Page 127 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

CHAPTER 5
HOW CAN I TEACH HISTORY POWERFULLY?
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Trevor DeVeaux, Experienced Teacher
I start the unit I teach on the Atlantic Slave Trade by showing students, in silence, a series of powerful images of slavery. As the lights come on, and students sit stunned, I announce to students, “It started with an unsuccessful farmer. He was a religious man, who by all accounts meant well, but seemed doomed to fail.” My approach is purposeful. Even after many years of teaching this unit, I get the same feeling the students do when I see these images. However, these feelings do little to tap into context or causes. As a teacher, it is my job to help students ground their emotional reactions in the broader historical contexts and to provide students the opportunity to explore, empathize, and interpret for themselves.
Going back to our farmer, John Rolfe was a key figure in the struggling Jamestown settlement. Most published literature references his relationship with Pocahontas and the Powhatan tribes. However, he was also credited with cultivating tobacco, the cash crop that would save Jamestown and create the
demand for more investments, plantations, and laborers. “Was there a slave trade before Jamestown?” “Were the English colonies a target of slave traders before John Rolfe?” “Is John Rolfe the root cause of slavery in the English colonies, and ultimately, America?” These are the questions that I end up asking students. The burden of responsibility to answer the question, “Why?” has shifted from the teacher to the student. From here, we study historical figures and explore their roles in significant events, paying attention to cause and effect and chronological thinking.
© Keith Knighton
TEACHER VOICE