Notes from the Field highlights practical lessons from the front lines of teaching with primary sources in thematic series of open peer-reviewed articles. These short articles explore the theory and practice of teaching with primary sources, broadly relating topics to educators and practitioners from all types of institutions, teaching all kinds of students. Currently, Notes from the Field offers articles in two series: Practical How-To and Reflective Practice.
Reflective Practice Series
The Reflective Practice Series provides a space for thinking about our teaching in a broader context. Articles may relate to successes and failures in the classroom, or any other aspect of teaching with primary sources and how it relates to cultural heritage fields at large.
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 offer sessions that introduce students to our repositories, present show-and-tell ...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 as they imagine the texture of the conical curls on ...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 like to teach a Latin American studies class that was ...
More from the Reflective Practice Series…
Practical How-To Series
The Practical How-To Series offers advice and instructions that are directly applicable to any classroom environment. From document camera usage to communication strategies, learn more about how your colleagues approach their work in the classroom.
Teaching without Walls
By Ron McColl / The pandemic and the institutional mandates accompanying it have posed unique challenges for special collections librarians and archivists who teach with primary sources. At West Chester ...Building a Toolkit for Synchronous and Asynchronous Delivery of Primary Source Literacy Instruction, Now and Post-Covid-19
By Michaela Ullmann / In my role as Instruction Coordinator for Special Collections at the USC Libraries, I oversee our Primary Source Literacy Instruction Program through which we currently teach ...Structured Close Looking: Modifying a Primary Source Analysis Activity for Asynchronous & Synchronous Remote Teaching
By Blake Spitz / Teaching primary source analysis is a major component of my job as an archivist and educator and often the focus of one-shot instruction for undergraduate students ...