Page 142 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

114 Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students
2001). For example, although European-American students talk about U.S. history primarily in terms of the establishment and growth of the nation and of its civic and political traditions, African-American students focus much more specifically on people and events related to African-American freedom and equality (Epstein, 2001). They also place relatively more trust in family members and relatively less in textbooks as sources of accurate historical information.
Rose (2000) took advantage of this by organizing her fourth graders’ study of Michigan history around the questions, “Why have people moved to Michigan, and what was it like for them?” This provided many opportunities for students to gather information from their relatives, and in the process encounter evidence that conflicted with their own prior views or with what they were reading in their textbooks. For example, most of the students viewed racial discrimination as a southern problem that African- Americans could escape by moving to northern states (as many of their grandparents did in 1945 to 1965, coming to Michigan to take jobs in the auto industry). Consequently, they were surprised to find that their own or their African-American classmates’ relatives frequently told of being unable to get served at certain restaurants and hotels, having trou- ble buying homes, or attending largely segregated schools in northern states. These stories produced a lot of curiosity, cognitive dissonance, and other motivation for students to conduct additional inquiry focused on understanding why these problems existed even in the North.
Engaging students in learning about their own family histories is probably the most natural and motivating way to introduce them to both the content of history and the processes of historiography. Many methods of incorporating family history have been suggested, such as interviewing family members about an assigned topic; developing (with their assistance) a report along with supporting documents, photos, or artifacts; and then bringing these materials to school for sharing, discussion, and possible display. For example, Schwartz (2000) described assigning students to develop reports of note- worthy events in their families’ histories, such as stories about when and how their parents met or the events of the day that the child was born. As another example, Hickey (1999) described a “different sides of the story” unit that uses family history to develop critical thinking skills. Students interview their family members to elicit their individual perspectives on a commonly experienced event (e.g., a tornado, election, or landmark event within the family). Then they compare the different perspectives and try to learn the “true facts.” This leads to discussion of what ends up in press accounts, history books, and so forth—the process of how history is made.
Using Children’s Literature to Teach History
Most history learning is embedded within the context of storylines developed by the teacher, usually with the assistance of a textbook. However, it often is more useful to enrich these storylines using historical source material or historically based fiction writ- ten or adapted for children (e.g., biography or autobiography, fictionalized versions of historical events, diaries, or newspaper articles). These sources usually are interesting to students and provide opportunities to expose them to multiple interpretations and to the views and experiences of women, children, minorities, and others whose voices are often excluded from textbook treatments of history (Causey & Armento, 2001). Well-chosen literature selections can serve at least three significant purposes that advance students’ historical understanding: providing a sense of context by relating how some people thought about their world at the time, helping students learn to take the perspective of others, and exposing them to alternate interpretations of events. Although proponents
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