Teaching with Colorado's Historic Newspapers
K-12 Educator Forum June 25, 2005 University of Denver

Mary Johnson's Help Sheet | Classroom Project Ideas | Online Search Strategies Worksheet
Bloom's Taxonomy | Essential Questions | Media Analysis Form

Before Lesson Planning

• Let your curiosity be a guide. One piece of trivia can lead to many more questions, and questions are the essence of primary sources.
  
  
• Try to recall events or themes between 1859 and 1924.
  
  
• Although Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection is strong in Colorado history, you do not have to limit your searches to Colorado. It is also rich in references to national and world events.
  
  
• In addition to historical events, look for cultural clues such as cooking, want ads, travel, fashion, merchandising, entertainment, and local news and gossip.
  
  
• Be smart about choosing keywords. Think old newspapers!
  
  
• Look at a minimum of five articles from your keyword searches. Learn from your results, and revise keywords as necessary.
  
  
• Read through the teaching guides from the Colorado Heritage Web site.
  
  
• Study several of the lesson plans from the Colorado Heritage Web site as well as those posted on the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection page for teaching ideas.

Planning Lessons

• Look for barriers to understanding: vocabulary, lack of historical background, unfamiliar geography and names. What strategies will help your students overcome these barriers?
  
  
• Differentiate instruction to reach a range of learners effectively. One tactic is to find a range of articles written on different levels but on similar topics.
  
  
• Depending upon the amount of time you have for a lesson or unit, you have two choices for finding articles:
  
  
  • You as the teacher or librarian can pre-identify relevant articles and print them for distribution to a class. This takes your time.
    
    
  • You can model a keyword, issue, or date search, then direct the students to find relevant articles. This takes class time.
    
    
• Just as you enjoy browsing through newspapers to find surprising gems and intriguing stories, so might your students enjoy open-ended searching.
  
  
• The more time you give students for searching, the more the collection will become part of their own "bag of tricks" for future learning.
  
  
• Remember, every primary source can generate fascinating questions and follow-up research. Help your students ask great questions on their way to becoming historical detectives.
  
  
• What secondary sources could students use to research and explain topics?

Search Hints for Teachers, Librarians, and Students

• If you are searching for a person's name, place it in quotation marks: "Susan B. Anthony"
  
  
• The search software is not an engine like Google. It is only trying to match your keywords with a picture of those keywords in very old text.
  
  
• If you're frustrated, check your spelling, try a different keyword, think like your grandmother or great grandfather, try searching all in lower case, or scan the entire newspaper issue. Try to learn from the results you do find.
  
  
• Read through the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
  
  
• If you have trouble finding the beginning or end of an article, try the "Show Full Page" icon in the results list.
  
  
• Be aware that many of the newspapers were published (and digitized) for very short periods. You won't find a complete history of Colorado Springs between 1873 and 1878, but you will find fabulous articles from the early days of the city. Click on "What's Here" to find the date ranges in the database.

Classroom Management Issues

• When technology is involved, always have a back-up plan. Think hard copies!
  
  
• Unless your students understand and have the software for copying and pasting from .pdf files, it is difficult to make a lesson with Colorado's Historic Newspapers into an all-electronic portfolio assignment.
  
  
• If the students are using computers with a version of Acrobat Reader that offers a selection tool, you can teach them to select "View Item in PDF" from the dropdown menu, then select, copy, and paste the .pdf file into another application such as Word or PowerPoint.
  
  
• For longer articles or articles that continue on another page, you need to teach students how to choose "Full Page View" or to turn pages in a single newspaper issue.
  
  
• When printing, it is sometimes best to choose "landscape" view.
  
  
• Consider asking students to work in pairs, especially when they are new to the software.
• Some articles with long columns do not print continuously. The continuation of a column might print on a second or third sheet of paper.
  
  
• Rather than ask students to print articles, some teachers ask them to quote relevant passages in a Word document or handwritten form.
  
  
• When teachers stress that their students are "historical detectives," the students are less likely to become irritated or frustrated by illegible difficult-to-read text.
  
  
• The software sometimes freezes when students click too hastily or multiple times. Again, encourage patience. Advise students to click once and WAIT! Some of the newspaper files are quite large, so give them time to load.
  
  
• It is possible to use Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection effectively in the one-computer classroom with a projector or television monitor hook-up.