Building a strong foundation for success: Elementry history-social science

Social Studies Review, Fall 2001 by Hill, Margaret

Never before has the interest in education been stronger than in the last decade. The entire nation is focused on improving student performance in schools. Not only has the funding allocation for schools increased, but almost every state has developed rigorous standards for teachers and for students, backed by a high stakes testing program. This new focus on achievement is resulting in measurable improvement. But, are we improving student performance in the areas that educators, the public, and parents have identified as the most important purposes of education? In the schools and classrooms where history-- social science education has been given limited time or emphasis in the school day, the answer is no.

Not only do educational pundits such as William Bennett, E.D. Hirsch, Robert Reich, and Peter Drucker advocate schools that create "knowledge workers" and responsible citizens, but this view has been re-enforced at countless presentations that I have made all over the state. When asking groups to list the five most important things that successful people need to learn in school it is invariably the same list. They think the purpose of public schools is for all its graduates to be able to

* Get along well with and respect others in a diverse society

* Learn new things and solve problems/deal with change

* Be a productive worker in the global economy

* Participate effectively as a citizen in the 21 st century

* Develop a sense of personal fulfillment/happiness

Some groups were more into the last idea and others more into the first, but everyone had the middle three. Everyone thought these were the main purpose of all levels of education. A reflective look at the list shows that each of these attributes involve the development of advanced levels of history-social science skills and knowledge.

If this is the case, then why are so many elementary teachers reporting that reading and math have been allotted almost all the time in the school day and that the social studies curriculum has been relegated to a half hour experience two or three times per week? Testing of course. When only reading/language arts and math are assessed at the elementary school level, it is perceived that performance on a standardized test is related directly to instructional time in teaching those subjects. To improve performance, schools are told to focus instruction on these areas. However, a careful analysis of the reading samples and questions on the standardized tests leads one to a different conclusion. From forty percent to two-thirds of the readings from which questions are drawn are from expository text. Of those, the majority are from one of the history-social science fields. In addition, the narrative selections are often derived from a piece of folklore that requires some cultural understanding by the reader in order for them to interpret meaning.

High reading performance is more than recognizing words. It is a matter of comprehension. I will define that concept as the making of meaning from a passage, drawing inferences, or analyzing text information. This process requires that the reader put information in context, categorize and relate ideas, and summarize and restate information. This is learned first with narrative, and expanded with content rich, expository text. History-- social science is the best context in which to teach these skills. Since social studies content is derived from multiple sources, each can be used and the information derived compared. For example, there are many Native American legends and stories for young people. These can be used as the first step in comprehension by reading and retelling the stories. The second level of comprehension can be attained through comparing the perspectives and cultures expressed across several simple narratives. But until these stories are validated with nonfiction sources, the understanding remains superficial. The context for, the relative importance of, and the relationship of a story to the culture is created through nonfiction material and primary resources. Other sources such as maps, charts, and speakers enrich the study further. When this process is complete, the "movie of the mind" that a student has when reading or hearing the words Native American in any setting, whether in an assessment situation, secondary classroom, or a community context, will be very different from the student who has not had this educational experience. He/she will make meaning and infer relationships at a much higher level. This ability to make meaning will positively impact his/her ability to perform well on standardized assessments, but also to extrapolate such concepts as Manifest Destiny in the secondary or college classroom in a much more sophisticated manner. Most important, he/she will have gained a respect and understanding for the richness and diversity of a culture group with whom he/she will interact throughout life.

The deep comprehension level described above is predicated on systematic experience with history-social science content knowledge and processing skills. But what are these skills? The California History-Social Science Framework and Content Standards has done an excellent job of outlining a core sets of topics, ideas, and skills to be mastered. This content is built sequentially upon the foundations established in the elementary grades. If these foundations are not built, the curriculum of upper elementary, middle and high school is not comprehensible. Key ideas upon which all later learning are built include the concept of place, and how it is represented by maps, the idea of regions, and the way that locations change or are changed by human activity. The concept of history relies on the development of a strong sense of chronology and the connections between past and present, and present and future. History and geography are at the center of this content. But good social studies is much more than a march through time, and a memorized list of places and geographic facts that a textbook driven curriculum often becomes. History-social science is asking questions and using different lens and perspectives to examine reality.