EDU 375: Teaching Elementary Social Studies

Here are the notes from this past week in class:

In class we began to discuss Zinn's Chapter 1.

When thinking about the assigned reading from Zinn and Bigelow, it is apparent that multiple perspectives are often left out when teaching students historical information. It is critical that we as teachers work to identify the multiple perspectives that people had during historical moments and include those perspectives in lessons. The term multiple perspective means that there is more than one way of viewing (observing, interpreting, understanding, experiencing) a situation or event that has happened. Perspectives other than our own often go unidentified and the perceiver that holds power in a society (having a particular race, class, gender, religion) often identifies his/her understanding as "the truth" and history is then written from that bias. Understanding this helps us as teachers to work toward revealing the multiple perspectives (truths) that people had throughout history.

It is important to challenge what looks like the "official version" of history. Some people are represented in history while others are often omitted. Questioning the sources of information that we as teachers use for references and those texts we offer students is such an important part of our jobs.

There are important understandings that have often be misinterpreted in our society. This semester, we begin with our historical social studies conversation on Columbus because we want to rethink and relearn our understandings of the history of the United States and work toward developing a more accurate framework of knowledge to be better prepared to teach elementary social studies.

When learning about this information in class, we utilized something called 'Jackdaws'. A jackdaw is a collection of hands-on materials (often primary sources of information) that students can use to begin to make sense of history by using authentic sources (The term Jackdaw comes from a jackdaw bird from Britain that often collects bits and pieces of scraps to make its nests).

When we teach social studies information to students it is important to utilize both primary sources and secondary sources of information. Primary sources of information provide teachers with a way to introduce students to the past. Our students can then begin to understand history from the multiple perspectives of those who experienced the time or event they're learning about. By using primary sources of information, students can begin to realize that people of the past had emotions, values, attitudes, beliefs, and opinions, too. Primary sources of information are historical documents, photographs, letters, audiotapes, songs, articles, clothing, pottery, paintings, and other original artifacts that help to reveal particular moments in time.  Secondary sources include information that tells (teaches) about the primary source. For example, many textbooks are secondary sources because the textbooks synthesize what has happened in history and the author works to teach the reader about the past and makes sense of primary documents that were used and/or included in the text.

When we teach students to use primary sources/documents, it is important that we teach students how to interpret, clarify, analyze and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also important that students begin to be able to recognize the point(s) of view that were portrayed in the primary source/document. Additionally, students need to be able to compare/contrast more than one primary source and determine what they can learn from this piece of the past. It is important that we as teachers work to help students identify their own perspectives when reading and learning from primary and secondary sources of information.

Here is the important knowledge from the writings of Howard Zinn (Chapter 1) and Bill Bigelow (Rethinking Columbus). The following information critical to know:

Many textbooks and children's literature books teach about the early history of the United States by stating that "Columbus 'discovered' America. It is important to realize that there were people already living on the land that Columbus found. Saying that he discovered a new land offers only ONE perspective - his and the Europeans. The Arawaks (Taino - pronounced: tie-EE-no) were already living in the land that he discovered (the Bahamas). So, we need to rethink the phrase 'discovered'.

Columbus was searching for a new trade route to the east Indies (Asia) because the overland route was taxed and unsafe. Remember, when thinking about the history of our society, it is important to consider the economic motivators of those involved. Columbus was looking for a water route to the east Indies mainly for economic reasons.

Columbus and his expedition were financed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Spain had a religious Christian, Catholic rule. Columbus was given three ships and sailed from the Canary Islands off of the coast of Africa and landed thirty three days later in the Bahamas. Columbus never saw or set foot on North America. Columbus made a total of 4 trips to his new found land. He took many of the natives as slaves when he could not find the gold he was searching for. Columbus' "discovery" of the Taino people marked the beginning of the end of their existence. In 1492, there were approximately 250,000 natives on Haiti and by 1650, there were no natives on Haiti. The death of the Taino people resulted from slavery, killings, suicide and diseases. It is important to note that there are some people alive today who believe that they are related to the original Taino people and they are trying to strengthen their culture and educate others about the disastrous experiences that happened to their ancestors following the arrival of Christopher Columbus. For more information on this, you may want to visit the Indigenous People of the Caribbean website at http://www.indigenouspeople.net/taino.htm

In class, I briefly discussed Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy for categorizing levels of questions that commonly occur in educational settings. The taxonomy provides a useful structure in which to create and plan for utilizing lower and higher level questions during instruction and assessment times. Using a variety of levels of questioning helps to ensure that we reach a wide range of learners in our classes.  Please use this taxonomy to help you write desired student outcomes and effective questions in your peer teaching lesson plan (due on Monday, Feb. 12, 2007).

* Adapted from: Bloom, B.S. (Ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York ; Toronto: Longmans, Green.

Next Tuesday, students will present their peer teaching lessons to their home groups. This is to practice lesson plan design.

That's all for this week. Keep reading, keep learning and keep coming to class! ~Kim