The Trail of Tears

For the past three semesters, my students and I have learned about the lives of the Cherokee Indians before forced removal, during removal, and after relocation. This semester we added to our discussion the forced relocation of the Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, and Chickasaw Nations. What the students have created are statements to inspire wonder about the lived experiences of these Nations. They have also included the use of a mapping tool to highlight the former and/or current location of each nation. The mapping tools of choice were found to be user friendly for teachers and elementary students.

Native American Heritage Month

November marks the start of Native American Heritage Month. Here are a few resources to consider for your teaching.

We Shall Remain (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/) is a PBS mini-series documenting the history of Native peoples as an essential part fhistory in the United States.

American Indians in Children's Literature, http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/

The Acatraz Proclamation (http://www.tolerance.org/activity/alcatraz-proclamation-primary-document-activity) is an activity from Teaching Tolerance which highlights the Native American Right Movement.

Reframing Our Views of Native Americans,
http://educatingondiversity.blogspot.com/2014/01/reframing-our-views-of-native-americans.html

Celebrate Indigenous People's Day

Rethink how you teach about Columbus Day. Check out these resources collected by the Zinn Education Project, http://zinnedproject.org/tag/columbus/.

More on Sojourner Truth

As my recent sections of Teaching Elementary School Social Studies are using Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Common Core Classroom as our course text, we have discussed the marginalization of social studies in the elementary classroom. In order to expose students to individuals like Sojourner Truth, elementary teachers must purposefully integrate social studies into their comprehensive literacy program. Adding to the videos from this post (http://educatingondiversity.blogspot.com/2014/06/sojourner-truth-puppet-shows.html) students created activities/lessons to accompany an interactive read aloud using a picture book on Sojourner Truth (i.e. Sojourner Truth's Step Stomp Stride by Andrea Davis Pinkney). Below is a link to their creations.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UtyZCOdozMMcHzuRIo7QieQtA-KNcHVB2Adie5znowA/edit?usp=sharing

Recent Historical Events

As today marks the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania let us pause to remember to lives lost.

As social studies educators we know that today's news will become tomorrow's history. Edutopia has a nice resource list of 5 recent historical events to discuss with students (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/recent-historical-events-student-discussion-josh-work). The first event on the list is 9/11 attacks. Edutopia also has a number of other 9/11 teaching ideas.

Rethinking Labor Day

Here are a couple of resources for teaching about Labor Day from the 2014-2015 Planing to Change the World Plan Book for Social Justice Teachers. The first link is a listing of  50 books on labor and the other is a link to a 5th grade unit on the labor movement.

http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/detailListBooks.asp?idBookLists=104

http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/work-workers-us-labor-movement-unit-plan-5th-grade-social-studies

Our Textbooks: Are They Fair?

Adapted from Open Minds to Equality (3rd Edition), elementary social studies methods students analyzed illustrations from social studies text books. They observed who was portrayed (how inclusive are the representations) and whether the portrayals were culturally authentic. The students were also to examine the content in each text by looking at the contributions of different groups of people; examining the perspective from which the subject is presented; and looking for omissions, distortions. They were also to answer whether the struggles of each group’s (racial/ethnic, age, religious, class, gender, sexuality, and individualism vs. cooperation) fight for civil rights/equality presented?

They presented their findings orally and used charts or graphs to assist in the presentation. See the links below for examples.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B29mdPfkfwGyNllKeTZKamJFM1E/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B29mdPfkfwGyYWpHZG5nS3JKYlk/edit?usp=sharing

Sojourner Truth Puppet Shows

Students from my social studies methods course formulated skits about the life of Sojourner Truth. The activity was adapted from the 3rd edition of Open Minds to Equality. As part of our journey through U.S. history, we arrived at a moment in the adaptation of A People's History where the suffrage movement was mentioned. Often young people gain knowledge about Susan B. Anthony, but many do not know the role Sojourner Truth played as an abolitionist and a suffragist. Here are some of their creations.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EueFdTYmc3QUhlM2M/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuQjhpUWMtd01jalE/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuNnJZV1FBRlZqcWs/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuRzhvSnJzSDhCU2c/edit?usp=sharing

Cooperative Biographies and Teacher Scholarly Knowledge

For the May and June Term of Teaching Elementary School Social Studies, we have used Young Citizens of the World: Teaching Elementary Social Studies through Civic Engagement as our course text. Two notable activities we attempted based on the reading was to create listings of necessary teacher information for teaching social studies units on social movements and creating biographies as ebooks. Here are a few examples of student work.

Let's Rethink Cinco de Mayo

In an effort to move beyond the "Heroes and Holidays" approach to multicultural education, the Zinn Education Project has posted a discussion and some resources for transformative instruction.

http://zinnedproject.org/2012/05/rethinking-cinco-de-mayo/

Timelines

Timelines*

Timelines contain different types of information and span different lengths of time. The help students understand chronology, issues of continuity, change, and cause and effect. A timeline is a tool to assist with learning; they are a type of graphic organizer. They help students synthesize and evaluate learning and should not be the total of student learning about a topic.

Procedural Recommendations:

1. Select a unit for which chronology/sequencing is essential. Instruct students on the concept of  
sequencing.

2. Determine what increments will be marked on the timeline (1 year, 10 years, etc…).

3. Structure questions related to the lesson/unit objectives that encourage students to think critically 
in choosing items for the timeline or in evaluating items on an existing timeline.

4. Encourage the use of mixed media (words, pictures, photographs, etc…). Timelines can even be 
acted out.

Suggestions for Use:

Primary Grades: Chronicle the day or their life

Intermediate Grades: Historical Events

*Obenchain, K.M. & Morris, R.V. (2011). 50 social studies strategies for k-8 classrooms (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Here are some timelines created by my social studies methods students highlighting some of the major historical topics we covered while reading A Young People's History of the United States.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuMVNnRUtNSWVEeUFHajNLVmNaa3IyQ1pUNkdv/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B29mdPfkfwGyTjdtbWE4OXVTRHc/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B29mdPfkfwGyUmhZUkNsMjVZU3M/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B29mdPfkfwGycnJsNXpnb19IUzQ/edit?usp=sharing

Unsung Heroes

The Zinn Education Project, in collaboration with Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change offer classroom resources to assist teachers in teaching outside of the social studies text book. One such activity can be found in A People's History for the Classroom. In "Teaching About Unsung Heroes" students become acquainted with individuals who worked tirelessly for racial and gender justice. In following the activity guidelines, my Elementary Curriculum students acquainted themselves with a hero of choice, took on that individuals persona, and "mixed and mingled" with other social justice heroes in the room. After our networking session, the students were placed in small groups where they created VoiceThreads* highlighting the lives of unsung heroes. Here are three examples of their creations.




http://voicethread.com/share/4997506/

https://voicethread.com/share/4997490/

http://voicethread.com/share/4997477/

*A VoiceThread account maybe needed to access some of the Threads.

How Children's Books Fuel Mascot Stereotypes

Check out this link from Colorlines for an interview with Debbie Reese.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/04/mascot_stereotype_start_in_childrens_books_an_interview_with_debbie_reese.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Unsung Women Who Made History

Civilrightsteaching.org has put together a teaching resource for Women's History Month. In this lesson you can find information on women often left out of textbooks and conversations on prominent Civil Rights champions. Check out the resource here,
http://civilrightsteaching.org/about/handouts-sample-lessons/womens-work-an-untold-story-of-the-civil-rights-movement/

My social studies methods students and I recently went through the lesson, by holding a "meet and greet" featuring select women. I was Jo Ann Robinson, the facilitator of the "meet and greet". After the meet and greet, the students broke into small groups and recorded VoiceThread* conversations between select women who worked for social justice. Their conversations are linked below.

https://voicethread.com/share/5658978/

https://voicethread.com/share/5659057/

https://voicethread.com/?#q.b5659201.i28870822

https://voicethread.com/?#q.b5658984.i28869782

https://voicethread.com/?#q.b5659172.i28870645

*A VoiceThread account may be required to listen.

Studies in Multicultural Education

Students in my Studies in Multicultural Education course have been reading White Teachers/Diverse Classrooms by Landsman and Lewis. This text provides in depth discussion on how the social construction of race influences classroom practice. Recognizing that race is not the only social category which presents in classrooms, the students were charged with reflecting, researching, and then writing about another aspect or combination of aspects of social identity they experience in their classrooms or have in interest in learning more about. The following comments to this post include some of the highlights they have discovered.

The Institutionalization of Racism

For the past two semesters my students have explored the construction of race in the United States. They read the second chapter from A Young People's History of the United States adapted by Rebecca Stefoff and used that information to answer questions from a lesson I adapt from Deborah Menkart "The Institutionalization of Racism". The version of the lesson I used can be found in Beyond Heroes and Holidays. Here are some pictorial responses (via Google Docs) to questions asked based on the readings.

1. During what century was racism institutionalized in the United States?

https://docs.google.com/a/uni.edu/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuRWhFSGw2bXhYbHkyTjVabFg1ZUZpRWxLaUM0/edit

2. What evidence is there that Whites are not born racist?

https://docs.google.com/a/uni.edu/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuZ25zOThvSWc5TndQSlpFTEI1cVlLbEVvU3Iw/edit

3. What incentives were given to teach Whites to separate from Blacks?

 https://docs.google.com/a/uni.edu/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EubF9md3o0Yk01Yk9xUW1sMmdGUGFYNlRuOWpj/edit

4. Why was racism promoted? Who benefited and who lost?

https://docs.google.com/a/uni.edu/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuX2lXVWJ4M3U0SXR2WEJ3QWY3Wkxrc0xBTHVN/edit

They also discussed and visually displayed the methods used today to divide people by race and the fear of colonial and today's elites in certain groups (indentured servants, slaves, Natives, etc...) uniting.

https://docs.google.com/a/uni.edu/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuWGd1VEpMQjVCbG9xZ1pWVHRXYndsOFZwTHFn/edit

Forget the Cards and Candy, Teach Empathy for Valentine's Day

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/valentines-day-learning-resources-empathy-matt-davis

Senate vs. House of Representatives

Do you know the first African American elected to the United States' Senate? What about the House of Representatives? Check out a select VoiceThread* created by students from my fall social studies methods course to learn about Senator Hiram Revels, Representative Joseph Rainey, and the role of Congress.


http://voicethread.com/share/4954102/

Source:http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6708/

Source: http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/11111

*A VoiceThread (www.voicetread.com) account may be needed to access the thread.

Happy Birthday Rosa Parks!

Here is a link for resources on a woman who sat, stood, and fought for social justice.
http://zinnedproject.org/tag/rosa-parks/

Reframing Our Views of Native Americans and How we Teach the Thanksgiving Narrative

During the fall semester, my undergraduate social studies students worked together to put together some information for expanding their knowledge of Native Americans and to reframe how they view the Thanksgiving narrative. After critique from some of their colleagues in other courses, they put together this presentation of information to share with you at the following link.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gzNtqHIDdLm-FZjOwcj9SAmRiSFMDEzPe2mTIGmXx_Q/edit?usp=sharing

Reconsider How You Teach About Christopher Columbus

http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/search/label/Columbus%20Day

MLK, Jr.'s Radical Vision via Zinn Education Project

http://zinnedproject.org/materials/hidden-in-plain-sight-martin-luther-king-jr-s-radical-vision/

MLK, Jr. Service Learning Activities

https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2014/01/09/honoring-mlk-day/