Using Primary Sources to Foster Difficult Dialogues 

With candidates screaming at political opponents on the television and state legislatures across the country introducing or passing laws on how teachers speak about race and racism (Schwartz 2021), students in K–12 Social Studies classrooms need effective models of...

All About Us

Note About This Unit: Our other units are particularly geared toward middle and high school courses. This unit reminds us that younger grade levels can also discover, interpret, and represent new learning through primary sources. Starting with themselves, students...

Thinking Geographically with Museum Collections

Thinking Geographically with Museum Collections is a lesson activity by Michelle Kelly that encourages students to think about migration and its effects on individuals, communities, and places while also reflecting on their family stories of migration. Using primary...

Gateways to Folklife and Oral History Sources

Vermont Folklife, much like museums, libraries, and historical societies, often serves as a bridge between schools and other learning spaces that want to bring community members and their life experiences into their classrooms. We have learned over time that these...

User Guide to Teaching with Folk Sources

Teaching with Folk Sources offers an inquiry-based set of lessons and learning activities. We define some frequently used terms highlighted in green throughout this introduction. Ethnography: A study of culture and cultural processes that uses multiple ways to...