Now more than ever teaching history is fraught and resources are needed to address the particular difficulty prospective history teachers face in teaching potentially emotional topics. To this end, RRCHNM worked with historians and teacher education scholars to develop four resources for

pre-service teachers on the history of religion in the United States. These free online resources feature activities for students to engage with rich Library of Congress primary sources to better understand people in the past through evidence they left behind — to include the words they used, the songs they sang, the buildings they built, and many other sources. Activities outlined in the guides include having students use primary sources to develop digital projects such as digital story maps, multimedia exhibits, and presentations.

The guides seek to balance the competing requirements involved in teaching history in the present environment. They present structured and scaffolded classroom activities while also allowing for flexibility for teachers to support a wide variety of student learners. Each guide provides the necessary historical context for each topic and contains general tips for teaching challenging topics and well as specific ideas for approaching the history of religion in the classroom. The topics of the guides are Religion and the Civil War, Religion and the Labor Movement, Mormons and Westward Expansion, and the 1916 Children’s Code of Morality.

Another TPS project developed by RRCHNM is Eagle Eye Citizen. Eagle Eye Citizen engages middle and high school students in solving and creating interactive challenges about Congress, American history, civics, and government with Library of Congress primary sources in order to develop students’ civic understanding and historical thinking skills.