections, making it accessible to the public at all times. Being in Rochester, today we highlight the collection of papers from suffragist, Susan B. Anthony. The papers in this collection span the years of 1846 – 1934.

A finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the Susan B. Anthony Papers is available online with links to the digital content on this site.

The collection is arranged in five series (though the last one is not available digitally as of yet):

Featured Resources: Images & The Smithsonian

There are a ton of images on the web, and if you need to use an image, you have to be very careful about where you get it. Pay attention to the licensing. If you’re not sure how to read the licensing, check out our LibGuide on Creative Commons. On the LibGuide, we explain the differences between copyright free and royalty-free. There is a link to the creative commons licensing explanations. We also include a list of sources for royalty-free photos.

In addition to these, you may have also heard, that the Smithsonian has released more than 2.8 million images that you can use for free. These will include 2D and 3D images. Find them here: https://www.si.edu/openaccess.

It is also worth checking out the Educator Resources on that same website. We will elaborate on this in future posts.

Teach with Primary Sources from the National Archives

To piggy-back off of yesterday’s post about the 19th Amendment, consider teaching with primary sources from 100 years ago, accessible through the National Archives website: archives.gov.

Don’t forget the amazing resources also at the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/women-fight-for-the-vote/about-this-exhibition/

See the actual 19th Amendment below, downloaded for free from the National Archives. Click to open the .pdf.

Celebrate 2020 with WXXI

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote, WXXI has developed a number of audio profiles accessible on their website.

See the list here: https://www.wxxi.org/wh/celebrate-2020-suffrage-moments-audio-profiles

These short audio clips are great for a quick introduction to a topic, to get students thinking and talking about suffrage, the voting rights of all citizens, and some of the issues that parts of America are faced with today.

Featured Resource: Free Stock Music

In addition to our vast collection of music and sound effects from Soundzabound, there is another free resource where you can find stock music. This is https://mixkit.co. When you click into the music section of the site, you are able to browse an array of various music clips. At the top, you can search for music with specific terminology, or you can filter the selection by Genre, Mood, or Tag. It’s a quick easy way to find music for your student films, podcasts, or stop motion videos.

If you’re using a video editor on a computer, you can also use Mixkit to download free stock video footage.

Featured Resources: Instructional Media

Monroe One BOCES offers educators in districts that participate in our Multimedia service the SAFARI Montage instructional video platform, and Learn360 videos.

To get there, go to: https://media.monroe.edu and log in with your Active Directory account (what you would normally use to log in to your school computer)

To help you think through how to use video in your classroom, read this Eduptopia article from March of last year about using video in the classroom: https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-video-content-amplify-learning. It lays out very clear tips for using video in your classroom (summarized below).

It’s important to have a clear purpose for using a film, documentary or news clip. Make sure you’re not just assigning a video to use up time.

Be purposeful when using video, such as:

  • Building background knowledge on a topic. Video is great for ELL students because they can pick up information using visual cues.
  • Enriching a text or text excerpt. Video can help students visualize a place, event or person.
  • Deepening or solidifying student learning. Giving students information in multiple modalities can help students learn more thoroughly.

Tips for using video:

  • Be selective. Pick the most dynamic and pertinent clips to illustrate your point. Use the chapters feature in SAFARI Montage
  • Provide a mission. “As you watch, pay attention to…” Setting a goal will keep students attentive.
  • Pause to ponder (and write)
  • Turn on closed captioning. Again, listening, while reading and using video images for visual clues are great multimodal ways for students to take in information.

Featured Resources for Music in Our Schools Month!

March is Music in Our Schools Month so it’s a perfect time to incorporate music into the library and collaborate with your music teachers.

We have lots of resources that can help you get started.

In SAFARI Montage:

How to Read Music – Grades 3-8: This educational program covers the basics of reading and understanding music. Colorful animations and graphics make learning simple and fun. The lessons cover staffs, pitch, scale, octaves, sharps, flats, rhythm and notes.

Bill Nye: The Science of Music – Grades 3-8: In this live-action, fast-paced program, Bill Nye the Science Guy explains how each musical note and every tone of each instrument is, in fact, a unique sound wave. Along the way, students will learn about the science behind getting the exact sound waves in the pattern desired. Features comedy, music videos, interviews with real scientists and hands-on experiments to make the concepts presented understandable and fun. Disney Educational Productions. c 1998 Disney.

Musical Devices in Poetry – Grades 6-12: This brief clip discusses the use of musical devices in poetry, including assonance, consonance, dissonance, onomatopoeia, caesura and repetition.

Math & Music: Beats and Notes – Grades 7 to Adult: Daily Planet, Discovery Channel Canada’s flagship science program, features daily news, discussion and commentary on the scientific aspects of current events. In this episode of Daily Planet, host Jay Ingram and a couple of musical guests discuss the mathematical underpinnings of musical beats.

Music as Language – Grades 7-Adult: This TED-Ed lesson by bassist Victor Wooten, accompanied throughout by his own guitar playing, discusses the language of music and how to learn and approach that language. As seen on YouTube.

Embedded within SAFARI Montage, Learn 360 also has a series about Music Around the World:

Introducing the Music of Africa: Music of the World: African music permeates the many diverse cultures across the continent. The legacy that African musical traditions have passed to contemporary musicians is rich and varied. From the iconic djembe drum to the distinctive a capella choir vocals, Africa’s music embraces many instruments and rhythms. This program presents a selection of music from the countries of Africa that have impacted movements such as blues, jazz, rock, and rap.

Introducing the Music of Mali: Music of the World: “Observe Niam, a boy from Mali, work to become a Jali, or folk musician. See him practice his instrument, a Kora, to prepare for a music competition. Follow him to the competition and listen to his winning song.”

Introducing the Music of India: Music of the World: Over thousands of years, music has woven through India’s rich culture. Though Indian music has changed and diversified, tradition remains strong. This program introduces the origins and cultural relevance of music in India. Indian Classical, Folk and Bollywood melodies and rhythms are discussed. Demonstrations of how to play widely used instruments – the bansuri, tanpura, sitar, tabla, and kinjira – will be of particular interest to music students.

Introducing the Music of Japan: Music of the World: Whether it’s the unique sounds of a Koto, Shamisen, Shakuhachi or Shinobue, or the pounding of traditional drums, Japanese music has evolved over centuries as an integral part of the nation’s rich culture. Featuring Shakuhachi performer Adam Simmons, Koto performer Brandon Lee and Japanese drummer Toshi Sakamoto, this video explores the history of Japanese music, its structures and a range of traditional instruments.