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Program Teachers

TPS Consortium

The TPS Consortium currently includes more than 250 partner organizations and reaches all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Consortium members share ideas, information, and materials, and in many cases collaborate on the design and delivery of TPS projects.

TPS Consortium partners represent several broad types of educational organizations, including colleges and universities, non-profits, cultural institutions, libraries, state agencies, professional associations, public school districts, and advocacy organizations.

TPS Consortium members use Library of Congress online collections to teach subjects like rural history, civics, ethnic studies, journalism, writing, urban education, geography, STEM, and more. They offer professional development workshops and academic courses; write curricula others can adapt to use with their own students and participants; and create online apps and online interactives that teach concepts, develop analysis skills, and unleash creativity.

Current partners target learner populations that include members of African American, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, preschoolers and K-12 students, classroom teachers and college professors, artists, musicians, English Language Learners, persons with disabilities, and veterans, among others. This diversity allows the Library to better reach its mission to engage, inspire, and inform by engaging communities across the country with TPS methods and materials.

TPS Consortium Goals

The Library’s goals for the TPS Consortium are:

  • Consortium members are instrumental in designing and disseminating a national TPS program
  • Consortium members deliver TPS programming, materials, and tools that effectively meet the educational needs of diverse learner communities
  • Consortium members are good stewards of government funds and resources

Further, TPS Consortium members:

  • Identify the learning needs of populations of learners for which Library of Congress online resources can provide critical information, skills, and perspectives
  • Devise methodology and strategies for teaching a variety of subjects
  • Create and deliver TPS programming, materials, and tools based on Library of Congress online resources
  • Reflect on the success of their TPS activities through formal and informal data gathering
  • Modify TPS programming, materials, and tools when necessary, based on feedback
  • Disseminate curricula, instructional materials, and tools developed under the grant through existing networks of subsidiary and partner organizations
  • Meet regularly with other Consortium members to share information and develop strategies for teaching with Library of Congress online resources

TPS Participant Learning Goals

In addition to TPS Consortium goals, the Library has the following goals for participants of TPS grant project activities, regardless of event type or learner population:

  1. Determine whether a source is primary or secondary depending on the time or topic under study. Participants understand the value and role of both primary and secondary resources in their learning.
  2. Understand the benefits of learning with primary sources. Participants understand the value of learning with primary sources for their specific learning, community, or work settings.
  3. Access primary sources and related materials from loc.gov that support specific learning goals. Participants know how to search loc.gov to find primary sources and other materials of interest.
  4. Use Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool and Teacher's Guides to observe, reflect, and question primary sources. Participants gain experience using the Library of Congress primary source analysis tool and teacher's guides.
  5. Identify key considerations for selecting primary sources based on learner needs, interests, goals, and desire to create. Participants can select Library of Congress primary sources that support their goals.
  6. Understand how to review and apply copyright information. Participants know how to find and correctly use copyright information presented on loc.gov.
  7. Apply citation guidelines when using primary sources and other materials from loc.gov. Participants know how to apply citation guidelines to the materials they use in the products they create, as an information literacy strategy.
  8. Analyze primary sources in multiple formats. Participants have experience analyzing various formats, for example, text, photographs, maps, audio, video, images, cartoons, newspaper articles, etc.
  9. Compare and contrast related primary sources to identify multiple perspectives. Participants analyze primary sources representing different opinions and perspectives on the same topic.
  10. Develop inquiry, historical thinking, and literacy skills with primary sources. Participants develop the ability to use primary sources to promote their inquiry, development of historical thinking, and literacy skills.