LEA 5

Soci Studie~ . ' . Socia Justice

l CHING STRATEGIES fot·

..,_MENTARV CLASSROOM

Rahima C. Wade Foreword by Sonia Nieto

tlaching for social justice series

Essent ial Teaching Strategies 71

had the oppo rtunity t o learn in-depth about the person they role-played but also to learn about many others from their peers ' presentati ons .

A simulation , as use d in social studies ed ucat ion is us II . . f h . . , ua y an imagi nary replication o a 1sto ncal eve nt. Often a simulation involves stud ents playing the ro les of specific pe ople . f or exampl e, Kri s's sec- ond graders did a simulation about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bu s Boyc ott . Key roles were Rosa, the bus driver, and th e police officer. Man y of th e stude nts played th e " ordi nar y pe opl e " who mad e th e boycott successful. Kris noted h ow po w e rful th e si mulati on experience was , es pecia ll y for on e stude nt . " This one little girl just became Rosa Parks like th J t ' s who she was. She just had this sense of being a strong worn ~ and s tanding up for wha t was right . !In her writing ! she talked about h n \ \' she felt like she was Rosa Park s and really standing up fo r some- thin g that n eeded to be changed ."

Through ro le -plays and simulations, teachers are m eeting bot h soci al 1us tice and academic content objectives . Students can discover the personal mo tivation and life experiences that contribute to some- one li ke Frederic k D ouglas s or Rosa Parks becoming an acti vist while also learning abo ut significant hist or ical events in U.S . his tory . Whtie co mmercial sim ulations for elementary social studies are readil y avatl- able , upper eleme ntary students can also write thei r ow n simulat ions by first w riting the story of an eve nt and the n deciding on the roles . Stu dents can w rite a script or, for an easier fo rmat , ad -lib their parts .

PRIM ARY SOURCES

Like role-play, primary sources are a m eans fo r conn ec ting stud ent s w1th hist0ry in concrete and meaningful ways. Prima ry so urces are maten- als directly from a time peri od (e.g., journal s, diaries, newspaper a.rucles, so ngs, gove rn me nt document s, letters, public not ices, uan sc npt s of s~eech es, photos , and so forth ). Ln con t rast with text book excerpt s or historian's accou nts , primary sources allow students to analyze and Interpret historica l evidence and to cons truct their own un de rstandings of hi~ torical e vent s. for ex.ample Su e used slave journal s and S01ourncr Tr ·h' ' Ut s speech '' Ain' t I a Woman " to h elp her s tudent s understan d th e Past and b · · ecome ins pired to e ngage in comm unn y acuvism . . Photos are an especially effective primary so urce for the elementary classroom as they can be us ed at an y grade leve l regardless of students '

Social Studies for Soc ia 1 lu\t1,,

72

h n also be very effcc uvc in facilitating stud

.J. b Jiues T ey ca d en11 reawnga I f . i mpathY for others . Kara u se ph otos to he! h d tan<l1ng o anu e f p tr un ers J h <l- raJc ESL stud ent s look at war rom a perspect1ve

seco nd· an t ir g nc1 J h U S media : <, ft cn ,n clu <le in t e .

We had a few !photos! at that ti_me fro~ ou r loca l new spape r and u s ~->urces The rest were all internattona l sources . We had mayhe JO pho ws that we thought from o n e w ay or another showed the Iraq is ' point of view . Th e k ids eac h chose one that spoke to them and wrote about it. And I felt that rea lly did a sw1tch m the kid's mind of bei ng able to see th a t there was another side to this, that the re was n ' t just th e Un ited States' side and our soldiers ' side .

Students gene rally enjoy working with prim ary so urces because they prese nt history as a mystery or a puzzle to be so lved usi ng the available evidence. Working with primary sources als o gives students a strong message about multiple perspec tive s. Th e re is no one correct ver:.ion of the pas t; people's views of historical eve nts are very differ· ent depending on their values, beliefs, and experiences. For example Paul Reve re would likely tell us a very different story than a British soldier about the event l di f ,, he mi d· . s ea ng up to and t h e significance o t night nde"

de One w~y to illustrate how primary sources can lead to different

un rstandings of h · . and give each .15t0ry 1s to divide the class into small groups group a differ · · r topic

fr om a ume d em primary source on the same event O

f the peno Ask t d d·ng 0 evem based h s u ems to share their understan

1 . klY on t e pnm ·11 qu1c

realize that one 's d ary sou rce they anal yzed . Th ey W I 50f un erstand · · h ource mformauon availahl mg 1s greatly infl ue nced by t es d g of

the event ask studen c. To develop a m ore thorough understan i~o rn each of the ongtnal ts to form new gro ups that include one person urces, and if needed . group!; Sludents can then discuss all th e so _ 08

f , engage I f f1 1ctJ

m orma t1on n unher rese arc h to address an Y con

w Primary sourc es al su studelltS ould n0 t hJ v,.: ace . provide a window into hi stof"Y that d joiJ!·

n;i ts Wrp • • css to othe . I rs an . . ,en by pcopl rw1se . Read in g pe rsonal ette ,,., 3Jl11\ and can h ·l e in the n hl.1

1

" ' c P student'> 1

p.a 5 t emp hasiz es our com m0 e 5nar' rea 1zc th d plaC at pcoph: ac ros s ume an

esse ntial Teaching Strategies 73

•milariti es, despite their differences. This realization can lead anY 5 1 111 d nts to fee l more empathy and caring for those who are different st

u e hemselv es, which will hopefully lead to their desire to work for from t 1 b .

h , rights and wel - emg. ot ers

VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS

Another essential strategy for soc ial justice teachi·ng 1·s a t. · . r 1suc expres- sion through both visual and performing arts. Student voice is a central compone nt of social justice education and the arts provide additional oppo:tunit i_es for s~lf-exp_res_sion. From puppetry, dance, and singing to drawing, pnntmakmg, pamtmg, and other visual media, the arts present students with additional ways to express their opinions and values on soci al justice issues .

Using caption drawings with primary age students can help us as- sess what young children are learning from their social justice educa- tion. This strategy involves the teacher writing a dictated caption under the stude nt 's ill ustration. First, one asks the students what is going on in their pictures an d then records the child's thinking at the bottom of the page. This strategy can serve as a check on students' understanding of abstract or unfamiliar concepts. When Molly 's students were study- ing the Undergrou nd Railroad, she learned that a few students didn't unders tand it in the historic sense because they drew pictures of trains under the groun d. This example shows how the caption-drawing strat- egy can expose students' misconceptions of the past.

Music can als o be an important component in social justice teach- ing. Music has played a central role in many human rights movements, from slavery to t he Civil Rights Movement to contemporary pea_ce mo vements. Students can learn to sing songs from the past or wnte songs to affirm ot hers or to create awareness of inju Stice. From proteS

t

5nngs to Schoolhouse Rock, there are many opportunitie~ for integrat- ing music in a soci al justice-oriented social studies curncul~m. ,

T Th eek I observed m Molly s

eachers sometimes create songs too. e w . . d to a dassroo m the whole school was studying the ConStitutwn, ue rectnt fed;ra l mandate Mnlly and one of the first-grade ~eac~ers met ~ver b · · t nmameanmg- «lf rcak to try to figure out a w ay to teach the Con_sth1tu ~o 11·f1'ed version ul\ . . . Th meupw1t as1m p vay to primary age children . ey ca