Printing Press mural in Evolution of the Book series, John W. Alexander.About this image

Lesson Plan
The Evolution of the Book: Introducing Students to Visual Analysis

Preparation

Have the necessary materials ready before the activity:

Primary Source Analysis Tool (PDF/79KB) (print two copies for each student; plus six additional copies for student reporters)
“Guiding Questions” (PDF/19KB) (print six copies for student guides)
“The Cairn” (PDF/306KB) (print three copies)
“Oral Tradition” (PDF/339KB) (print three copies)
“Hieroglyphics” (PDF/283KB) (print three copies)
“Picture Writing” (PDF/345KB) (print three copies)
“Manuscript Book” (PDF/333KB) (print three copies)
“The Printing Press” (PDF/365KB) (print three copies)
“Thinking about Images” (PDF/54KB) (print one copy for each student)
Chart paper or whiteboard
Magnets/tape for posting printouts on the board
Computer projection screen for showing images from the Library’s Web site (Option: project images using overhead projector.)

Download the Adobe Acrobat Reader

Before leading students through this lesson, teachers should be familiar with the following Library of Congress resources:

Online versions of the mural images:

Additional resources:

Bang, Molly. Picture This: How Pictures Work. New York: Little Brown and Company, 1991.
Evans, Joy and Tanya Skelton. How to Teach Art to Children. Monterey, CA: Evan-Moor Publishers, 2001.
Marshall, Blaine and Alexander Hovan. The Thomas Jefferson Building, The Library of Congress. Washington: The Library of Congress, 2003.
Small, Herbert. Handbook of the Library of Congress in Washington. Boston: Curtis and Cameron, 1913.