Educational Resources at the National Archives Lesson plans The Digital Vaults “Democracy Starts Here” Archival Research Basics with the National Archives Lesson # 9 The National Archives and Records Administration Pacific Alaska Region Seattle, Washington & Anchorage, Alaska 9/1/2009

Other than this series of lessons, 9 billion primary source documents, ARC, AAD, online commercial website collaborations, ongoing and themed exhibits, scholarly articles, microfilm, microfiche, and helpful archivists and volunteers... what does the National Archives have specifically for educators online?

PLENTY! But we are only going to talk about a few of them here … Online resources Lesson plans The Digital Vaults “Democracy Starts Here” Local resources Pacific Alaska Region – –Anchorage – – Seattle

Online Resources

Most education resources can be reached from the main page at

NARA Lesson Plans Usually include Background Information Secondary Source Resources National Archives’ Documents National Standards Correlations Teaching Activities Document Analysis Worksheets Links to other websites, such as “Our Documents.”

Lesson Plans can be accessed by clicking the “educators and students” link

The other two each have their own link

Let’s start with Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans

We’ve seen these before. They are the great document analysis worksheets that we used in lesson 3.

The lesson plans are listed by historical era. Let’s look at an era to see what is available.

Two Convenient Classroom Resources Digital Vaults –Interactive pages for classroom use “Democracy Starts Here” –Ken Burns video explaining the National Archives and ways the documents have been used

Digital Vaults Can also be reached from the main page at: Interactive exhibit of nearly 1200 National Archives images Allows each participant to: –Search –Collect images on a topic –Keep a list of the images they have viewed –Play a game –Make a movie or poster

Don’t let the moving images confuse you. Just click here.

You will need to have a collection of images BEFORE you can create a poster or movie … so this is one of the things you should do early.

This lists everything you have looked at, even if you didn’t add it to your collection.

A game that teaches the relationships between related documents. You can either choose a “pathway,” or create one of your own.

You can either do a keyword search (using your own term) or search a list of topic tags.

Once you have a collection of images, you can make a poster or movie. (You can also choose from a pre-loaded topical group of images.) This can be saved online (using a password) or e- mailed to yourself or someone else.

Moves exhibit around so you can see the images.

Moves surrounding documents closer to center

You can focus further by selecting only the tags that apply to what you are looking for.

When you hit the tiny “enlarge” button …..

“Enlarge” gets you a lot more than an enlargement.

Democracy Starts Here A wonderful 6 minute video that gives your students a brief look at some National Archives records and how they have been used to A wonderful 6 minute video that gives your students a brief look at some National Archives records and how they have been used to – do a family history search for a man who turned out to be a teacher and activist, – find millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts deposited by holocaust victims, – do a patent search by the inventor of in-line skates, and – effect a Presidential apology for Japanese Internment camp residents.

Click on this page and it should take you directly there.

Local Resources

Regional Resources – Workshops in the regional facilities (by appointment) for teachers or students – Workshops in the regional facilities (by appointment) for teachers or students –Teaching American History grant partnerships – Support for National History Day – Professional development courses – Distance education for teachers, librarians and students by webinar and in lessons like these

Self-directed Study Find a lesson plan on that you can use in your classroom this year. Find a lesson plan on that you can use in your classroom this year. Make a short movie on Digital Vaults Make a short movie on Digital VaultsDigital VaultsDigital Vaults Watch Ken Burns’ short documentary, “Democracy Starts Here”,and think of one way it could be used in your classroom Watch Ken Burns’ short documentary, “Democracy Starts Here”,and think of one way it could be used in your classroom “Democracy Starts Here”, “Democracy Starts Here”,

Be aware! We will ask you, during your archival visit, about what you did, liked, and/or saw in our lesson plans, Digital Vaults, and how you will use the documentary in your classroom. We are excited to know the ways in which you will use our documents!

Need further direction? The National Archives at Anchorage 654 West Third Avenue Anchorage, AK The National Archives at Seattle 6125 Sand Point Way, NE Seattle, WA ASK US!