Learn how Diana Laufenberg, Executive Director and Lead Teacher for Inquiry Schools, uses the front pages of historical newspapers from Chronicling America to help students practice research and questioning skills and to expand understanding of the past.
Inquiry Schools: https://tpsconsortiumcreatedmaterials.org/organizations/inquiry-schools/
Transcript
The primary source that I chose for this particular activity was the Tulsa World front page from May 30th, 1921. It is one day prior to the Tulsa Race Massacre. And when I started the process of identifying front pages to investigate for this, I really started to think through what were some momentous events, both joyous and heinous, that have happened in American history. And May 30th, 1921 for Tulsa just jumped out at me as one of those days. And so that’s the primary source that I chose for this particular activity.
Just One Day is really a strategy I thought up as a teacher trying to parse a couple of different outcomes. One, having students investigate newspapers, media literacy, as well as get good content about historical timelines.
In order to use this strategy, you think about an interesting time, an interesting place. Head into the very lovely Chronicling America to see what pops up for your choices. Select a front page. Read through it for the articles and ads. And then think about what engaging questions your students can investigate as they go through that front page. Sometimes you could have them answer right there questions. Other times require further investigation. Then, you know, let your students chat it up. Do some class debrief and repeat with other topics as you see fit.
As time passes, I highly recommend that you pass the responsibility of locating the front pages onto students as they become more savvy with this particular activity, and allow them to then develop questions for their classmates.
This source is particularly good for analysis for a number of different reasons. One, it allows yourself to put in time and place a very pivotal moment in American history, and in addition, allows you to see what else was happening in that place in that time around the major events.
In this particular source, serendipitously, I located a tiny article that ties not only what was happening with the race massacre that was about to happen in Tulsa, but also with the Osage murders that were historically contemporary at that particular time. So sometimes you go into these looking for a particular outcome, and then you find other interesting connections to be made.
As I worked with teachers in this activity, there’s been really positive feedback. The elements of unknown, inquiry, and investigation are a potent combination for engagement and building knowledge. The skills and the content are equally balanced, and teachers have found this as an important feature of the activity.
Just One Day Activity Instructions
- Identify an interesting time.
- Connect that time to an interesting place.
- Use the very wonderful search function in Chronicling America to see what pops up.
- Select a front page that brings forward interesting stories that are known and also obscure.
- Read each of the front page articles and ads.
- Develop engaging questions that students can investigate. Some they need to be able to easily answer from the front page, others require some further investigation.
- Allow students to work through the questions and provocations with minimal teacher input. This would be a lovely partner activity.
- Students share their findings with each other and then the class debriefs.
- Repeat with other topics.
- As you use this more in your classroom, start to charge the students with locating a front page and developing the questions for their classmates.
References:
- https://www.loc.gov/item/87692752/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85042345/1921-05-30/ed-1/
- https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2025/06/just-one-day-using-a-newspaper-front-page-as-a-window-to-inquiry-and-research/
- https://tpsteachersnetwork.org/single-group/album/111315:just-one-day-using-the-front-page-as-a-window-to-inquiry-and-research
- https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85042345/1921-06-01/ed-1/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85042345/1921-06-01/ed-2/
- https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-tulsa-race-riots/selected-articles
- https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83030214/1921-06-04/ed-1/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/sn99063812/1921-06-01/ed-1/
- https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86056950/1921-06-11/ed-1/seq-1/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/2011661526/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/2017679760/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/91796047/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/2020743572/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/95519929/
