TPS Collective

TPS Community Calls

Discussion-driven or presentations, these regular Zoom calls are responsive to the current needs of those in the TPS Community.

Notes from the Field

Highlights practical lessons from the front lines of teaching with primary sources in thematic series of open peer-reviewed articles.

Sandbox Sessions

Participant-driven sessions for people to get exposure & practice with teaching tools, tech, virtualizing, lesson run-throughs, etc.

Teaching Tools Library

An ever-growing set of resources useful for teaching with primary sources.

What is the TPS Collective?

The Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Collective is you! If you are interested in teaching with primary sources, you are part of the TPS Community. Your presence is your qualification. This website is a resource by and for volunteers in the TPS Community — look for places you’d like to help improve or add upon and we can work together to make it happen to benefit all of us!

Browse Lessons, Activities & Latest News

Newest Submissions

TPS Tech Tools Sandbox Sessions

Keep visiting this page for updates on what tools we’ll be practicing with next: https://bitly.com/TPSSANDBOX What’s a sandbox session? With the help of a session facilitator, we’re exploring some of …

Building Community in TPS - A Conversation

Events & Opportunities / Unconferences

Teaching with Primary Sources Unconference 2020 – July 22 and August 13 (half-days)

Do you Teach with Primary Sources, or want share and learn with other like-minded people with all levels and types of experience? Come join your colleagues for an informative and …

Notes from the Field / Reflective Practice Series

First Time with the First-Years

By Christie Lutz / Archivists and special collections librarians who provide instruction at the undergraduate level are experts in the “one-off” class. Often at the request of teaching faculty, we …

Notes from the Field / Reflective Practice Series

Thinking about Object-based Teaching and Learning

By Rachel M. Straughn-Navarro, PhD / The Medicine Buddha is an artwork that makes viewers move around it to look at it from different angles or rub their fingers together …

Notes from the Field / Practical How-To Series

Space and Place in Special Collections Instruction

By Juli McLoone / The physical attributes of a classroom can seem invisible, merely the background against which the action takes place. However, just as the layout of a website …

Notes from the Field / Practical How-To Series

Plug-and-Play Instruction Modules

By Cynthia Bachhuber / Those of us who teach with primary sources may feel like we operate in a very specialized arena. Our class sessions seem necessarily unique to each …

Notes from the Field / Reflective Practice Series

Learning to teach: Impacts of instruction internships on early career librarians

By Rachel Makarowski / Imagine this: you are a professional, full-time librarian for the first time. It is your second day at work, and you’ve just been asked if you’d …

Assessment Tools / Guidelines Toolkit

Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy Rubric

Assessment of Learning Objectives The Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy present broad learning objectives which are intended to “be used as a whole or in part depending on particular learning …

Guidelines Toolkit / Tools for Educators

Lesson Planning Step-by-Step

This post outlines in brief the process for planning a lesson using principles of backward design and gradual release of responsibility, two widely accepted instructional approaches. Goal conversation. What do …

Guidelines Toolkit / Tools for Educators

A Lesson Plan Template

ABOUT THIS TOOL: This template is designed to encourage instructors to plan instructional sessions that derive from their instructional objectives, also known as “backward design.” An example lesson follows the …

Guidelines Toolkit / Rolling Out the Guidelines

Rolling Out the Guidelines

Tips for rolling out the Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy at your home institution. Host a reading group ‒ Invite members of your department or institution to read the Guidelines …

Lesson Plans

Learning History by Doing History

Submitted by Alison Stankrauff Archivists interested in establishing relationships and collaborations with history instructors to foster teaching with primary sources should assess their archive’s collections considering the following four criteria: …

Featured Tools / Teaching Tools

TPS Community Calls

Notes from the Field

Sandbox Sessions

Teaching Tools Library

What is the TPS Collective?

Browse Lessons, Activities & Latest News

Newest Submissions

TPS Tech Tools Sandbox Sessions

Teaching with Primary Sources Unconference 2020 – July 22 and August 13 (half-days)

First Time with the First-Years

Thinking about Object-based Teaching and Learning

Space and Place in Special Collections Instruction

Plug-and-Play Instruction Modules

Learning to teach: Impacts of instruction internships on early career librarians

Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy Rubric

Lesson Planning Step-by-Step

A Lesson Plan Template

Rolling Out the Guidelines

Learning History by Doing History

Teaching Tools Library Feature: TeachArchives.org

Call for Contributions for Notes from the Field

Teaching Tools Library Feature: Active Learning while Physically Distant

Social Hour! (TPS Community Call, December 17, 2020)