Social Studies Lesson - "There's More to Every Story" (Multiple Perspectives)
Core Decisions
What
In these two lessons students are introduced to two picture books that encourage critical literacy. The first lesson focuses on identifying the main idea, lesson learned, or what the "moral of the story" is. Many children's books have this type of purpose and I want students to be able to understand that explicitly and think critically about how the author is teaching that lesson to us. Students will identify what choices the author made (details included in the story) that support the his purpose in teaching us a lesson or getting us to feel a certain way. This first lesson will also encourage students to raise questions about what happened or was presented to us in the story. Emphasis will be put on the idea that there is always more to a story than what we are presented with. Students will understand that we don't have to agree with all the choices the author made or can question them if something confused us or we feel like there was more we wanted to know about. The second lesson will focus on understanding that stories can be told from multiple perspectives. They will hear an example of one story told with four voices and identify the ways in which the stories were the same and how they were different. They will also begin to question why the details of the story were different coming from different characters. They will then apply this understanding of multiple voices or perspectives to the previous book from the first lesson. Students will pick a character that was not the narrator of the story in the book, and give an example of how that character might have seen/experienced things differently and why.
Why
I chose to do these lessons as a way to build critical literacy skills. These skills are cross cutting and benefit students no matter what subject they are working in. However, it is a particularly foundational skill for becoming a successful social studies student and responsible citizen. As they progress through grade school the type of critical thinking they are asked to do will be more and more complex. They will be participating in historiography, thinking about and evaluating sources, and building strong arguments. It will be important that they can identify which and whose stories aren't being told in the history they learn. They will also be making many difficult decisions about what they believe, who they are, and what part they play in this society. With all of that on the horizon, I feel it is crucial to begin teaching critical thinking strategies as young as kindergarten. I am also interested in how critical thinking and literacy is linked to my greater inquiry into metacognition in younger children. Part of this early development of metacognition involves the idea of understanding multiple perspectives. "Kuhn and Dean (2004) portray epistemological understanding as a benchmark in the development of metacognition. According to this developmental framework, preschool children are realists, who equate believing with knowing. In other words, young children believe that everyone perceives the same thing, and all perceptions match external reality. By around age 4, however, children learn that some beliefs can be wrong. At this stage, called absolutism, children learn that two people’s beliefs can differ, but only because one person is right and the other is wrong. By adolescence, most people recognize that even experts can disagree on certain topics. At this point, many descend into multiplism (or complete relativism), where everything is subjective, no beliefs can be judged, and all opinions are equally right. By adulthood, many people will have learned to tolerate some uncertainty, while still maintaining that there can be better or worse opinions to the extent that they are supported with reason and evidence (evaluative epistemology)" (Lai, 2011, p 18). In addition, I feel that children are often manipulated from a very young age and this can sometimes start with the children's books that they are exposed to. So I wanted to not only expose them to two books that I respect for their emphasis on social justice but also because they greatly encourage students to respond to them critically and to question what they present.
How
Students will begin both lessons with a read aloud. This is due to the fact that both books are above a first grade reading level, but it is also because the objective for these readings are focused more on comprehension and metacognition which can often be stifled when students are challenged to read a difficult book themselves. These read aloud activities will be very interactive though. Students will be encouraged to ask questions and will be asked to think about things in the story as it is being read. Then students will participate in a guided discussion following the book. Student ideas will be recorded on a whiteboard. Then students will use graphic organizers to share their thoughts, reflections and reactions to prompted questions about the story.
In these two lessons students are introduced to two picture books that encourage critical literacy. The first lesson focuses on identifying the main idea, lesson learned, or what the "moral of the story" is. Many children's books have this type of purpose and I want students to be able to understand that explicitly and think critically about how the author is teaching that lesson to us. Students will identify what choices the author made (details included in the story) that support the his purpose in teaching us a lesson or getting us to feel a certain way. This first lesson will also encourage students to raise questions about what happened or was presented to us in the story. Emphasis will be put on the idea that there is always more to a story than what we are presented with. Students will understand that we don't have to agree with all the choices the author made or can question them if something confused us or we feel like there was more we wanted to know about. The second lesson will focus on understanding that stories can be told from multiple perspectives. They will hear an example of one story told with four voices and identify the ways in which the stories were the same and how they were different. They will also begin to question why the details of the story were different coming from different characters. They will then apply this understanding of multiple voices or perspectives to the previous book from the first lesson. Students will pick a character that was not the narrator of the story in the book, and give an example of how that character might have seen/experienced things differently and why.
Why
I chose to do these lessons as a way to build critical literacy skills. These skills are cross cutting and benefit students no matter what subject they are working in. However, it is a particularly foundational skill for becoming a successful social studies student and responsible citizen. As they progress through grade school the type of critical thinking they are asked to do will be more and more complex. They will be participating in historiography, thinking about and evaluating sources, and building strong arguments. It will be important that they can identify which and whose stories aren't being told in the history they learn. They will also be making many difficult decisions about what they believe, who they are, and what part they play in this society. With all of that on the horizon, I feel it is crucial to begin teaching critical thinking strategies as young as kindergarten. I am also interested in how critical thinking and literacy is linked to my greater inquiry into metacognition in younger children. Part of this early development of metacognition involves the idea of understanding multiple perspectives. "Kuhn and Dean (2004) portray epistemological understanding as a benchmark in the development of metacognition. According to this developmental framework, preschool children are realists, who equate believing with knowing. In other words, young children believe that everyone perceives the same thing, and all perceptions match external reality. By around age 4, however, children learn that some beliefs can be wrong. At this stage, called absolutism, children learn that two people’s beliefs can differ, but only because one person is right and the other is wrong. By adolescence, most people recognize that even experts can disagree on certain topics. At this point, many descend into multiplism (or complete relativism), where everything is subjective, no beliefs can be judged, and all opinions are equally right. By adulthood, many people will have learned to tolerate some uncertainty, while still maintaining that there can be better or worse opinions to the extent that they are supported with reason and evidence (evaluative epistemology)" (Lai, 2011, p 18). In addition, I feel that children are often manipulated from a very young age and this can sometimes start with the children's books that they are exposed to. So I wanted to not only expose them to two books that I respect for their emphasis on social justice but also because they greatly encourage students to respond to them critically and to question what they present.
How
Students will begin both lessons with a read aloud. This is due to the fact that both books are above a first grade reading level, but it is also because the objective for these readings are focused more on comprehension and metacognition which can often be stifled when students are challenged to read a difficult book themselves. These read aloud activities will be very interactive though. Students will be encouraged to ask questions and will be asked to think about things in the story as it is being read. Then students will participate in a guided discussion following the book. Student ideas will be recorded on a whiteboard. Then students will use graphic organizers to share their thoughts, reflections and reactions to prompted questions about the story.