Vonnahme Master’s Portfolio 1

Social Studies

Samantha Vonnahme

ED 698 Master’s Portfolio Spring 2024

University of Alaska Southeast

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Every person in our world lives in an area, community, town, or city that belongs inside

of a country or continent. Many places and people share similarities, but we all conform to

specific cultures and ways of being, each dictating their own styles of communication, family

norms, education beliefs, government practices, and religions. These cultures and common

societal expectations have evolved and shifted through time and historic influences often

continue to play a part in various aspects of modern life.

Based on this reality, I believe geography, citizenship, and history—tenets of social

studies expectations—should be of vital importance in school curriculum. The National Council

for the Social Studies (2017) supports this position, arguing that social studies instruction will

help prepare students to successfully understand and participate in a progressively diverse

world. On the contrary, social studies is being taught at lower and lower rates in primary school

classrooms, even as technology allows people, groups, and cultures that were once alienated to

interact and mingle in ways heretofore unknown. The abundance of content available in social

studies is daunting, and it might seem impossible to make time in an already taxed schedule,

but I believe it is necessary. One way to deal with the abundance of content is to approach

social studies tasks through inquiry, as Stefoff & Zinn (2007) suggest. My students are naturally

curious anyway, and their questions offer excellent opportunities to think critically about things

that happened in the “olden days”, as one of my students would put it.

At the kindergarten and 1st grade level, the grades I currently instruct, the building

blocks of social studies concepts begin in small, local ways, so as to have a foundation upon

which to build understanding of more complex and far-reaching concepts later on. This is a

perspective to which Bruce Lesh (2011) also adheres. His belief is that history and social studies
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require an approach to teaching that is similar to other content areas, in which students are

clearly taught the tools necessary to comprehend how knowledge is created.

The passion project from ED 618 is a fitting exploration into a local area of Alaska. It is

fitting because I think it is important for young students to first understand their local area

geographically, culturally, and historically, before delving into the broader world around them.

The project was, of course, based on my own passion for the land, which is not typically the

base upon which I would plan social studies learning. I would rather focus on student interest

and questions, an approach that pushes students toward a higher level of thinking according to

Harvey & Goudvis (2017). It is still important, however, for a teacher to communicate some

excitement for the topic to garner student interest, no matter where the idea originated.

The focus on Alaskan history is prioritized in our Alaska state standards and it

encourages educators to incorporate their local history into their teaching. My passion project

accomplishes this very well and proceeds from an inquiry approach, as supported by Harvey &

Goudvis (2017), by beginning with the question, “How did the Valdez and Copper River Gold

Rush change the population of Southcentral Alaska physically and culturally?” The approach is

suitable, but I now find the question to be too broad and tough to transfer even though leading

critical thinkers like Zinn (2007) might applaud the honest approach. It could be revised as

follows: “Does rapid change cause permanent results?” This question is so simple I could even

explore it in my K-1 class,. We could transfer the question to science by experimenting on ice.

Will melting the ice change its state forever? The question can also be applied to art by

exploring mixing colors. Can we change green back to yellow and blue after mixing them?
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While I try to incorporate local touchpoints into our social studies content regularly, I

don’t often get to the history standards the state expects. I have done lessons on Elizabeth

Peratrovich and invited a teacher to come speak about her Alaska Native culture, but these

lessons are often few and far between, not really creating a lasting impact on student thinking

and experience. Outside of the realm of Alaska we have focused on several historical figures

through integrated art projects, though these too have the problem of being out of context

with other learning we are exploring. I do believe, however, that we have had some important

discussions about these historical figures and it has not been without benefit. During a lesson

on Jackie Robinson that began with a read-aloud, one of the boys commented, “I don’t think I

would’ve done that to other people. I mean…” The boy looked down at his arm and then looked

back up at me, “I am white, but I think that I would have been nice to black people.” At the time

I was taken aback. Had I just caused this boy to recognize there was a difference in skin color

among those in our class? Would it not have been better to allow him to live in ignorant bliss,

or were the early beginnings of critical thought worth it, like Zinn (2007) might claim?

Critical thought has become a meaningful goal for social studies instruction. Rather than

feed the class names, dates, and anecdotes, as Lesh (2011) notes have been the goal since the

inception of history teaching, the goal of social studies is to give students the tools and

strategies they need to gather information and ask questions—civically, geographically, and

historically—that will render a measured verdict; a purposeful way of interpreting the world

around us. The curriculum adopted by the school where I work is not an example of rigorous

instruction toward critical thought, but it does center students in understanding of their local

community, geographic area, culture, and vocations, as well as how those same themes are
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present throughout the world. I will often tweak each lesson so that it can connect to student

background knowledge and the format of the curriculum makes it simple to achieve. Their

approach is largely hands-on and non-sequential; the themes don’t build on each other.

Additionally, there is little content on history, but the units align with Alaska’s geography,

government, and citizenship standards.

Social studies seems to be a subject that is tacked onto a core area lesson as an

afterthought, or “marginally related”, according to the National Council for Social Studies

(2017). Either that, or teachers only have time for one or two dedicated social studies lessons in

the week. I can’t imagine a time when I would have been able to teach the series of lessons

necessary for my passion project within the constraints of required literacy and math

instruction time we have now. Unfortunately, my efforts to dedicate time to social studies have

not been consistent. One of the alternatives to dedicated time would be an integrated

approach. In the past, I have been guilty of integrating content areas merely to check a box or

to provide a fun activity. I did not understand the importance of keeping the integrity of each

content area and making sure there were standards for both at the heart of a lesson. I didn’t

realize I needed to strike a balance between what Lesh (2011) claims rests between too much

process and too much content. Understanding still needs to be intact at the end of a lesson.

In my passion project, it was a natural part of the question to involve art as an

integrated subject. The effects of the gold rush continue over 100 years later, yet if you look at

the area from above, the landscape remains unchanged. Whether this teaches us that looks can

be deceiving, or my original idea that people can change but their environment may not, a core

area of both art and social studies was explored: perspective. It was therefore acceptable to
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integrate the two. As I teach in my classroom now, I find that our morning meeting presents a

natural arena for social studies integration. In our morning meeting we move through four

tasks: greeting, sharing, activity, and message. It is a practice I implement to foster

community—one of the very topics necessary in the teaching of citizenship and government.

We first greet each other to nurture a welcoming environment. This type of social and

emotional work also lends itself to civics—a vital part of our later democratic participation

according to Harvey & Goudvis (2017). In addition, we occasionally greet each other in a

manner common with other cultures. We have said good morning in Spanish, French, German,

and others. During the sharing time one of my practices is to ask the students, especially at the

beginning of the year, questions about their families, homes, interests, favorite foods, and

favorite holidays. Even though the questions are not necessarily critical, I think the practice

lends itself to the practice of inquiry that Zinn (2007) proposes. It is also a great time to discuss

and appreciate the differences and similarities we find between people in our classroom, a

method of teaching social studies practiced by Harvey & Goudvis (2017), as well.

Much of the assessment for social studies can be done by observation and checking in

on student thinking through formative assessment. This approach is beneficial according to a

claim by Harvey and Goudvis (2017) that the journey may be even more important than the

final destination. At the beginning of the year when we started learning the pledge of

allegiance, I explained that saying the pledge was a way to say thank you to those who have

fought for our country. I related the military to several of our students whom I knew had

parents in the army and made sure to impart the serious nature of the recitation. A few weeks

ago, and many months after my initial instruction, a student blurted out, “Why do we say the
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pledge?” I answered, “Remember, to say thank you to people in the military.” “What’s that?”

they replied. Evidently, I had never checked in on student learning, nor had we revisited the

concept of the pledge. Had I done so, I might have discovered earlier that there were students

who hadn’t retained any understanding.

Like the painting in my passion project, some lessons can be wrapped up with a

culminating project to show learning. The painting would certainly need to be accompanied by

a verbal presentation, but this type of assessment can be deep and meaningful in social studies.

I have struggled with culminating projects in the past and have been working on growth this

year. One of my victories came in the form of a social studies lesson about places we can buy

things around town. I never intended to have a summative assessment, but several of the

students began asking me if they could have their own stores. I looked at them and thought,

why not? Afterwards, the kids learned to brainstorm ideas with a group, advertise, create

money, request materials, work with a manager, manufacture products, make purchases, and

run a store. Letting them lead the direction of the lesson led us to a way of measuring learning

that had much more depth than making a list of local stores.

In my current struggle to make time for social studies, I am focusing on implementing

“researchers workshop”, an idea from Harvey & Goudvis (2017), as a time we can focus on

investigating topics of interest—either rooted in social studies or science—then work on our

writing, reading, and speaking skills to research and then present our knowledge. This is an

approach like that of Lesh’s (2011) history lab for secondary students, a time in which questions

are key. In our workshop, I want the students to view various subjects as an opportunity to be

curious and ask questions, to “spur curiosity and spark exploration” as Harvey & Goudvis (2017)
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write. We can then go about answering the queries in engaging and purposeful ways. I have

made the mistake too often of asking for student opinion on what they want to know, making a

list, then disregarding the list. I can guarantee that any number of things the students are

interested in could be woven into the existing reading units to create an atmosphere of learning

that does support some of the very things that make us human and unique. Social studies is too

important to be an add-on. I think it will be worth the work to make sure it is not.
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References

Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2017). Strategies that work; Teaching comprehension for

engagement, understanding, and building knowledge, grades K-8 (3rd ed.). Stenhouse

Publishers. Pembroke Publishers.

Lesh, B.A., (2011). Why won’t you just tell us the answer?: Teaching historical thinking in grades

7-12. Stenhouse Publishers.

National Council for the Social Studies. (2016). Powerful, purposeful pedagogy in elementary

school social studies. Social Education, 81(3), 186– 189.

https://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/articles/se_810317186.pdf

Stefoff, R., & Zinn, H. (2007). A young people’s history of the United States. Seven Stories

Press.