Social Studies Summer Series Part 2: How to Teach History Skills

Kirsten 0:07

Hi, there and welcome to part two of the social study summer series. Today we're going to talk about how you can teach history skills. I'll be sharing with you some tips and some activity ideas and examples. Teaching history to upper elementary students can be quite the adventure. We always are aiming not only to share stories from the past, but we also want to ignite curiosity, and sharpen of course critical thinking. Today, I'm going to be sharing with you some straightforward tips along with fun activities to help upper elementary students in grades three, four and five to master history skills.

Kirsten 1:25

The first tip I have is to connect history to today. Start by showing how history relates to the world they live in. When we're studying about, for example, the civil rights movement, discuss current events related to social justice, ask students to compare and contrast strategies used by activists during the Civil Rights Movement and in present times.

Kirsten 1:52

Tip number two is to dive into primary sources. Introduce students to real historical artifacts, like letters, speeches, or photos. Maybe you're talking about the Gettysburg address something that's very common in Civil War units. Ask students to imagine that they're at the speech, what emotions are they feeling? What do they think Lincoln was trying to convey when he wrote and delivered the Gettysburg Address?

Kirsten 2:23

Kirsten 2:54

Tip number four is to bring history to life with role playing activities in simulations to make history interactive. You can assign students roles in a mock trial of historical figures, like Susan B. Anthony, maybe thinking about women's suffrage, let them argue for or against women's suffrage, and of course using evidence from primary sources. So you can always utilize this example and apply it to other examples related to different things that might have pros and cons or more than one side.

Kirsten 3:34

Tip number five is to think critically helps students develop a keen eye for bias in historical accounts, discuss how different perspectives are shaping the way events are portrayed. So for example, what you could do is show contrasting newspaper articles about the sinking of the Titanic. And even just in general, the thoughts and views of slavery in the United States, what people in the North might have thought about slavery, what people in the south might have thought about slavery, different populations, what they wanted to do with slavery, and all of that stuff. There's all kinds of things you can do, and just kind of keep an eye out for what are people what are their opinions? And what biases are there to try to make their opinions something that is fitting their narrative. So it's just interesting to think about, especially when you're looking at primary sources, or you're reading a passage or some type of excerpt from maybe a diary entry or journal entry of a particular person, we can always kind of think about how we might have changed our views from the previous time.

Kirsten 4:54

Alright, tip number six is to reflect so sixth and final tip to reflect on lessons learned, encourage your students to journal about historical events that they have studied related to history. One example could be that you can have them write letters as if they were somebody living in that specific time period that you're teaching about. So, for example, maybe they're a soldier in the trenches of World War One, maybe they're a child during the Great Depression. After they're learning a lot of information about these specific historical events, having them having them kind of reflect and journal, as if they were in that situation can help history come alive for them give them a personal connection, teaching history, and upper elementary is all about making the past come alive. When we are thinking critically, by connecting history to today, exploring primary sources, investigating like detectives, bringing history to life through role playing, thinking critically about bias, and reflecting on lessons learned. Students can develop a deeper understanding of the world around them.

Kirsten 6:13

With these engaging activity ideas, your students will uncover the mysteries of history and ultimately become thoughtful citizens. If you're ever looking for easy ways to incorporate history, maybe you aren't having a lot of time teach social studies as you'd like, or you'd like to be more consistent at it, I do have social studies daily passages for the domain of history. So this is one part of the complete bundle. And it includes 11 topics for that's 11 weeks. They're 44 passages with three multiple choice questions for each passage. And these passages are a variety of topics related to teaching. In third, fourth and fifth grade, there are weekly quizzes that you can utilize unit pacing guides glossary and digital versions as well. So I'll put the link in the description so you can check that out.

Kirsten 7:14

Hopefully, this has kind of gotten you thinking about ways you can infuse a little bit of life into your history lessons. And what I want you to do is make sure you're sticking around because we will be talking next week about culture and society. So stick around for part three. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and I will talk to you again soon.