TPS Civics

Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) is the Library of Congress premier educational program, focused on helping educators enhance students’ critical thinking and analysis skills and content knowledge using the Library’s collections of millions of digitized primary sources.

The TPS Consortium extends the reach and use of the TPS program by creating curriculum and digital applications, delivering professional development to pre-and in-service teachers, and contributing to research on effective strategies for incorporating primary sources into K-12 instruction.

The Barat Education Foundation and a number of TPS Consortium partners are focusing on providing civics content. Descriptions and links to partner offerings are highlighted below.

MPT Case Maker features twenty pre-made civics challenges that teachers can share with their 6th-8th-grade students, or customize and annotate specifically for their needs. Civics! The MusicalFablevision Civics! An American Musical has students use Library primary sources to create a smash Broadway musical hit that is historically accurate and celebrates the power of ordinary citizens in creating change.

iCivics
DBQuest introduces students to major questions in civics and history using a Big Question as guiding light for deep examination of three selected primary sources from the Library. RRCHNM
George Mason University
Eagle Eye Citizen is a digital resource that helps middle and high school students think critically about Congress, civic participation, and American history using primary sources from the Library.
Indiana University CORG Engaging Congress is an interactive game that uses Library primary sources to explore the basic tenets of representative government and the challenges they face in contemporary society.
PBS NewsHour Extra
Journalism in Action is an interactive website for middle and high school students that has them analyzing Library primary sources to determine how culture-shifting events affected civic life.
Muzzy Lane Software Kid Citizen features episodes in which children interactively explore Congress and civic engagement through historical primary sources from the Library, connecting what they find with their daily lives.
Second Avenue Learning
Voices for Suffrage has students use Library primary sources to explore, replay, and engage with questions to learn about the tactics, arguments, key people, and historical events that led to women gaining the vote.