The research article, Teaching elementary students how to interpret the past discusses the importance and difficulties of teaching elementary school children how to interpret the past. Additionally, it stresses the important of teaching children how to interpret the past, the challenges that teachers could face when attempting to interpreting the past with younger children, plus, there are suggested activities for teaching elementary students how to interpret the past.
The importance of teaching elementary school children how to interpret the past
As part of an effort to address society’s demands and prepare students for citizenry, school leaders often faced with the challenges of planning …show more content…
The must also understand that children will not interpret the past the same way an adult would, due to the ongoing cognitive development in younger children. Additionally, elementary school children have not had enough life experiences to make meaningful connections between the past and the present, at this level they interpret the past in a practical manner based on their realities, often in the moment. Therefore, teacher may need to try to view the past in the same lenses the children. Further, they are very young and have insufficient life experiences, thus have not acquired enough historical background knowledge due to the lack of formal history instruction that, given at the secondary level. Additionally, there is an enormous pressure on teacher to prepare each child to meet mandated state’s standards, thus, there is a time constraint and less focus on teacher inquiry based history in favor of fact feeding, and memorization. Our goal as teachers of social studies should be to guide students to ask questions and construct interpretation of past and current issues because even at a young age children can learn important thinking and decision-making …show more content…
The key to better social studies is teaching through understanding and compliance of standard-based and values based teaching practices, as well taking into consideration the children different learning styles, individual learning needs, individual interest and experiences, and individual life circumstances. Teacher must also teach with a purpose, but he or she must first have an understanding of what is required to be taught, and how it need to be taught, to benefit the varied learners in our classroom. ,Teachers must research creative methods, for exploring the unlimited options for meaningful teaching, and learning experiences in the classroom, that encourage the students to take part in the teaching and learning process. Activities must provide the opportunity for students to investigate, collaborate, and make inferences. Primary and secondary sources, biographies, oral histories, and films are also a great idea, for making learning fun and interested. There must be greater efforts for individualized learning while still meeting the standards across the board. Therefore, teacher will need to make the connection between the student’s interest and the curriculum, and win a way that triggers their natural creativity, to help them maximize