Entry Six: Critical Literacy for Young Citizens

A painting of the First Thanksgiving Feast by Jennie A. Brownscombe.

Teaching any grade level can, and will, be a challenge, but it's how we approach the topics that we need to teach that makes the biggest impact on the learning of all students. I have always believed that a teacher who is extremely dedicated and prepared to go above and beyond simple expectations can make a student a life long learner who is appreciative of education and knowledge and ready to reshape the future.

Teaching social studies is a struggle in every elementary school due to the immense focus that is placed on core content subjects like that of Reading Language Arts and Math, but it doesn't have to be that way. I have mentioned in previous blog entries in my love for thematic teaching and cross-subject referencing and I will mention it again..."We can teach any subject critically if we sit down and devise a lesson that allows for information to be linked to several TEKS in different content areas!"

In the article "Critical Literacy for Young Citizens: First Graders Investigate the First Thanksgiving" by Jennifer H. James and Michelle McVay, the concept of inquiry based learning in a social studies lesson is discussed in great depth and detail. The concept of teaching younger students in elementary school historical thinking enables them to develop into effective citizens and how this will set them up to be "capable of shaping our future and sustaining and improving our democracy" (James & McVay, 2009, p. 348).

The inquiry based lesson plan that was designed by Michelle (Mikki) for a class of first graders showed how receptive and curious even our youngest students are, and how given the opportunity and right guidance can lead them to make their own discoveries. While planning her inquiry based lesson Mikki kept her objectives focused with the help of four aspects of historical inquiry that were laid out by Bruce VanSledright; identification, attribution, judging perspective, and reliability assessment. These four aspects allowed Mikki to focus her learning goals and devise a lesson plan that was student-centered.

In closing, it is not difficult to come up with meaningful engaging lessons that are student-centered and thematic or cross-subject effective. Mikki was able to take a inquiry based lesson design, that is generally only seen in science and math, and use it to teach research skills in social studies, while also using written text (nonfiction books) to engage students in reading.