Everything Old Is New Again: Surfing the Web with History and the Common Core Wave

Living up to my blogging theme, I was musing the other day about how to breathe life into history and social studies lessons.  How can technology be incorporated into the classroom while capturing an essence of the past? Is this even possible?  What do I even mean?

First, we must pause for a quote from my most favorite social studies/history mentor, Walter Parker.  Parker (2009) defines social studies as “the integrated study of the social sciences to promote civic competence,”(p.406). With Common Core implementation right around the virtual corner, teachers across the nation are wondering about how to infuse the curriculum with literacy and subject matter depth. Common Core Standard ELA-Literacy.RH6-8.9 asks students to learn how to analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic (corestandards.org).  Another method of this is referred to as the twin text model.  In this model teachers pair an historical fiction with a primary or secondary source. Bringing together these types of texts begins the process of unraveling how history is interpreted and retold, thereby, making ordinary lives more accessible.  In this decoding process students begin to see that an individual person’s life, for example, might be affected by a law or an historic time period.  And further, multiple individuals’ perspectives may shape a society’s response to a given moment in time.  

Ok. That was the preamble…. Now, here comes my Eureka moment about infusing technology into an old history lesson.  

Wait for it:

 I discovered a multitude of pod and vodcasts that were so powerful that K-6, 6-12, and university students alike will be able to really discover history in a fresh and first hand way.  For example, National Geographic has a two-minute riveting vodcast on a pair of shoes found among the Titanic’s debris scatter at the bottom of the ocean, (iTunes.apple.com). Also I came across a short author interview at the Library of Congress about her book on modern North and South Korean relations, (itunes.apple.com). Talk about primary sources!  There is a vast virtual library of experts speaking about objects in their museums, the latest space explorations, the cracking of Mayan hieroglyphic codes, or why horseshoe crabs are essential to modern medicine.  These spoken-word resources are a treasure trove for your classrooms and essential in building skills for student research.  As you can tell, omitting technology is no longer an option!

Expanding one’s notion of primary and secondary texts to include the pod and vodcasts of the iTunes library will enhance and delight your classes.  Further, when paired with an historical fiction in the classroom the twin text model really comes alive. Deanne Camp (2000) explains and develops this method of teaching in her article, It Takes Two: Teaching with Twin Texts of Fact and Fiction.  She explains that by pairing a fiction book within the framework of a nonfictional source the contextual setting may be more fully comprehended than by solely reading the “sterile factual text,” (p. 400).  I would take it a step further by adding the podcast or vodcast to the students’ repertoire.  Not only are you dipping your feet into the Common Core ocean, you are guiding your students into the educational uses of the Internet, while allowing them to wade deeper into the digital media they already enjoy.  There is a veritable tidal wave of podcasts waiting for you to explore. What are you waiting for? Surf’s up!

References

Camp, D. 2000. It Takes Two: Teaching with Twin Texts of Fact and Fiction. The Reading
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The Common Core Standards webpage is a site dedicated to educators’ understanding of the new national curriculum standards in mathematics and language arts.  http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RH/6-8

Parker, W. 2009. Social Studies in Elementary Education. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

National Geographic Webcasts – Titanic’s Graveyard.  Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/titanics-graveyard/id443427694?i=115696874

Library of Congress Podcasts - Sheila Miyoshi Jager: 2013 National Book Festival. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/sheila-miyoshi-jager-2013/id700716916?i=165532713