Hello everyone!
After this class, I definitely feel more prepared to take on hard history! However, there are still a lot of things to think about before creating those interesting lesson plans. My blog post will not be filled with a lot of resources and links (we got a great selection during class today!), but it will have plenty of questions!
My first question, is what are your initial thoughts and ideas on integrating diverse perspectives into instruction when teaching hard history? At the beginning of his thoughts today, Dr. Ayers emphasized starting your teaching with the undeniable facts and working outwards towards more complex understandings. What do you think about this idea? Would you use anecdotes, examples, and imaginings to humanize and contextualize? Would you focus on setting history in motion? How would you emphasize the complexities of the practice of slavery? Let me know!
There’s also the question (aka elephant in the room) of statistics. Most people dread the idea of memorizing a list of statistics and numbers. However, what if there’s a different way to view using statistics in the classroom? Making patterns, connections, and building historical empathy are all parts of the world of statistics. How would you integrate statistics and data literacy in your classroom without being overwhelming and ineffective? Visualization? Personal connections? I’m curious!
I hope you guys learned something new today!
Ashley
Hi Ashley,
Thank you for the complex questions to ponder and for posting in such a timely manner after class! I want to respond while this topic is still fresh in my mind.
I think it’s imperative that we insert diverse perspectives into our instruction whenever possible, because it’s very likely that our students themselves (and their parents) already espouse a variety of perspectives, backgrounds, and understandings. When Dr. Ayers began to speak, I thought to myself…he certainly looks familiar. I quickly realized that the video I chose to watch prior to tonight’s class was one of his on the Learning for Justice website, key concept 6. I highly recommend that everyone watch this video as we all have a personal connection to Dr. Ayers now, and he demonstrates a way to approach teaching about slavery in a way that humanizes hard history and in a way that we could use as a model to replicate. I won’t spoil it by recounting it here beyond sharing that it starts with a letter, and I urge everyone reading my response to watch because it’s powerful. Notice how the integration of maps and data visualization helps to reinforce the concepts that Dr. Ayers presents and how it is seamlessly woven into the content.
https://www.learningforjustice.org/frameworks/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery/classroom-videos#keyconcept6
Also, we spent tonight grappling with some of the challenges with teaching hard history. I think we can all benefit from spending time really reflecting on which topics we personally find hard to teach (I’m sensing a Commonplace Book entry opportunity here!) and recognize that some topics may be harder than others for each one of us. In order to feel fully prepared to teach about American slavery, I’d have to brainstorm what questions students might ask me during the lesson that I would find hard to answer and think through how I would respond to a question like, “did your ancestors own slaves?” I honestly don’t know the answer, but this is an example of the kind of question that might cause me to stumble without first practicing some strategies for how best to respond.
Ashley, I may reply again after I spend more time processing what we learned in tonight’s class and after reviewing some of the resources that were shared. Thank you again for your questions!
Sue Anne
Hi Ashley!
Thank you so much for your post! These questions are very thought-provoking, and I’m eager to read everyone’s responses.
I think it’s valuable for different and diverse perspectives to be included in our teaching of hard history. I believe presenting the facts to students first gives them the opportunity to ponder about the truth, and then think about their own beliefs. Each student in my classroom is going to be unique and special in their own way due to their backgrounds, families, and cultures. I’m looking forward to getting to know my students on a deeper level through teaching hard history. As a teacher, it’s important to be open-minded and allow students to form their own opinions by being unbiased and truthful. I will emphasize the complexities of slavery by explaining facts state by state, or city by city. I loved Dr. Bland’s idea of starting with small numbers and building upon that to not overwhelm students.
I believe statistics are extremely important to showcase to students when teaching hard history. Statistics provide factual evidence and help emphasize certain concepts. It’s vital for teachers to not overwhelm students and provide too many statistics at once; we must keep in mind these are young children learning about sensitive topics.
Greetings, Ashley! Thanks for bringing these many questions to our attention.
I think (and I believe I am pretty much paraphrasing something you said in our small group discussion last class) that the best way to make statistics meaningful to students is to present them in the form of visuals. In isolation, the number of enslaved people in colonial Virginia at the time of the Revolutionary War will mean essentially nothing to students; listed alongside the numbers of free Blacks, free whites, indentured whites, and Indians, it will mean a little more; but to really give students a sense of what these population numbers actually mean, a pie chart or graph is better; and best of all might be a graphic showing a crowd of human figures, enslaved people in proportion to slaveholders, which could go far in impressing upon students the grotesque absurdity of an economy in which almost the whole population is compelled to work themselves to exhaustion to support the sumptuous lifestyle of a tiny group of overlords. Elementary school students in the pre-operational or concrete operational stage are only just beginning to develop the ability to reason abstractly (or, in the youngest grades, have not even begun), and numbers will mean little or nothing to them unless closely tied to concrete sensory experiences.
I am going to be a contrarian (as is my natural inclination) and say that I think it might be best to teach hard history (and history in general) in the exact opposite “direction” of that which Dr. Ayers recommends (though I am not an expert in this topic by any means, and I do not make this argument with much conviction, but only with the curiosity of one who wishes to explore many potential solutions). Dr. Ayers is a college professor, and starting with the “undeniable facts” is a perfectly reasonable approach when teaching young adults who have enough background knowledge and enough abstract reasoning ability to understand those facts and form connections between and hypotheses based on them. But elementary school students, as I wrote above, do not have fully developed abstract reasoning abilities and will have a hard time really understanding “undeniable facts” like timelines and population estimates. The “soft” material of history, the subjective experiences of past people about which we must make educated guesses, is much more easily comprehensible to a child’s mind, and without the sensory and emotional details it provides, the “hard” data will be meaningless to them. So it would be much more natural, I think, to start with stories, anecdotes, and images and only then connect them to the concrete facts that we expect students to recite.
Hi Ashley!
Thank you so much for your post and thought-provoking questions!
I do believe that integrating diverse perspectives into history instruction is extremely important. Due to the varied ways my students have most likely have been raised, there is going to be differences amongst the ways they have been taught bout certain historical events and what they have been exposed to prior to attending class. Students raised in alternate cultures could also create differences amongst their personal opinions. There are certainly cold, hard historical facts that all students should be able to grasp, but history is ultimately more complex than that. Studying the thoughts and emotions of those who have been oppressed or experienced conflict is equally as important as the facts.
When it comes to statistics, you are so right! Most people see numbers and automatically tune them out — especially since they are difficult to permanently memorize. However, I think connecting number to personal stories could be highly effective. Once students have an understanding of the historical event that occurred, utilizing numbers to solidify students’ comprehension of how many people history affects is extremely beneficial. For example, in class on Tuesday, we discussed the number of people who had been brought into the institution of slavery and this helps develop the ides of how drastic and widespread of a problem slavery had become at its peak.
Good afternoon Ashley!
Thank you for your questions! They really got me thinking about our discussion which I greatly appreciate.
My initial thoughts on integrating diverse perspectives were positive. I feel like I did not really get a lot of different perspectives when I was in my history classes and it wasn’t until college that I really had to challenge myself to think about other points of view. However, I would be lying if I did not have some hesitation when teaching some of these topics. Not only is there a risk of school/student/parent push-back, but I also want to make sure I am doing justice to these perspectives. I feel like one of my major struggles to work on is my desire to do everything perfectly. I have to work on embracing the struggle and doing everything to the best ability, not to perfection.
I found the data literacy portion of our conversation particularly interesting and helpful when thinking about integrating statistics into the classroom. The pie chart suggestion was particularly interesting to me and I can see myself using that in the classroom. I know in some of my classes we would have activities where we read pie charts, census records, and political ads to build data literacy in history. Although these were for my high school classes, I am sure there is a way to adapt them to an elementary-level curriculum.
Thank you again for the insight!
Carstyn K
Hi Ashley, yes I agree, the Mentimeter quiz we took at the beginning of class was very eye-opening and I learned some new facts about slavery, which initially I thought I already knew. In response to your question regarding using diverse perspectives when teaching hard history, I think this should definitely be incorporated but not only for this purpose but anytime you can. In the last few years, we have experienced a rise in white supremacy rhetoric, anti-Asian violence, LGTBQ+ hate, and Islamaphobia. To help students understand that we are all more alike than different, we should find as many opportunities as possible to include diverse perspectives, artifacts, digital tools (videos, podcasts) as we can. As Dr. Ayers suggested during his presentation, the more we can humanize enslaved persons when discussing the institution of slavery or other hard history, the easier it may be for students to understand. Also, I liked the great explanation William gave on using age appropriate facts when teaching hard history to ensure students are getting the information but not in a way that would harm them. I still feel unsure as to the best ways to approach teaching the practice of slavery to younger students, I strongly feel there should be a foundation of knowledge shared with them on the practice but not in a way that would overwhelm them. As far as statistics and data literacy, I am still working on the best way to incorporate them so it’s not just a bunch of numbers and facts being given to them that becomes jumbled in their minds. I really appreciate all of these thought provoking questions and I’m sharing a link I found on some inspiring social studies teachers who are intent on providing our students with true history…enjoy!
Social Studies Leaders Vow Not to Water Down ‘Hard History’ (edweek.org)
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/social-studies-leaders-vow-not-to-water-down-hard-history/2022/12
Hi Ashley!
Your questions do a great job at getting me to self-reflect and make me feel uncomfortable (in a good way) – I’ve been sitting here for at least 5 minutes thinking about how to respond!
Ultimately, I think everything comes back to the age we are teaching. I think it is always a great idea to include different perspectives and diverse personalities into the classroom in any subject, but the way we do it may be different for the students we are working with. My goal is to work with K or 1st grade, and I don’t think that stating the “undeniable truth”, as Dr. Ayers put it, would benefit those students. As William also stated in his post, these students may not have the capacity to hear this and turn a concrete truth and turn it abstract to think about the implications of the truth and how this formed into history. While difficult for a kindergartner, this may be more successful in a 4th or 5th grade classroom because they can think more abstractly. However, to ensure my students get a concrete idea of the topic, I would, ideally, utilize multiple perspectives and diverse personalities to highlight to them that history is not one set chapter in a textbook or one opinion in a newspaper, and to begin aiding them in the idea of looking deeper and wider to get a better idea of the topic.
As someone who dislikes reading numbers with a passion, statistics are extremely abstract to me, so it scares me to teach it to students and them ask me questions on them!! However, I do love the idea of making the statistics smaller and easier to digest than leaving them large. I think that bringing it down to the local and community level (hopefully) makes it easier to students to understand and visualize. I loved all the maps we were linked from the presentation we saw because I think it gives students a fun and interactive way to see the stats and see how they are different or similar across counties and states.
Hey Ashley!
I wasn’t able to make it to class this week due to an illness, but I do have some thoughts on your questions.
I really enjoy the idea of starting lessons off with undeniable facts. These facts can provide a great basis on which students can work to formulate their own opinions and their own questions to further the class investigation into the subject. Once a basis of facts has been set, then the context of situations could be brought in which can alter a student’s original opinion because context is so important. Context plays such a critical part and sometimes is a fact as well.
I think that statistics can be super interesting. Having them used in a classroom is a great way to have students really acknowledge the magnitude of certain events. Statistics can also provide a lot of context for students. When a statistic is given about the ratio of enslaved individuals to voting individuals in the early 1800s that is able to provide a lot of context for students. I also think that statistics can provide great visuals for students. Thinking of a tangible way to display statistics could be very beneficial for younger students.
Hey Ashley!
Thank you for your thoughtful questions!
I think that it is incredibly important to include diverse perspectives when teaching history. Not only does it help students create a more vivid image in their minds, but it works toward fostering empathy and understanding. I also agree with Dr. Ayers’ method of teaching students the undeniable truth first and then branching out to more complex ideas. Even if it may be more difficult due to the standards that we are required to teach, I think there could be enough overlap that would allow us to teach both. We have demonstrated this in class countless times, so I do believe that it truly is possible. There are also ways of simplifying the undeniable truths to best suit the intended age of your audience. I do not think we give kids enough credit when it comes to their understanding of certain topics. If we use the right language and incorporate things like visuals or scenarios, then it is entirely possible to teach younger students accurate versions of history.
You, William, and I talked a lot about your second point regarding statistics last class, and I am so glad that you posed this question to the class so we could get their perspective as well. I think that it is vital that we contextualize statistics, especially for younger students. In their minds, 100 is a big number, but 1 million is as well. When we use numbers in history, we often want to convey the sheer amount of people impacted by an event or action. I believe that just listing a number does not convey the severity or scale of a piece of history. Whether you use visuals, personal connections, or any other form of adding context, you have to do something to help students grasp statistical data. This also opens up a great opportunity to do some cross-curricular teaching, which is great!
Thank you again for your post 🙂
Hi Ashley,
Thank you for such thoughtful and challenging questions. Sue Anne stole my thunder, but I still appreciate her sharing the video clip of Ed Ayers that highlights one of the key concepts in the Teaching Hard History document. I spent a lot of time thinking about his emphasis on facts. We can get those facts from primary sources. We need to find age-appropriate ones for kids and give them time to explore them. I spent the Saturday before the class session in a 3-hour webinar with the education staff at Mount Vernon. The records they have of enslaved people are extensive. They have names, how long they worked, and their roles. I think emphasizing the humanity of enslaved people is so important. Only when students see them as real people will they understand the horror of slavery. Even with young students, I think we can ask them to try and understand what enslaved people endured and how they presumably felt about their circumstances.
As to statistics and numbers, big numbers are hard for kids to understand. We need to make these numbers concrete or provide a comparison that helps them better understand the full measure of the numbers. For example, here’s one statistic.
The 550,000 enslaved Black people living in Virginia constituted one-third of the state’s population in 1860.
That one-third is a powerful number. Showing that on a pie chart would be a good way to show the proportion of enslaved people. But how can you show a number that is a little over half a million? There are several really good children’s books that focus on understanding and visualizing big numbers. I highly recommend using them when trying to help kids understand numbers so big in scope. I also think concrete examples can be helpful, even if they only get us partway to “whole.” Here’s an example of that.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-does-million-look/
Hi Ashley!
Thank you so much for your very intriguing questions!
To answer your first question, it is crucial that teachers include diverse perspectives into instruction. This allows for students to grasp all views on topics they are learning about, and permit them to develop their own thoughts based on the facts being taught to them. I completely agree with the strategy Dr. Ayers proposed to us. I believe that is is valuable to directly teach the facts first and then build up your teaching to more complex lessons. In order to do this, I plan on using plenty of real world/current examples that students will be able to relate to within my own teaching. I also plan on telling my students that these topics are extremely complex and can be hard to envision. I want to make sure I give my students reassurance as they learn about these difficult topics to ensure they feel comfortable and safe within my classroom.
In terms of statistics, I find myself guilty of dreading this topic. However, this class helped me to reframe the way I think about teaching statistics. I previously only have thought about teaching statistics separately from other subjects, however I love how seamlessly it can be incorporated into areas of history. I plan on incorporating statistics into my lessons through graphs, charts, maps, and ratios in a visual manner. One of the most terrifying things for me, concerning statistics, is memorizing numbers and not having context behind them. By using visuals such as charts, graphs, and maps, students will be able to make connections to the data and statistics being presented to them.
I am looking forward to incorporating multiple perspectives into my teaching, in addition to statistics because I hope to eliminate the fears behind learning these difficult topics.
Thank you again for your post!
Alexa 🙂
Hi Ashley,
Thank you for your thoughtful post! I agree, our class period definitely helped us learn about tackling hard history within the classroom!
I think that it is important to integrate diverse perspectives into instruction when teaching hard history so that your students are learning the whole story, however, I believe that it could also be difficult to do this in the classroom. As a teacher, you are always going to have a bias toward one side and you don’t want to be imposing that on your students. I think that it could be easier as Dr. Ayers spoke about to bring in the cold hard facts first, and then let your students navigate through the different perspectives about the hard history, that is what I would do. One question I have is at what age group can you show students two sides of the story? Should we really be breaking it down so much where you barely even get to see and understand the multiple perspectives.
When it comes to statistics, I do have to say I am not a big fan of them. I don’t enjoy and never have memorizing a list of numbers and stats. I think it would be great to find a new way to incorporate statistics in the classroom, whether that be maybe students creating their own? I am not sure how else to incorporate statistics in a more engaging way, but am looking forward to learning from my peers! I believe that if we are presenting statistics to students, it should be in visual form and not just numbers. Have pictures that help represent the numbers that are being displayed.
Thank you for such provocative and deep questions, Ashley! I will definitely continue to think about them.
Halle
Hello Ashley,
I agree with you concerning being more prepared to take on hard history, and as teachers of the future, it is our responsibility to ensure we are giving our students what they need to be successful in the educational journey. I believe this program is excellent in preparing us for our careers and giving us information needed to be successful with information needed to have a successful classroom. Our goals should be to work to ensure our students gain great knowledge and prepare them to move to the next grade level and be successful there.
Integrating diverse perspectives into instruction is an excellent idea, my only concern is what the standards will allow or what timeframe will be available to accomplish this task. As teachers and new teachers, we will be limited as to what we have at our disposal, timewise as well as standards of learning. Our success will depend upon our leadership team as well as our grade level teachers, giving us the necessary support.
Dr. Ayers is a wonderful speaker and educator and his ideas are truly valuable to new teachers. Starting teaching with the undeniable facts and working outwards toward more complex understandings is an excellent idea to keep students engaged with the lesson.
Thank you Ashley for your post,
Milton