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

http://www.loc.gov/

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

http://www.hrvh.org/

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

http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/

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

http://www.gutenberg.org/

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

http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

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!