History Through a Child’s Eyes Report Template

Based on your interview with 2 children, please share your conclusions, their evidence and actions that need to be taken
to help children better understand Social Studies content and purpose. You will submit this template, your interview
record, an introductory paragraph and conclusion paragraph (see notes below for what to include in these paragraphs).

Indicators Descriptions
Information about Student #1: Six-year-old boy who excels in his school work. He is very outgoing and loves to
each student volunteer to answer questions. His favorite subject is math because he loves to work with
numbers. He gets great grades and loves everything about school.

Student #2: Seven-year-old boy who makes great grades and behaves very well in the
classroom. He is kind of shy with the other students, but very open with adults. He loves
science and says he wants to learn more about history.
Conclusions #1 with evidence: Students do not know enough about women in history.
Neither one of the students could name one famous woman in history.
Student 1 said, “I barely ever even hear of important girls.
Student 2 said, “I don’t know, probably you.”

“The analysis describes the way that women’s history is characterized in US K-12 social studies
standards. It suggests that women are excluded because the standards’ historiographical
framework preferences male-oriented exceptional leadership while over-emphasizing
women’s domestic roles” (Where Are the Women?, n.d.).
“The typical U.S. history textbook devotes one out of its 500 to 800 pages to women, their lives
and their contributions. Where women are included, they appear under separate headings, in
special sections, even on different colored paper. They are made to appear supplemental-as
postscripts to history rather than an integral part of it” (Arlow, 1975).

#2 with evidence: Students seemed most engaged with the pictures that had interesting
things going on in background.
One student was the most interested in the picture with the animal on the roof, and the other
student was most interested in the picture with the very dark cloud. They were so interested in
the background of the picture; they missed a lot of key details within the main focus of the
picture.
Student 1 said, “The one with the goat on the roof because animals do not walk
on roofs.”
Student 2 said, “Number 1 was because of the donkey on the
roof.”
“This translates into an inability to focus on things that aren’t as interesting, or engaging, or
entertaining- because they don’t have any practice doing it” (Robinson, 2022).
“Attentional control may involve two separate brain systems – with one responsible
for increasing and maintaining focus on relevant information and a second set responsible
for suppressing urges to attend to irrelevant information (i.e., looking elsewhere, doing
something else, changing the topic and thinking about something else)” (Kaleisha, 2021).

#3 with evidence: Students do not know much about many of our presidents.
Neither student really knew anything about George Washington and neither child named a
president as a famous person in history.
 Student 1 said, “I don’t know” when asked who the president is. He also said,
“His birthday is right after Presidents’ Day” when asked about George Washinton.
Student 2 said, “I think its Donald Trump” when asked who is the president. He
also said, “He lives in the capitol building” when asked about George Washington.

“George Washington… In the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 23% of
fourth graders were able to point out his status as the first U.S. President” (Writers, 2016).
“Education Overtime visited the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., and asked students why
President Lincoln was important to America. One student answered that his beard made him
important; another said he was killed at a puppet show. Few were able to explain his
leadership and role in the American Civil War” (Writers, 2016).

#4 with evidence: Students are not very familiar with the difference between a continent,
country, state, and city.
While student one knew he lived in America, he thought the city and state he lived in were
both Illinois, that Africa is a country, and China is a city in the USA. The second student knew
what city he lived in and when asked what country he lives in he at first confidently answered
the United States but then took it back and said Canada. He also believed that the city New
York City and New York State are the same thing.

“While we all use maps in our daily routines, overall geographic comprehension in the United
States is considerably lower than it should be” (Legare, n.d.).
“Even among students in higher education, a geography curriculum is often misunderstood”
(Legare, n.d.).
“It is imperative that we actively correct our wrongs and fight for geography to be taken
seriously on a national level” (Legare, n.d.).

Instructional Conclusion #1
Implications for  Since, “0.5 percent, That’s how much of 3,500 years of recorded history is devoted to
each conclusion women, according to the historian and author Bettany Hughes…There are so many
women that should be household names but just aren’t” I will incorporate children’s
literary books about women in history (Salam, 2019).
 I will highlight Women’s History month in my classroom by putting up picture of
important historical women around the room and highlighting a different one each
day.
 As our textbook suggests I can post the words of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “It is the duty
of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective
franchise” in our classroom to help students learn about the women’s suffrage
movement and how hard women had to fight for the equal rights of men (Beck &
Parker, 2022).
 I will have guest speakers, who are women, come in to our classroom to teach about
their heritage and their current lives to help encourage students to realize that women
can do anything, just like men.

Conclusion #2
 Since students seem to be visually motivated, I will incorporate many visual aids when
teaching them history and economics.
 As our book suggests, when using these visual aids, I will use visual thinking strategies
such as, “What’s going on in this picture? What makes you say that? What more can
 you find?” (Beck & Parker, 2022). This will help the kids vocalize and think through
what they are seeing in the images.
 Since many of the students get distracted by the backgrounds of the picture and can
not focus on the main focus of the image, I will make sure to carefully select images
that do not have distracting backgrounds.
 Keeping students engaged, but on topic, will be of top importance in my classroom.

Conclusion #3
 I will incorporate children’s books that highlight the lives of various US Presidents into
my history and English lessons.
 In the weeks leading up to president’s day, we will incorporate many activities to help
the students learn about the presidents and some important things they have
accomplished. For example, as Educators4SC suggests, “Scholastic offers several
Presidents’ Day resources, which are split into five different categories: Quick
Classroom Activities, Presidential Projects, Be the President, Crafts, and Learn About
the Presidents. These activities, projects, and crafts will ask students to research past
presidents and learn about the many skills an individual needs to be successful in
leading the people of the United States” (Teaching About Presidents’ Day - Educators
4SC, n.d.).
 During our regular morning activities, we will talk about who the current president is
and learn a fun fact about presidents every morning.
 For one history assignment, every student will be assigned a different president to
research and share with the class.

Conclusion #4
 I will have a daily calendar lesson in the morning to go over the difference between a
continent, a country, and a state.
 Since students, especially younger students learn better by memorizing songs, I will
incorporate songs about geography to help them remember these facts. These songs
can include, the 7 continents song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PzqdDdxr9VI&ab_channel=Hopscotch), the geography song
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pOKoIAnybg&ab_channel=ScratchGarden), and
the fifty states song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Jr4SmWDgMgk&ab_channel=PattyShuklaKidsTV-Children%27ssongs).
 As the book suggests, we will have students give presentations about their culture and
different countries their family or ancestors are from, to help the students learn facts
about other countries (Beck & Parker, 2022). During these presentations we will point
these countries out on the map and discuss what continent they are apart of.

Introductory Paragraph
When looking at this assignment originally, I was not very confident that the students were going to
know a lot of the questions or be able to place the pictures in the correct order. This is not because I think the
students are incapable at all, but they are only in first grade and have not learned a lot of this information. Some
of the information I thought they may know; I knew they were just being introduced to. Personally, at six years
old I know I would not have been able to tell you what time period any of the photographs were from or
anything about taxes, among other things. Even with this mindset going into it, I do know that children hear
adult conversations around them, so I thought they may be able to tell me who the current president is and how
they get their job. In my field experience, I have seen different levels of social studies instruction. In my first
placement, fourth grade, I saw more geography and economics taught than history. They were working on
talking about how we have to make financial decisions based on what we need versus what we want. They also
talked a lot about the importance of saving and the value of hard work. For geography, they were working on
remembering the locations of the fifty states and the names and locations of the oceans. There was not a lot of
direct history being taught when I was present. They did rotate days for science and social studies, so there is a
chance that history was a focus on a day of the week that I was not in the classroom. During my second rotation,
fifth grade, I saw a lot of history being taught. They were working on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the
Amendments, and the first five presidents when I was with them. They were doing a lot of worksheets together
based off of newspaper style readings that they each had about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the
Amendments. They would split up into small group and work together on these worksheets, or they would do
them as a class. They also played computer games that walked them through the history of the US and allowed
them to make choices about their next steps and how that would have possibly changed history. In my current
placement, first grade, there are small amounts of social studies being discussed. Most of the day is spent on
reading and math. They do have more social studies and science instruction on Monday and Wednesdays, but I
am not present for these. Every morning, they talk about what country they live in, what state they live in, and
what city they live in. They are also being introduced to the continent song and the difference between
continents and countries, but they do not spend a lot of time on this topic. Since it is February and Lincoln’s
birthday and President’s Day, they have been doing small activities involving presidents. These are more aimed
at being fun, such as different pets the presidents have had while in the White House, and less on facts about the
presidents and their accomplishments themselves. I believe this is because they are young and the fun facts keep
them engaged and interested longer, and maybe even peaks their interests to ask questions or explore more
about these presidents on their own.
Conclusion Paragraph
This experience was so interesting, and honestly eye opening. The answers that students this young
actually knew amazed me. For example, one of the students knew taxes are money that the government takes
from the people. While he didn’t know what this money was used for, he still knew the general concept behind
it. At his age, I don’t think I even knew the word. It also amazed me how much one student knew about Martin
Luther King Jr. He knew that he made a speech for freedom and that he was an important person in our history.
This showed me that there is diversity being taught in the classroom, and gives me the motivation to strengthen
this. While some answers were comical and age appropriate, like one of the boys saying The Rock is an
important person in history, I got a lot out of these interviews that I will take with me as a teacher. While all
three of my CTs have been incredible, I think that the way the school pushes certain curriculum greatly affects
what is being taught in the classroom and how much freedom a teacher has to teach social studies. My current
school really pushes reading and math, so there is not a huge push for social studies. While there is some
incorporated, especially on the two days a week they have an actual block designated for the subject, I think
there are ways to further incorporate it. For example, we have learned in this class that there are plenty of great
children’s books that highlight historical figures (both men and women), important economic concepts, and
even geography. During my English and reading lessons, I will incorporate these books into my lessons. While
they are learning to read, they will also be learning important social studies concepts. I will also make sure to
highlight important women in history and the fact that women can do anything men can do. Through this
project I learned that students do not know famous women. After I interviewed the boys in my classroom and
they could not name one famous woman in history, I went home and asked my niece who is also in first grade if
she knew any famous women in history. While she actually gave an answer, Taylor Swift and JoJo Siwa, these
are not important historical figures. This helped show me that there is still so much progress to be made when
teaching about important historical women. I will do this through books, posters with quotes, and projects
during Women’s History Month. I also learned from this picture that hands on activities, visual aids, and songs
help students further learn about social studies as a whole. There are so many amazing resources out there to
help students develop a love for social studies, such as songs on YouTube, teachers’ pay teachers, and many
project ideas. I plan on trying to find and highlight my students interests in these activities to keep them
engaged and interested. Overall, I have learned that social studies is a subject that is highly under utilized in the
classroom. I do think this is mainly due to the pressure that school districts put on teachers to improve their
reading and math scores. Despite this, there are ways to incorporate social studies into other subjects, and I plan
to do so in my future classroom. Social studies is an important subject for students to get exposure to, and it
seems like it is highly undervalued by many school districts. In my future classroom, I will make sure that my
students are exposed to it in their daily classroom routine and environment. I will do this through the use of
posters, projects, and books to help my students develop a deep respect and understanding of social studies.

Works Cited:

Salam, M. (2019, March 5). Women’s History Myths, debunked. The New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/us/womens-history-month-

myths.html#:~:text=0.5%20percent,historian%20and%20author%20Bettany%20Hughes.

Where are the Women? (n.d.). National Women’s History Museum. https://www.womenshistory.org/social-

studies-standards#:~:text=The%20analysis%20describes%20the%20way,over%2Demphasizing

%20women's%20domestic%20roles.

Arlow, P. (1975). Women in high school history textbooks. Academic Works.

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1357&context=wsq

Robinson, A. (2022, May 27). My Kids Can’t Focus! Should I be Worried? Uncommon Sense Parenting With
Allana Robinson. https://www.allanarobinson.com/my-kids-cant-focus-should-i-be-worried/

Kaleisha. (2021, August 17). Attention and concentration Challenges in children - Calm Kid central. Calm Kid
Central. https://www.calmkidcentral.com/attention-and-concentration-challenges-in-children-and-young-
people/

Writers, S. (2016, December 7). 25 American History facts most students don’t know -.
https://collegestats.org/2012/07/25-american-history-facts-most-students-dont-know/

Legare, N. (n.d.-b). The importance of geography in American schools. Massachusetts Daily Collegian.
https://dailycollegian.com/2023/04/the-importance-of-geography-in-american-schools/

Beck, T. A., & Parker, W. (2022). Social Studies in elementary education. Pearson.

Teaching About Presidents’ Day - Educators 4SC. (n.d.). Educators 4SC. https://educators4sc.org/teaching-

about-presidents-day/