Teaching About Famous People in History

Kirsten 1:06

This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know if you southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Hello, welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. Hope you're having a great day. And it's hard to believe it's already the middle of the month and tomorrow is Valentine's Day. So I'm super excited to continue this talk on all things nonfiction, I know this time of year, especially if you're a social studies and ELA teacher. A lot of the time we're thinking literary nonfiction, biographies, autobiographies famous people in history. So I thought this would be the perfect topic to talk about.

Thinking about famous people in history and how to actually teach about famous people in history, sometimes it's not a super easy thing to do. The best thing I love about teaching about famous people is that it's fascinating. It lets us travel back in time and discover amazing people who have shaped our world, good or bad. Teaching about these historical figures can be exciting, especially for upper elementary students who may have never heard of these people, and really just kind of understanding the general context of these events and where these people fit into those historical events. So today, we're going to be going through some simple steps on how to teach about famous people in history. I'm going to walk you through the eight steps and then we'll dive deeper into each step.

So the first step, choose relevant figures. Step two, establish context. Step three, develop engaging lesson plans. Step four. humanize historical figures. Step five, incorporate primary sources. Step six, encourage research and inquiry. Step seven, connect to present day relevance. And Step eight, assess understanding. So we're going to break it down starting with step one.

So choosing relevant figures. Selecting the right historical figures is important. You want to make sure you're thinking about people who have played significant roles in shaping the world and are relevant to the curriculum thinking about What is in your pacing guide, what you're supposed to be teaching during this time of year and how you can fit in specific people. Let's say you are teaching about US history. And maybe during this time of year, a lot of the focus is on the Civil War. So you could be thinking about relevant figures during this time period, you can think about figures on the union side, such as Ulysses S Grant. Or you can think about people on the opposite side, the Confederate side, such as Robert E. Lee, both important generals on different sides with different beliefs. And you can also be thinking about people such as Abraham Lincoln, and Harriet Tubman, and a variety of people just in the context of the specific event of the Civil War. The main thing also is to make sure you're ensuring that there is a diverse representation to promote inclusivity and expose students to a variety of perspectives. Rather than just focusing on maybe the President or major generals, you can also see if you can research and find individuals that might have had an important role. Maybe in the side of African Americans, there were plenty of African Americans fighting in the Civil War on both sides. There are also indigenous groups, and just a variety of individuals that might have a unique perspective. And just make sure to choose relevant figures that are kind of diversely, representing, you know, men, women, young people, older people, all kinds of people, as many people as you can try to find for that specific topic that you're going to be teaching.

Step number two is to establish context. So before going deep into the lives of these specific people, make sure to give students the necessary historical context. We don't want to just go straight into Okay, Abraham Lincoln, here's some information on this guy, we got to kind of set a background of where he even fits in, and how maybe he might have helped contribute to the Civil War, not necessarily him himself, but just different actions he might have taken. Help them understand the time period any societal norms, beliefs, and major events that influence this person's life. This foundation setting the scene will help make the stories more relatable and understanding a lot of the units that I have for my social studies curriculum, you'll see that the very first lesson is not ever going to be talking about a specific person and diving into different figures. There's always going to be some type of introduction, I'm setting the scene and then towards the middle of those lessons in the unit, you're going to see important figures in that specific time period or unit.

Step number three is to develop engaging lesson plans. Make sure to create dynamic lesson plans that are incorporating a variety of teaching methods, different multimedia resources, you can even try to get guest speakers who are really knowledgeable about these specific people or topic, interactive activities to cater to a variety of learning styles you might have in your classroom, encouraged discussions, creative projects to help students actively stay engaged with the specific content.

Step number four is to humanize the historical figures bring history to life by humanizing the individuals you're teaching about. You could share personal anecdotes, maybe some specific direct quotes they might have said or even if you can get some voices, that's even more powerful. I was recently watching a documentary on Netflix. And it was about World War Two behind the frontlines. I believe that's exactly what the title was, or similar title. And really, really chilling was hearing the voice of Winston Churchill, and a variety of other figures that were integral leaders that were integral in the conflict. And specifically, one of the things I remember was when Winston Churchill had his what is probably known as his most famous speech and they had an excerpt of him in the audio saying, you know, we shall go on to the end we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost, may be. That was a very, very powerful way to integrate. You know how he was. It just helped bring more depth to the situation in World War Two that I was watching So, if you're able to get audio, video, maybe just anything as much as you can about these specific people, that really makes a huge difference, highlighting their struggles achievements, it can help foster empathy and connection with the students as they're kind of seeing the human side of these historical icons.

Moving on to Step Five incorporate primary sources. I have an episode that I've recently talked about about primary sources, but giving any type of letters, diaries and speeches, as I recently said about, you know, with Winston Churchill, that will be a primary source. This is giving first hand accounts of these historical events. Analyzing these sources will help enhance student's critical thinking skills, and deepen their understanding.

Step number six, encourage research and inquiry. This is also a recent episode I have and I'll make sure to try to link that so that you can use that as a source gives students the power to take an active role in their learning, by assigning some type of research projects, provide guidance on reliable sources, and encourage them to explore different parts of that person's life and how they might have made an impact whether that's positive impact, or a negative impact. This can help promote just being more independent and have more autonomy on their learning, and also create a deeper connection to the material that they're learning about

step number seven, connecting to present day relevance. How is what happened related to what's happening today? Or how can we learn from these actions for today and kind of carry it on into the future? So make sure to show the relevance of historical figures to contemporary issues? How does that carry over, discuss how actions and ideologies of these individuals continue to influence society today, foster discussions on how this could have a lasting impact of their contributions, really easy thing to think about is civil rights movement, and how that came to a head in the 50s and 60s with Martin Luther King Jr. and other people like Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, all these people who kind of had a roll into helping eradicate segregation, and just general inequalities among people of color, and how that might still be kind of on the surface today, just in a different way, not as outwardly noticeable, it's kind of more passively noticeable. And of course, without going into like, you know, you keep it as appropriate to students as possible. We don't want to come at people or certain groups of people. But we also want to kind of kind of see how what's happening now, or what we might hear or concepts or phrases, how that might be detrimental, and where it relates back into history. You really want to make sure you're keeping the content and the situations appropriate. But you still like that's just a very surface level example, you can easily integrate this into other content or context as well.

Alright, step number eight, assess understanding. So basically, check for understanding make sure students are understanding what's happening. You can do this through quizzes, presentations, or have students creating presentations, reflective essays, and writing prompts, provide constructive feedback to guide their understanding and encourage maybe, you know, get them to research even further beyond. After the units over and you move on to something else, maybe they continue to want to learn more about that specific content. So it's kind of encouraging ongoing curiosity about history.

So those are the eight steps. Teaching about famous people in history is a very powerful tool for instilling a love of learning, as well as a sense of connection to the past. By following these steps, you can easily create a dynamic and meaningful experience that equips students with a very solid understanding of individuals who have helped shape our world. Through thoughtful planning and engagement. You can inspire the next generation to appreciate the lessons of history and applying them to our lives. So we do not repeat history again.

All right. Hopefully this episode was insightful and helpful to you as you're planning and implementing your social studies lessons. I will talk to you again next week. I hope you have a wonderful day. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. You You enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies

Share Episode

Shownotes

Transcripts

Follow

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube