Teaching Strategy: Education Related Primary Sources on the Internet : The official site of Colonial Williamsburg

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Education Related Primary Sources on the Internet

A young gentleman writing Noah Webster (1757–1843) is best known as the author of the American Dictionary . But in 1783, he also wrote The First Part of the Grammatical Institute of the English Language. This text, renamed The American Spelling Book in 1787, is significant because it recognized that American children needed to be taught to speak, read, and write using lessons with words and subject matter that was familiar to them. The American Spelling Book was the first truly American textbook series. Webster's work was remarkable for its integration of all things “American” rather than European or English. His textbooks included 1) words in common use and of practical value to American students and foreign-born persons, 2) a geography section with the names of American states and their capitals, counties, and towns, and 3) “A Chronological Account of Remarkable Events in America” from 1492 until 1783. Realizing the importance of the relationship between young scholars and the day-to-day world about them made a dramatic difference in their interest and ability to learn.

Since Noah Webster's day, many changes have been made in educational materials and teaching techniques. One example of an instructional method Webster found useful in teaching spelling was a scholarly competition known as a “spelling bee.”

The following Web sites offer a wide variety of materials concerning the history of education or the use of primary sources in the classroom. Do some investigating and see what great resources you can find… but most of all, enjoy exploring history with your students!

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
http://www.history.org/history/teaching/classroom_plans.cfm
Several interdisciplinary lesson plans for use in the classroom.

The Henry Ford
http://www.thehenryford.org/explore/resources.asp
The Henry Ford museum site offers materials about a colonial family, a community activity, timelines, and other teacher lesson materials.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/index.html
The Gilder Lehrman Institute offers a growing variety of resources to assist teachers and students. The Institute has pioneered new models of history schools and programs, with proven success in improving academic achievement. It offers professional development opportunities for educators, provides documents and exercises for classroom use, and encourages excellence in student writing with essay prizes.

Gettysburg College Special Collections
http://www.gettysburg.edu/library/specoll
The Gettysburg College Special Collections site contains a number of primary sources from early America. To increase the number of people who have access to these documents, they are being made available electronically and in their original format.

Gettysburg College, History 341: Colonial America Homepage
http://www.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/his341/colonialamer.htm
This is an example of a Gettysburg College history class' use of the Special Collections materials relating to colonial education.

Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/speccoll.html
The Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia consists of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Georgiana Collection, and the University of Georgia Archives and Records Management. The Library serves the University scholarly community, as well as scholars and researches worldwide. Subject interests include Georgia, Book Arts, Theater, Music, History, Literature, Journalism, and Genealogy.

American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/
The American Memory site at the Library of Congress is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.

Old Sturbridge Village
http://www.osv.org/
The Old Sturbridge Village web site. The “Learn about the Past” section includes many primary sources. The documents in this database are primarily about life and events in New England during the early years of the American nation (1790s–1840s). Most of the documents are from the collections of Old Sturbridge Village.

Early American Paintings in the Worcester Art Museum
http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/
Early American Paintings in the Worcester Art Museum includes biographies of twenty artists, detailed entries on fifty-three paintings, and checklist information on twenty-four additional works. Each of the seventy-seven works is illustrated. This catalogue encompasses all of the paintings in the museum's collection that were created prior to 1830 by artists who were either born or active in America, including works painted abroad by those artists.

School: The Story of American Public Education
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/index.html
This is the companion Web site for the PBS series of the same name. Of particular interest is the “Evolving Classroom” section with information about education and the classroom “then” and “now.”

Project Gutenberg: The Online Books Page
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=1489
A wonderful searchable index. A search for "McGuffey" yields transcriptions of the 1st and 4th McGuffey Readers.

Nineteenth-Century Children and What They Read
http://www.merrycoz.org/kids.htm
An interesting site dealing with many aspects of nineteenth-century children's readings. A transcription of Webster's American Spelling Book is at http://www.merrycoz.org/books/spelling/SPELLING.HTM.

This article was written by Frances Burroughs, Associate Producer–Educational Media, Department of Education Outreach, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.