Entry 6: Kindergarten Students Analyze Primary Sources

                    
                    A picture of how cars used to look and how people made them.
                 https://robohub.org/the-evolution-of-assembly-lines-a-brief-history/

I love this article so much because I can deeply relate to it. I did half of my senior year here at UH in a kindergarten classroom and loved every single day in it. I think the children at that specific age are so truthful and honest but most importantly very curious. The way their minds think and how they process new information is explainable. So when reading this article, I learned that having the kids explore and observe a picture of a certain history event really generates questions. Not just any questions but great questions. In which leads to class discussions and allows the kids to use critical thinking. I love letting kids observe pictures because you get an insight of what they see and to me that’s the most important. The article says that using a primary source for younger children allows them to think deeply. As a teacher you will have to generate great blooms taxonomy questions to the students as they are observing the pictures. I always wondered how you could introduce certain history topics to young children. After reading this article, it taught me a great approach I can use in my own classroom to get students engaged and motivated to learn. I could even maybe use a short film and discuss what they noticed and saw in the video that stuck out the most to them.

“The ease with which many students were able to give reasons for their statements suggests that these activities may have already helped some students do so. We often hear social studies teachers in middle and high school say they wish that students entered their classrooms already knowing how to observe, speculate, provide evidence for their thinking, and ask good questions.”

Entry 5: Black Ants and Buddhists Chapter 7

                               

                           https://www.pinterest.com/pin/570831321501456369/

As I read this article, I realized that teaching history is a lot harder than it seems. In elementary there just seems to be a lot of touchy subjects that are hard to explain to the minds of young innocent children. Although not all history is bad, there is just a lot to be taught. Elementary educators are most likely the ones who introduce the truth of some history to students. Although it may be tough there has to be a way to connect these topics to student’s everyday lives. In this article it talked about educating students of History and current events. It mainly focused on engaging the students to make connections, text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world. It also talked about teaching students history as a contextualized story. My whole life, I personally felt like I was taught History all wrong. I never understood it, it was mainly consisted of lies and I just didn’t seem to relate to it. As I got older, I had a high school teacher who taught History like it was a story and it just all made sense. He made real life connections and things we used or went through on a daily in today’s society. As a teacher I hope to teach History in a manner where my students can make self-connections or real life connections to the situations that happened in the past. It’s crucial for students to understand the importance of history but the real truth about history as well.

“Desire for students to grow as people who not only can recognize injustice, willing to take effective, principled stand for justice.”

Entry 4: Critical Literacy for Young Citizens

                  
                         Work sheets for students

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/268034615302536546/

                                                                           https://www.pinterest.com/pin/469570698618790202/ 

After reading this article, I realized that there are a lot of social studies lessons that can be incorporated with fun activities. The main idea of incorporating activities is to engage the students and keep them motivated to learn throughout the lesson. For anyone, even us students in college we appreciate doing activities that we can use to help us learn and remember the information being taught to us. In younger students social studies can be a bit tricky. A lot of teachers go back to the style of reading from the textbook which is an okay approach. I just personally feel like there can be a more creative approach to engage the students in what they are learning. Having the students read about the topic is a great way to build up conversations and questions they may have. But by reading, I mean picking books that you know your students would love to read. Incorporating read alouds and other helpful resources to educate them a little deeper before introducing the topic. For example, I love learning about cultures, traditions, celebrations etc. from other countries. I think you can learn a lot about your own students and friends when you educate yourself about different cultures.

                In my own classroom I cannot wait to teach about Dia De los Muertos. A tradition celebrated in Mexico on November 2^nd of every year. It is a day you honor those who have passed and who are special in your heart. I think using fun arts and crafts to learn about each tradition would be neat. As a teacher I would like to use a month or two out of the school year to celebrate different cultures and countries every week. I would love to make all my students feel comfortable and at home in my room. It would be nice to place books around the classroom as well or other resources the students can use to learn more about such traditions.

"Our experience tells us that even very young children can make sense of historical text and, in fact, enjoy doing so when it is relevant to their lives and around a question of interest."

I took this quote as even if it is not personally relevant to their own personal life, it is relevant in a sense that they are surrounded by friends of all cultures and ethnicity everyday at school.