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GAGUINE MASTER’S PORTFOLIO

Social studies

The Candidate demonstrates understanding of the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and
structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make
these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of
the content in the areas below. Candidates demonstrate understandings, capabilities, and
practices associated with the central concepts and tools in Civics, Economics, Geography,
and History, within a framework of informed inquiry.

Social studies cover a broad range of topics, from geography to history to government.

Social studies are incredibly important for young children because it helps them to develop a

sense of themselves and their place in the world. Giving children the tools to explore what has

happened in the world to bring us to where we are now, empowers children to be change makers.

Knowing the mistakes and successes of the past informs the actions of today. This understanding

by design (UBD) unit that I wrote focused on the historical inquiry skill of multiple perspectives.

This unit uses the well-known story of The Three Little Pigs to ask children to examine the tale

from a new perspective: the wolf’s. Historical inquiry skills are important for helping students

learn to engage with history the way historians do!

Teaching children historical inquiry skills, such as examining events from multiple

perspectives, asking them to evaluate cause and effect, and looking at original documents (Lesh

2011) allows children the keys to understanding history, not just memorizing facts and dates.

This kind of in-depth investigation can start early. As you can see from my UBD unit, which is

aimed at 6 – 9-year-olds, these kinds of skills should not just be reserved for adolescent classes.

These skills should be taught early enough for children to have the confidence to probe what has

originally been accepted without question.

We want to present the heroes of history without the rose-colored glasses and allow

children a chance to understand cause and effect and how we’ve gotten where we are today. As
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Maria Montessori points out in her book Education and Peace, “Men do not fight wars because

they played with toy weapons when they were children. And teaching history based on

memorizing dates and events is certainly not the ideal method for making children want to be

heroes.” (Montessori, 2015, p.26) By teaching children the skills to answer their questions in the

area of social studies, we empower them to form their own understanding of human behavior and

give them a truer understanding of the importance of the events and people of the past. Though

my unit on the three little pigs focuses on fictional characters, it is helping to set the stage for

children to exercise their questioning skills. Not only does it raise the question of who writes a

story, but it also asks children to challenge their own perceptions of a situation.

Obviously, we can’t deliver the entire history of the human race to children. There is too

much information to cover. But if we teach them the skills and let them follow their own

interests, we allow them the gift of passion for the study of history and its heroes (or antiheroes).

“Besides these general reviews of the subject a detailed study should be made of one period,

event, or the life of some personage who has aroused the special interest. This would involve the

consultation and comparison of documents, chronicles, and portraits until a real understanding of

the subject has been achieved.” (Montessori, 1996 p.75). My unit’s main focus is a skill for

historical inquiry and by taking the time to teach this skill in a low stakes way (the story of wolf

and the pigs isn’t exactly a “hot button issue”) it allows for building this historical inquiry skill in

a fun and light way, scaffolding so that later we can look at something like the story of

Thanksgiving, and realize that perhaps there is more to the story than we’ve traditionally been

taught.

It can be a scary idea for some educators to share control of the classroom with children

by following their questions, but I think it is imperative to let children share control of what they
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learn. Allowing children a chance to ask and answer their own authentic questions (open ended

questions that probe for insight) is imperative to true understanding. Harvey and Goudvis speak

of this in their book Strategies that Work, “Authentic questions…whether asked by kids or

adults, are more likely to encourage new thinking and prompt new insight.” (Harvey & Goudvis,

2007 p.125). My UBD unit focuses on the fictional story of The Three Little Pigs, but still

teaches the idea that there is not just one side of a story. My hope is that the skills learned from

this will be transferred to many other historical inquiries in the future. By teaching skills in a way

that is interesting to the children, we can start at a young age.

Books such as a Howard Zinn’s A Young People’s History of the United States (Zinn,

2009) offer children a different view of the past, igniting interest and specifically talking about

children’s lives in the past. Children once fought for the right to be able to just be children – to

play, to be dependent on their parents, and to not have to work long hours. This is shown in the

chapter around the fight against child labor. This kind of deep investigation that follows the

child’s interest allows them to understand cause and effect, an important tool in historical

knowledge. My UBD unit, though based on the fictional story of the three little pigs and the big

bad wolf, allows children a chance to explore cause and effect and gives an opportunity to

discuss how the introduction of new information, can shift what we think about the past.

History has often been seen as stagnant and fixed, and thus often taught that way. But the

way we view and interact with our past is a dynamic and ever-changing thing. History is

constantly changing based on new evidence surfacing, so if children are taught how historians

come up with their version of events, it will allow for more cognitive flexibility in the future. By

asking children to confront what they have always considered as a “fixed” event – the story of

the big bad wolf – I am helping children to reexamine their beliefs. And by asking students to
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take on the role of someone they may not agree with in the culminative debate, I help them with

this cognitive flexibility and development of their historical empathy. “Empathy is the ultimate

historical thinking skill. Empathizing with a historical actor, idea, or action require students to

use not only historical thinking skills, but historical imagination.” (Lesh, 2011, p.155) Not only

is empathy an important historical skill, but also an important life skill. If social studies are seen

as a way to build not only historians, but also citizens of the world, then surely there is no better

civic skill than being able to empathize with your fellow human beings.

In conclusion, social studies are about examining the human condition: what we need to

survive today, how we work together and what we’ve done in the past. By framing our studies

this way, we encourage student buy in, and help them see how studying history, government and

human geography can help them become more connected to themselves. My UBD unit focuses

on the historical inquiry skills of understanding multiple perspectives and historical empathy.
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References:

Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007) Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for
understanding and engagement. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publications.

Lesh, B. (2011) Why won’t you just tell us the answer?: Teaching historical thinking in grades
7-
12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publications.

Montessori, M. (2015) Education and peace. Amsterdam: Montessori-Pierson Publishing.

Montessori, M. (1996) From childhood to adolescence. Amsterdam: Montessori-Pierson

Publishing Company.

Zinn, H. (2009). A young people’s history of the United States. New York: Seven Stories Press.