Skip to Main Content
  • See All Exhibits
American Writers Museum Exhibits
  • Join + Give

American Writers Museum Home

Th-M: 10am – 5pm
(All Hours)

  • See All Exhibits
  • Join + Give
footer-logo

Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Our downloadable lesson plans invite students to study primary sources from the Library of Congress’s digital collections to further their exploration of the writing process. Lesson topics in this collection include journaling, drafting, revising, editing, collaboration/corresponding, and publishing.

These lessons may be used individually or together in order to model the writing process. Our lesson plans are teacher-created and align with Common Core State Standards as stated in each lesson. For these lesson plans, the assumption is made that students can define what a primary source is and what an artifact is.

These lesson plans are part of Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials. Funded by a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials complements classroom writing instruction with activities using primary source materials from the Library of Congress’s digital collections that inspire, motivate, and empower students to write.

Download All Materials
Journaling Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Journaling: Rosa Parks (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will take part in two activities to better understand the first step of the writing process, journaling, by examining notes from Rosa Parks’s draft of her autobiography.
Download
Journaling Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Journaling: Walt Whitman (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will be able to see the value of journaling through critically analyzing a primary source from Walt Whitman and his finished product. Students will then also begin the journaling process.
Download
Journaling Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Journaling: Woodrow Wilson (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

In this 45-60 minute lesson, students will examine Woodrow Wilson’s handwritten speech notes for his Fourteen Points speech to further understand the journaling stage of the writing process.
Download
Drafting Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Drafting: Frederick Douglass (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will examine a chapter from Frederick Douglass’s autobiography draft to explore the author’s drafting process.
Download
Drafting Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Drafting: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will be able to compare and contrast two texts from different eras, one inspiring another and also acknowledge the importance of drafting as a part of the writing process.
Download
Drafting Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Drafting: Adding Sensory Details (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will explore a handwritten copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Village Blacksmith” to better understand the use and development of sensory details in writing.
Download
Drafting Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Drafting: Anecdotes (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will explore a manuscript from the John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax Papers to better understand the use of anecdotes in writing.
Download
Drafting Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Drafting: Mood in Poetry - 2-Part Lesson (Teacher Materials & Student Handouts)

Students will explore a corrected version of Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” to better understand the use of mood in poetry. Lessons can be used alone or together.
Download
Drafting Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Drafting: Character Development (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will examine Carl Sagan’s Contact draft to understand character development.
Download
Revision Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Revision: Frederick Douglass (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

In this lesson, students will examine a draft from Frederick Douglass to further understand the revision stage of the writing process.
Download
Revision Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Revision: Thomas Jefferson (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

In this 45-60 minute lesson, students will examine an early draft of the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson to further understand the revision stage of the writing process.
Download
Revision Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Revision: Clare Boothe Luce (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will explore Clare Booth Luce’s scene description of her play The Women to better understand the revision stage of the writing process.
Download
Revision Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Revision: Langston Hughes (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will examine drafts of Langston Hughes’s “Ballad of Booker T.” to further understand the revision stage of the writing process.
Download
Editing Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Editing: Langston Hughes (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will explore Langston Hughes’s “Ballad of Booker T.” to better understand the editing stage of the writing process.
Download
Collaboration and Correspondence Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Collaboration/Correspondence: Carrie Chapman Catt (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will be able to comprehend correspondence from two writers and draft a letter to a writer they admire/learned from.
Download
Collaboration and Correspondence Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Collaboration/Correspondence: Woody Guthrie (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will explore a letter from Woody Guthrie to Alan Lomax to better understand how writers collaborate to assist in each other’s writing process.
Download
Publishing Lesson
Exploring the Writing Process with Primary Source Materials

Publishing: Walt Whitman (Teacher Materials & Student Handout)

Students will explore Walt Whitman’s publishing proofs to better understand the relationship between an author, a published work, and the reader.
Download

Content created and featured in partnership with the TPS program does not indicate an endorsement by the Library of Congress.

footer-logo

LOCATION

American Writers Museum
180 N. Michigan Avenue, 2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60601

  • Visit the Museum
  • Join + Give
  • Online Gift Shop
  • Contact
  • Sitemap
  • Cookie Policy

Subscribe to Get the Latest Updates

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: American Writers Museum, 180 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 300, Chicago, IL, 60601, US, http://americanwritersmuseum.org. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact. Our Privacy Policy.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

© 2025 American Writers Museum Exhibits

  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
To The Negaunee Foundation Children’s Literature Gallery
To Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation Mind of a Writer Gallery

Back to top