TeachRock Awarded Library of Congress Grant

TeachRock is the incredibly proud recipient of the Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative Teaching With Primary Sources Grant, presented by the Library of Congress.

With support through the Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative, TeachRock will expand its current history offerings to create a complete 10th-11th grade, Common Core and NCSS standards-aligned American History course utilizing materials from across the Library of Congress’s collection and hosted on TeachRock.org. Titled “The Rock and Soul of America: A People’s Musical History of the United States,” the course will cover American History from 1865 to the present.

The course will be unique in that it privileges music as the primary source for historical inquiry, and uses the Library of Congress’s Observe-Reflect-Question methodological framework as a means of developing historical thinking skills within students.

Through analyzing music as a primary source in historical inquiry, students will come to understand the ways “everyday” citizens were able to alter the trajectory of American history (for example, though the Labor Movement or Civil Rights movement), and come away inspired by the possibility that they too have the ability to contribute to U.S. society in meaningful ways.

TeachRock has partnered with Maryland Public Television to create professional development resources and educator materials to support and promote The Rock and Soul of America curriculum. Digital assets and resources will be designed and developed for dissemination across multiple platforms, including MPT’s education portal, Thinkport.org, and integrated in national outreach activities. Resources will include videos and interactive, self paced modules focused on effective instructional methods using the curriculum, inquiry-based learning with arts-focused primary sources, and integrating creativity and the arts in academic interdisciplinary lessons.

The grant also enters TeachRock into the Library of Congress’s Teaching With Primary Sources Consortium, a group of partner organizations that collaborate to design and deliver programs that promote learning with Library of Congress resources in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.