The TPS Program
Since 2004, the Foundation has been a consortium member of the grant-funded Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program which has the mission to: build awareness of the Library’s educational initiatives; provide content that promotes the effective educational of the Library’s resources; and offer access to and promote sustained use of the Library’s educational resources. In accordance, the Foundation supports several inter-connected initiatives.
Citizen U lessons integrate inquiry-based civics across core curriculum disciplines—English language arts, math, science, and social studies—in elementary, middle, and high school grades. The original core lessons were developed by the Foundation in collaboration with the Constitutional Rights Foundation and DePaul University’s Office of Innovative Professional Learning and were designed to inculcate a wide variety of skills necessary for success in the 21st century, including collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, information literacy, communication, leadership, social responsibility and, of course, civic literacy itself.
The lesson library continues to grow as we add links to lessons and resources that support multidisciplinary civics-focused inquiry-based learning with primary sources.
Citizen U Primary Source Nexus
This popular education site helps facilitate access to and understanding of teaching with primary sources from the Library of Congress. It contains curated sets of Library primary sources, learning and teaching resources, and news and opportunities from TPS consortium members across the country.