Theory of Action

Teaching History in Elementary School

Michelle Jaconette
High Tech High Graduate School of Education

Issue/Focus of Practice
During this turbulent time in our country there has been a call to action on many fronts for Americans to
reevaluate the way we view our history, the heroes we honor, and the language we use when describing
historical events. As teachers, this is not just a call to action but a catalyst for an overhaul of our curriculum.
After all, we are the ones largely responsible for either perpetuating or overturning the way American History is
taught.
While a critical analysis of “typical” history curricula is not new, the importance of making a concerted
effort to enact change is pressing. Gone are the days of celebrating Columbus’ “brave discovery of the New
World” with a day off in October without acknowledging the thousands of lives lost and lands destroyed at his
hands. Our history can no longer be a one-sided story.
As elementary school teachers, the burden of retelling history is compounded by the nature of our young
population and the ability of small children to grasp complex topics like racial injustice or the importance of a
multi-perspective approach to history. Although we are a project based learning school, and our
teacher-designed projects can span a range of topics, rarely do teachers at High Tech Elementary elect to
incorporate history into their projects, especially in the lower elementary grades.

Although it is a challenging and daunting task, our school serves a diverse population of students who
deserve to see themselves and their histories reflected in their learning, and research suggests students are more
engaged when they see themselves represented in curriculum (Korbey, 2018). Well over half of our students
identify as an ethnicity other than White, and yet it is often only the White perspective of history that gets time
in the spotlight. Non-white stories deserve to be told, and non-white children deserve to see themselves and
their histories represented in our content.

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Root Cause Analysis
After surveying teachers in each grade level at High Tech Elementary, it is clear that the root cause for a
lack of history in elementary projects is lack of interest which I believe is also tied to a lack of support or
professional development around teaching history. The chart below captures data from eight teachers
representing grades K-5 and Exploratory.

As elementary teachers we focus heavily on building literacy and math skills. History is an afterthought, if it
even is one, despite there being History-Social Science standards at each grade level K-12 for public schools in
California. In the six years that I have taught at HTe, not once as a staff have we discussed teaching history to
our students outside of a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History during the month of February.
I have identified some possible root causes in the following Fishbone Diagram:

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With so much else to cover and prepare students for before they leave elementary school, it is no wonder that
history isn’t given more time at center stage. Add to that the fact that most standardized tests don’t assess
history knowledge (VanSledright, 2012) and the issue is even further compounded. After all, if students struggle
with basic reading, that will greatly affect their ability to engage with historical texts or wrestle with complex
issues. Or will it? Is there a way to teach the themes of American History in a way that is engaging, liberating,
and all-encompassing while at the same time accessible to all levels of learners?
Research suggests that although young children can struggle to grasp concepts of time, especially if the
time spans many centuries, it is possible to teach history through themes of storytelling (Hodge, 1988).
Understanding is also heightened when historical events are taught through themes rather than chronologically
(Zinn, 1994). Young students are also able to use historical texts to practice critical reading skills, such as
understanding cause and effect and chronology, in a historical context (Aguilar, 2010). It has also been
determined that teaching students about their history and their role in society encourages them to be more
civically involved when they are older. They view themselves as having value in the civil process (Ruben,
2010). Even students as young as four or five years old showed signs of understanding both historical facts and
concepts (Skjæveland, 2017) even though they still lacked some ability to grasp more complex aspects of
history. Research suggests, in large part, that it is not only possible but beneficial to start introducing history to
students as early as Kindergarten.

Preliminary Theory of Action

The aim for my work is that by the fall of 2021 HTe will see an increase in the number of teachers who
plan to incorporate history as a main focus in their current or future project plans. According to data gathered
from a survey of eight teachers across K-5 and Exploratory, many teachers would find lesson study
opportunities and a sample project outline or calendar beneficial in helping them include more history into their
project plans. The chart below shows this data:

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In order to support teachers in incorporating history into their project plans, I have developed the below Driver
Diagram to map out my action steps:

History cannot and should not be taught using antiquated textbooks and traditional approaches.
Textbooks often fail to incorporate multiple, and especially competing, points of view (Wineburg, 2007). It is
that multi-perspectiveness that needs to be at the forefront of history curricula, and that can help students
develop a critical and analytical approach to learning. History is also a great context in which to practice
analyzing sources and analyzing the validity of the information they consume (Wineburg, 2004).
I believe that Project Based Learning provides the ideal platform for a study of history. In order to help
teachers at my school develop history projects and content, I plan to begin with creating a sample project plan
with a calendar and sample lessons for lower and upper elementary teachers. I have already developed an
American History project plan that could be used in grades 3-5 which I am implementing with my 4th grade
team this year, and can easily add sample lessons and resources for teachers who might be interested in pursuing
this project next year. I next plan to adapt the outline we are using to be suitable for lower elementary grades, as
well.
Once I can gauge the interest in teaching history among our staff, I would like to support a group of
teachers who would be interested in doing lesson studies and collaborating with one another on this work. The
benefit of a lesson study group is that teachers would get real-time feedback on lessons so that they can make
changes and improvements as the project progresses. In theory, lesson study groups would not add any extra
work to teachers’ plates and would instead aid in the planning and implementation of project work and lessons
that are already being done.
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Methods
This project took place among three 4th grade classrooms during the 2020-2021 school year at High Tech
Elementary in Point Loma. While the history project as a whole took place from September to June, the
majority of this research and subsequent findings took place between the months of October to April. The 4th
Grade Team consists of three General Education teachers and one Educational Specialist who collaborated
together to both design, modify and implement the project. The primary methods of data collection were
classroom observations, as well as staff surveys and interviews.

This project took place during the COVID-19 Pandemic which severely limited our ability to collaborate as a
team and make in-the-moment changes to our work. We also conducted all of our lessons during this time
online using Zoom, and while students were able to work in small groups for parts of this project, remote
learning severely impacted their ability to collaborate. The pandemic also added an immense amount of stress
and pressure to our staff as we had to design, from scratch, an online PBL curriculum. This left everyone
stretched very thin, and many staff members who hoped to participate in this project were ultimately not able to
commit to the time and energy it takes to tackle teaching something brand new and unfamiliar.

As a veteran teacher and founding faculty member at our school, I recognize that I have a lot of clout when it
comes to 4th grade team decisions and project ideas. I know that my two teammates, “Sara” and “Emily,” who
agreed to engage in this work with me could have felt pressured to do so because of my positionality and tenure.
I also have a close relationship with our current school director, which gives me privilege to assume leadership
roles and opportunities, such as leading professional development.

Findings
Do the Project First

“Do the project first” is an adage that those of us who have been around High Tech for any length of
time are intimately familiar with. It sounds obvious, but doing the work yourself before asking others to
do the work is a key step that often gets overlooked for sake of time. When it came to imagining how I
might go about encouraging other grade levels at my school to take on teaching history as a main
component of their project design, it was imperative that I try it myself first. I have taught trimester-long
history projects for the past five years, so I knew that incorporating small amounts of history into Project
Based Learning was certainly possible and enjoyable for both myself and my students. However, in
order to see just how far I could stretch a history PBL project, I decided to take on a year-long 4th grade
history project.

My first change idea was to expand a history project where we covered just the California Gold Rush in
about three months to include four other key moments in American History over the course of our
nine-month school year. I began by first looking at the History-Social Science Content Standards for
California Public Schools just to see what it outlined as history content for each grade. I was pleasantly
surprised to find robust standards for elementary grades K-5! As my research into history curriculum
continued, I found plenty of wonderful examples of ways teachers have brought the study of history into
the twenty-first century. Gone are the lessons focused on memorizing dates, wars and world leaders.
Instead I found common threads of identifying themes throughout history, delving deep into one
particular period or event from multiple perspectives, and treating historical events as narratives to be
told and analyzed (Caldwell, n.d.). I also found evidence of educators embracing “hard history” and the
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 importance of surfacing issues such as slavery, human rights, the Holocaust and 9/11 with young
children (Keenan, 2018). Interlaced through all of this modern history curriculum I found a push for
anti-racist, anti-biased education and the urgency for all students, regardless of race, to feel as though
their people and their histories are seen and appreciated (Hawthorn, 2021).

Armed with this knowledge, I set out to create a 4th grade history scope and sequence that would focus
on several key events or time periods throughout American History and intentionally elevate non-white
voices and experinces. In light of the 2020-2021 social movements surrounding race and representation,
our school has chosen to examine ways that we can be more anti-biased and anti-racist in our teaching
practices and projects. Amplifying non-white histories seemed like a good vehicle to use to begin this
work with myself, my team, and our students. Separating the year into thirds, each section in the scope
and sequence covers different historical content centered around universal themes such as power and
privilege, and asks essential questions such as, “Why is it important to study historical events from
multiple perspectives?” And “How is power gained and maintained throughout history?” I presented this
scope and sequence to my teaching team, and was delighted to hear that they were on board. The next
task was turning this scope and sequence into something engaging and impactful for our students.

Doing the project first allowed me to identify where challenge points would be, such as gathering
sources that were geared towards elementary aged students or finding activities that were suitable for
students to do both in person and online as we began this year fully remote and ended teaching in a
hybrid model. When talking with my team and with other teachers at our school about our history
project ideas, it was nice to have some of these kinks worked out in order to give better advice. Doing
the project first also allowed for us to fine-tune some aspects, especially one of our final products. We
had originally intended for the students to create history curriculum and activities for other students their
age. However, due to the constraints of working remotely, we ultimately decided that making digital
content in the form of news videos was more manageable and relatable. Not to mention, history makes a
great news story.

Teach History as a Story

After getting my coworkers excited about teaching history and developing an outline of a plan that
would get us through the year, the next step was to get the kids excited. This turned out to be incredibly
easy. A common thread of wisdom woven throughout my research was the insistence that history should
be taught in the same way we teach literature (Hodge, 1988). Begin with the characters, analyze the plot,
predict outcomes, look for themes and discuss perspective and point of view (Aguilar, 2010). Any
teacher or parent will tell you that kids love stories, and this applies to histories, too.

In past years, when teaching history I usually started with a timeline. However, for my next change idea,
rather than starting with places and dates we focused on creating lessons centered around characters,
events and themes. My two teammates both had little experience teaching history prior to this project,
and when asked to complete a survey about their confidence in teaching history before beginning this
project and after, their results and thoughts were very similar.

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When I asked Sara to elaborate on her answers above she said, “When I first had my own classroom we
were expected to teach some history that was mostly based around geography. I didn’t really like
teaching it because it seemed boring and not very useful to my 5th graders. They couldn’t really relate to
what we were talking about besides needing to know it to do well on their exams.” In all of my research,
and in talking with other teachers, the idea that history was tough to teach because kids couldn’t relate or
didn’t see the value or real-world application was a common thread. However, approaching history in
the same way we would approach teaching a novel opens up a whole new avenue through which to
explore the past.

Learning about Christopher Columbus’ savage rampage through the Bahamas isn’t any fun if all you
know is that he “sailed the ocean blue in 1492.” But when presented with opposing perspectives, such as
Columbus’ desire to find gold on an island where gold did not exist, and the conflict that arose between
his crew and the native Taino people, things become much more engaging. The basic format for each of
our lessons was to present a story from multiple perspectives and allow the students time to grapple with
the facts and form their own conclusions. We used tactics commonly employed when teaching reading
such as identifying main characters and thinking about their motivations. “It helped a lot to pre-plan our
lessons and come up with thoughtful and deep questions we could ask our students to think about,”
shared Emily while we were discussing what helped build her confidence in teaching history. “I think
having such a good plan helped us guide the kids through conversations that went deeper than just
surface-level facts and information. They really had to think critically about what they were learning.”
The kids seemed to enjoy this approach as well. They were surprised to learn about different sides of a
historically one-sided story, and we had many discussions around why one perspective often dominates
the narrative. This was a theme that would carry through the rest of our work as well.

I feel it is important to acknowledge that we began a history project shortly after Lin Manuel Miranda’s
Hamilton hit Disney+ which further helped to spark the joy and interest in American History in our
students. I question whether their enthusiasm would have been as great had this not been the case. Many
of my students had seen the film and were able to connect what they had seen on screen with what we
were talking about in class when it came time to cover the American Revolution. One student in
particular lit up when she realized that while we were talking about the Boston Tea Party from the
perspective of the frustrated American colonists, it was also just as frustrating for King George III that
his colony was rebelling against him! Cue, “You’ll Be Back.”

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Being a Content Expert is Not As Important As You Think

During a team discussion towards the beginning of this project, both of my teammates expressed
concern over not knowing enough history content to be able to teach our students. This was a common
theme I found in much of my research as well. Often history gets left on the back burner because for
many teachers it has been years since they have studied history themselves, let alone developed history
curricula or lessons for students. “This seems like something we really don’t want to get wrong, and I’m
not sure I remember enough from when I was in school to teach this well,” said one of my teammates
during a planning session.

So how do we tackle teaching something we don’t feel like experts in? As it turns out, the power of not
knowing is almost more valuable. We can be facilitators of learning, rather than regurgitators of direct
instruction (Alder, 2017). We can model for our students how to look up information and cross-reference
credible sources to make sure what we are reading is valid. We can practice inferring, and making
guesses based on what we do know. We can learn alongside our students. This is exactly what we did.
I soon started to notice that some of my students were independently looking up information they
wanted to know more about, too. At the start of each day I would share a short “on this day in history”
fact that would often prompt discussion. Eventually, when a student would ask a question I didn’t
immediately have an answer for, a couple kids would chime in with phrases like, “I just looked it up and
it says…” or “I just read that…” which then led us into an authentic conversation about credible online
sources.

In reflecting with Sara and Emily towards the end of the first part of our project, I asked if they felt like
they were able to keep up with the content and answer questions the kids had asked. “Oh, I just Googled
stuff in front of the kids!” Emily said. “It was great, I showed them how to use the Google search bar
and how to write a question that Google could answer.” Sara and I nodded in agreement, as we both
used the phrase “I’m not sure, let’s look it up” quite frequently in class ourselves. Modeling this
behavior is important for students. It shows them that it’s okay not to know everything, and that being
able to look for answers to questions we have is something we all do, even adults. I never want to seem
like I am the expert of all things, because that impacts my positionality as an “authority” in the
classroom.

Small Steps are Better than No Steps at All

With a love for history blooming in 4th grade, my next change idea was to spread this love to the rest of
my colleagues. I firmly believe that teaching history is possible at any age level, and it also goes
beautifully hand-in-hand with the anti-racist, anti-bias work and training that our staff is currently
undergoing. If we can change the way young children learn about our history, we can liberate the many
voices and perspectives that have been intentionally silenced for centuries.

I met with my director to talk about doing some project ideation and project tunings with a history focus
shortly after our staff returned from Winter Break. I had sent an initial survey asking our staff how many
of them would be interested in incorporating history into their current or next project. Much to my
delight, 81.3% indicated that they would be interested!

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I also asked our staff to tell me where they were in their project work at this point in the year so that I would
know how to best serve them during my PD.

For the teams who selected either “Project Ideation Protocol” or “Project Tuning Protocol” I adapted the
existing protocols to include an intentional history focus. On the day of our PD, I worked with Kindergarten and
First Grade teams to ideate on a new project that would include elements of history that were developmentally
appropriate for our youngest population. Our project ideation centered primarily around helping their students
understand their own family histories and share these histories with their classmates. First Grade hoped to do a
project that involved students mapping their neighborhoods, and Kindergarten wanted to focus on family history
through interviews and recipes. I shared with these teams the California history standards for each grade when
they asked for a jumping-off point for inspiration as to what they could potentially cover.

I was briefly able to join in on the discussions happening in Third and Second grade as well, and was dismayed
to find that although teachers in those grades had indicated that they were interested in incorporating history
into their projects, they chose not to use the history protocols during this PD. I reached out to a few teachers on
these teams after the PD to see if I could offer any support, and the overall consensus was that taking on
something new turned out to be too daunting at a time when teachers are struggling to keep engagement up
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during month nine of teaching online.

Given the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, I chose not to push the issue. Despite what I know
were everyone’s best intentions in indicating on the survey that they wanted to teach more history, for many this
was not the time to try to step out of their comfort zones. This year teachers have had to invent and reinvent
what it means to teach elementary school online, and what our priorities are. Understandably, taking on a brand
new project idea was not a top priority for most. However, it’s important to celebrate small steps in the right
direction (like Kinder and 1st Grade’s project plans!) rather than to feel dejected that others weren’t yet in a
place to do so. I intend to continue to be a vocal advocate and resource for the teaching of history at High Tech
Elementary. I believe that it is an important way to move closer to our goals of equity, and enlighten students to
our past in order to connect them to our present. I believe that young children can grapple with and explore
“hard history” in an environment where they feel safe enough and brave enough to do so. I believe that although
there is still much that needs to be done, and undone, we’re well on our way.

Conclusions

Teaching history is hard; teaching hard history is even harder. There is a lot of content to learn and varying
viewpoints on what students at any age are ready to be exposed to. While updated history curriculum from
multiple perspectives is emerging, it is still limited and even more so for elementary students. History is vast
and daunting and complex, and yet is essential for students’ development as critical thinkers and analytical
consumers of information. To study history is to study stories, meet heroic characters, track themes of
resilience, recognize deliberate systems of power and oppression, and make connections across spans of time
that bring us all a little closer together.

Throughout this year of teaching American History to my fourth graders, we have refined our close reading and
notetaking strategies, we have mastered the difference between main ideas and supporting details, we have
learned to point out opposing perspectives, we have traversed the pitfalls of truth versus opinion-- all while
grappling with the complexities of colonization, civil liberties, and the struggle for power and equality. We have
proven that not only is it possible to incorporate history into meaningful project work, it is fun! We’ve simulated
Civil War battle tactics, we’ve recorded historical news segments, we’ve read stories from slavery, written
letters as soldiers, and “mined” for knowledge during a Gold Rush simulation. History can and should be taught
to young children; they are ready and eager for the challenge and are capable of more deep thinking than I ever
imagined possible prior to this project.

It is my hope that this work will inspire other teachers at High Tech Elementary (and beyond) to begin to weave
history throughout their project plans. I hope to continue to build out this 4th grade history curriculum, to refine
its lessons and its products, and to create resources for others who wish to follow in our path. By no means do I
consider myself an expert, but I am a willing pioneer and an available ally for anyone who wishes to embark on
a journey like this years’ has been.

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