Post on 18-Dec-2014
description
Shifting Perspectives
Making History Relevant
and Relatable for Students
By Sarah Wassberg
Education Director &
Volunteer Coordinator,
Hudson River
Maritime Museum
Kingston, NY
What do you remember?
Think back to elementary
school and middle school. Do
you remember anything
about history? Were you
inspired by anything?
Or were things more like this?
Bloom’s Taxonomy
From most important to
least:• Analyze/Evaluate/Create
• Apply• Understand• Remember
Why Should We Change?• Common Core Standards
• Help students better
understand history
• Help students care more
about history• Help students read, analyze,
evaluate, and make arguments• Make it real
Common Core Standards
Com
mon C
ore
Reading Standards for
Literature, K-5#11 for grades K-2• “Make connections
between self, text, and
the world around them
(text, media, social interaction).”
#11 for grades 3-5• “Recognize and make
connections in narratives, poetry, and
drama to other texts,
ideas, cultural perspectives, personal
events, and situations.”
Com
mon C
ore
Reading Standards for
Literature, 6-12#11 for grades 6-8• “Recognize, interpret,
and make connections
in narratives, poetry,
and drama, ethically
and artistically to other
texts, ideas, cultural
perspectives, eras, personal events, and
situations.
Engaging Students: Literature• Use youth-oriented literature to bring informational texts to life
• Ask younger students to
compare and contrast
themselves with the
young character(s)
• Ask older students to
evaluate accuracy of
literature based on one
or more informational
texts
Com
mon C
ore
Reading Standards for
Information Texts, K-5
#3 for grades K-5• “Describe the
connection between a
series of historical events [. . .]”
#6 for grade 4• “Compare and contrast
a firsthand and secondhand account of
the same event or topic;
describe the differences
in focus and the information provided.”
Com
mon C
ore
Reading Standards for
Informational Texts, 6-12
#9 for grades 6-8• “Analyze how two or
more authors writing
about the same topic
shape their presentations of key
information by emphasizing different
evidence or advancing
different interpretations
of facts.”
Engaging Students: Informational Texts
• Use youth-oriented primary sources (letters,
photographs, diaries,
etc.) to bring informational texts to life
• Compare and contrast
primary sources to secondary sources
• Ask students to compare
and contrast their lives
to historical lives
• Library of Congress (loc.gov)• Hudson River Valley
Heritage (hrvh.org)• Cornell University Digital
Archives (cdl.library.cornell.edu)
• Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org)
• New York Public Library
(http://digitalcollections.
nypl.org/)• And more….
How Do We Find Sources?
Contains:• Photographs• Maps• Manuscript Documents
• Audio, including music
• Teacher’s GuidesPros:• Huge• Professionally organized/created
Cons:• Can be difficult to navigate
• Few local sources
Library of Congress
Activity:• Have students read “The Journal of James Edmond Pease.” • Read about what
happened to Carl and examine the object.• Compare and contrast what
happened to James v. Carl.
Contains:• Photographs• Maps• Manuscript Documents
• Oral historiesPros:• Local historyCons:• Can be hard to search with
general terms
Hudson River Valley Heritage
Activity:• Have students read “Chains”
• Read the bill of sale of Orring, then search HRVH for more about slavery in New York.• Compare and contrast what
happened to Isabel and Ruth to Orring
Contains:• Separate collections based
on theme• Full-text historical books,
periodicals/magazines,
newspapers, ephemera,
some manuscriptsPros:• Full-text!Cons:• Collections can be a bit
random
Cornell Digital Library
Activity:• Have students read “Amistad Rising” • Look up in a textbook what
happened • Read about it in the Friend of Man
• Was the book accurate? The newspaper?
Contains:• Full-text digitized books and
magazinesPros:• Free digital historical
children’s literature• Downloadable to e-readers
or computerCons:• Can be hard to read on a
computer
Project Gutenberg
Activity:• Have students read “The Shadow of the North”
• Read about the French & Indian War in your textbook or in
another informational text• Is the story accurate? What is different and what is the same?
Contains:• Photographs and drawings,
manuscripts, scanned books
Pros:• Lots of New York focused
material• “View as book” for scanned
booksCons:• Somewhat strict copyright
• Difficult to browse
New York Public Library
Activity:• Have students read “The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book”
• Examine the drawings – what story do they tell?
• Read informational texts about the abolitionist movement• Why was this book
written for children?
• University of Iowa – Historic
Children’s Diaries http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/sear
ch/collection/diaries
• Early Americas Digital Archive
http://mith.umd.edu//eada/
• Children and Youth in History
http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-s
ources• US Supreme Court Center
http://supreme.justia.com/
• University of Virginia Library – Early
American Fiction Collection
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/eaf/pubi
ndex.html
Other Sources
This might happen! Here are
some suggestions for coping:
• Use primary sources about
everyday life in the period
you’re studying• Use period photographs or
paintings – even if they
aren’t of children• Address why there aren’t
adequate primary sources
for your topic
What If I Can’t Find Anything?
Things to Watch For• Historical literature can
have racist, sexist, anti-
Semitic, and other insensitive language. Use
as a discussion point with
older students.• Language difficulty – have
dictionaries or glossaries
on hand, especially with
younger students.
• Un-transcribed original
manuscripts – some
students may find cursive
difficult to read.
The Take AwayCan’t do a whole unit? Try to do
a little at a time:• Read chapters or excerpts
from historical literature
instead of whole books
• Use period images as
illustrations• Spend one lesson comparing
and contrasting lives of
historic children to those of
your class• Do an activity with primary
sources
The Take Away
You can teach history, ELA, and
fulfill Common Core requirements all at the same
time.
To better engage students
consider:• Hands-on activities
• Giving them more freedom of
choice• In-class projects• Field trips
Brainstorm!
What do YOU think?
Thank You!