This lesson introduces students to searching American Memory for primary documents relating to The Adventures of Huck Finn and life along the Mississippi River from 1850–1900. Searching the Collection will be modeled as a whole group activity first, then will be followed by students breaking into small groups to search various collections within American Memory. Students will be expected to use skills learned from Lesson One to gather documents that relate to issues in The Adventures of Huck Finn. 

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Objectives	The learner will: use online resources to locate and study documents concerning Mississippi River life during Twain's time. critically evaluate information sources for reliability, accuracy, perspective, relevancy and authoritativeness. understand culture and life around Hannibal during Twain's time.
Time Required	3–4 hours
Recommended Grade Level	Grades 9–10
Curriculum Fit	Language arts, American literature, information literacy, American history, sociology, music
Resources Used	Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870–1885 Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991 Map Collections Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880–1920

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Procedure

1. Introduce American Memory—what it is, who maintains it, features of the website.
2. Demonstrate how to navigate American Memory, briefly showing the types of collections on the site.
3. Demonstrate features and specifics of collection search pages.
4. Discuss keyword and synonym selection of terms that might yield desirable results when searching for documents relating to the topic.
• Have students brainstorm as a large group terms that could be used.
• Record terms on large paper for referring to while searching.

5. Students break into small groups to search for information relating to Hannibal or what was happening between 1850 and 1900 along or near the Mississippi River. Students will use the analysis worksheets to review information found and compile their observations and conclusions. Sample search “found sources” are listed below.
• Map Analysis Worksheet
• Photograph Analysis Worksheet
• Sheet Music Analysis Worksheet
• Sample Results
• Map of Hannibal, MO
• Photograph of Hannibal, MO
• Sheet Music—Huckleberry Finn

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Evaluation

Evaluate by observing how easily students navigate and search the site.