[thvinstitute13] shifting perspectives: making history relevant and relatable to students
DESCRIPTION
Presentation given by Sarah Wassberg at Teaching the Hudson Valley's 2013 Summer Institute, "Placed-Based Learning & Common Core"TRANSCRIPT
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Shifting Perspectives
Making History Relevant
and Relatable for Students
By Sarah Wassberg
Education Director &
Volunteer Coordinator,
Hudson River
Maritime Museum
Kingston, NY
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What do you remember?
Think back to elementary
school and middle school. Do
you remember anything
about history? Were you
inspired by anything?
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Or were things more like this?
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Bloom’s Taxonomy
From most important to
least:• Analyze/Evaluate/Create
• Apply• Understand• Remember
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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
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Common Core Standards
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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.”
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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.
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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
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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.”
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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.”
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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
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• 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?
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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
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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.
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Contains:• Photographs• Maps• Manuscript Documents
• Oral historiesPros:• Local historyCons:• Can be hard to search with
general terms
Hudson River Valley Heritage
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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
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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
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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?
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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
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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?
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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
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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?
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• 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
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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?
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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.
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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
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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
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Brainstorm!
What do YOU think?
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Thank You!