BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE MODERN CLASSROOM: WHAT WOULD THEY TELL US NOW? by Cynthia Bascom and Leigh A. Okleberry A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION IN CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY Ogden, Utah October 24, 2019 Approved __________________________________________ DeeDee Mower, Ph.D. __________________________________________ Vincent C. Bates, Ph.D. __________________________________________ Hadyn B. Call, Ph.D. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 2 Acknowledgments We would like to sincerely thank all of those who have helped us with this project. It has been a long process, but we have not traveled the pathway alone. We are so grateful for the guidance and mentoring from our committee, Dr. DeeDee Mower, Dr. Vincent Bates and Dr. Hadyn Call. We also want to express appreciation to all our professors and teachers from Weber State University and the Davis/Weber cohort. We have enjoyed our fellow classmates and wish them well. Thank you to the staff and aides at the Weber Farmington campus for their cheerful welcome and care. Within our project, we are very appreciative for all those that participated on our panel. They shared their time and wonderful comments. Their feedback helped us immensely. Their professional manner and insights to our project helped us to create a better outcome. We also want to thank those who we were able to film and interview. Your historical perspectives gave a richness and depth to our project. We are most grateful to our supportive work peers and administration. We are certainly glad that we have the opportunity to teach the many children that enter our classrooms every day. Our students help us to realize the real reasons why we took on this endeavor. Most of all, thank you a thousand times over to our beloved families, especially Bill Bascom and Kevin Okleberry. Your support and encouragement have been invaluable and have sustained us through many long days and nights. We love you! Finally, with God, all things are possible. Even a master's degree. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 3 Table of Contents NATURE OF THE PROBLEM .................................................................................................... 5 Literature Review ….......................................................................................................... 8 Modern Day Teaching ........................................................................................... 9 Educational Training …..........................................................................................9 Time …..................................................................................................................10 Experiences …...................................................................................................... 11 Summary …...................................................................................................................... 13 PURPOSE …............................................................................................................................... 14 METHODS ….............................................................................................................................. 15 Participants …................................................................................................................... 16 Setting ….......................................................................................................................... 16 Procedures ….................................................................................................................... 16 Data Collection and Analysis …....................................................................................... 17 Question One …................................................................................................... 18 Question Two …................................................................................................... 19 Question Three …................................................................................................. 20 DISCUSSION ….......................................................................................................................... 21 REFERENCES …........................................................................................................................ 24 BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 4 APPENDIX A ….......................................................................................................................... 27 BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 5 NATURE OF THE PROBLEM History education has gone through many transitions. Even before the retelling of The Iliad and The Odyssey and the use of early story telling writing through hieroglyphs, history was shared through oral traditions to teach origin stories, morality, and culture. Later, as mass written communication became more accessible, these same stories found themselves on the pages of books for larger audiences and as historical knowledge. Artifacts such as letters, journals, diaries, accounting, business transactions, newspapers, and magazines became historical records and represented important events in both the public and private sectors. History has traditionally been taught in modern times by educating students about events, dates, and key figures. Traditionally, educators who teach social studies to young students, elementary age, do so with a textbook as their only recourse. Any observation of facts, filtered through personal experience, was considered bias (Romanowski, 1996). As observed by Passe (2006) there has been a current movement towards using the program Open Court which is “a reading series that encourages strict conformance with the teacher’s manual” (p. 191). Wade (2002), supports this claim; “Research has documented that 75 to 90 percent of social studies instructional time is based on the textbook” (p. 238). Teachers often have not been adequately trained in the social studies curriculum (Call, 2019). In fact, Passe (2006) states that “Some teachers feel uncomfortable with content and skills that were inadequately addressed in their schooling or perhaps never developed any interest in the subject” (p. 190). With a lack of deep understanding of history, elementary teachers may rely too heavily on the textbook. The lack of time for teaching history in current public classrooms is one factor which also leads to a shorter lesson and less engaging curriculum (Heafner & Fitchett, 2012). Based on interviews of 300 children from kindergarten to fifth grade, Zhao and Hoge (2005) discovered, “Most children who do not like social studies say ‘it is boring and useless,’ ‘it’s reading the BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 6 textbook’ and ‘it doesn’t apply’ (p. 3). Studies have found that social studies are taught in elementary classrooms on varying schedules for up to forty-five minutes a week and that “most were integrated within other disciplines, with reading being the main area of integration” (Holloway & Chiodo, 2009, p. 251). Many educators have opted to include social studies topics within the language arts curriculum. Others push these lessons to the flexible time slots at the end of the week. One elementary teacher said, “I know I should teach more social studies, but I am under so much pressure to teach reading and math that I only teach social studies if I can fit it in. So that means I don’t really teach social studies very often” (Pang, 1998, para. 1). Many teachers chose to use their class time on subjects that are tested at the end of the year. This in turn leaves social studies as an optional activity or it is postponed until after standardized testing is over (Heafner & Fitchett, 2012). “Most states do not require competency tests in social studies-focusing instead on the so-called basics of reading, language, and mathematics—the entire subject area of social studies is disappearing from the school day” (Passe, 2006, p. 189). This reduces the student’s interaction with historical themes and stories. Current classrooms have found blended learning to be an option when incorporating history into language arts lessons (Saritepeci & Cakir, 2015). Unfortunately, few teachers have learned or experienced history in a personal way, and therefore, may portray and/or teach history as abstract facts, leading to a lack of enthusiasm by teachers and students alike. This contributes to textbook teaching rather than engaging students in the personal stories and experiences with history. “Many educators have forgotten that social studies nurtures the cognitive, emotional, and social development of their students” (Jones, Pang, and Rodriquez, 2001, p. 35). Teaching history this way is important so that students can understand cultural diversity within their communities. When culture matters to students, it helps BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 7 them define how they fit into and function within their society. This happens when students have personal experiences with history. Interactions with guest visitors and physical experiences, such as touching, smelling and creating are effective ways to learn about historic subjects (Hunner, 2011). “The countervailing forces of any period can be brought to light through interviews with even a small set of individuals, each of whom comes to the historical moment from a unique, personal perspective” (Crocco, 1998, p. 20). These activities create a stronger tendency for teachers and students to remember the lessons learned through the stories and people from older times (Hunner, 2011). There is great potential for student engagement if educators are given adequate and comprehensive exposure to historic experiences (Morris, 2009). Along with texts, teachers can be given a richer background of historic immersion so that they can bring energy, focus, and purpose to their classes. Teachers and students would benefit from more experiences with site-based learning or place-based learning and interactions with modern day individuals who know it and live it. With these added resources, teachers can help students understand their place in society. Teachers can help their student’s problem solve and make better judgements for our current culture and future society (Jones et al. 2001). Ultimately, taking students and teachers to historical sites allows for the greatest resource for learning about people, places and events. However, this is often unrealistic, so teachers invite guest speakers, experts on the subject, or specialists that have first-hand knowledge to give a much richer account of the event being studied. One way to address the problem is to facilitate more exposure for teachers and students to interviews and personal stories online. We propose that students have more exposure with technology that brings a richness of personal as well as historical experiences into the classroom through interactions with living history participants. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 8 Literature Review Modern Day Teaching As with most teaching, subject matter is taught through “small manageable bundles, each then taught according to a prescribed lesson plan” (Norman & Spohrer, 1996, p. 1), as the teachers themselves were taught. In history, this means focusing on events, dates and history via lecture and textbooks. For hundreds of years, history has been taught by rote learning or in other words, memorizing generals, wars, places and casualty reports. “Traditionally, rote learning was the weakest in motivation (engagement)” (Norman & Spohrer, 1996, p. 3). Students go over and over this information until they can write the answers on test day. For most students, it is out of their mind after test day. Textbook teaching is said to be boring for the teacher and students. Norman and Spohrer (2016) found that, “The lecture and textbook are still the most effective ways of presenting a large array of material rapidly and efficiently. Nonetheless, these traditional methods are weakest in the areas of engagement and the ability to provide individual assistance” (p. 3). Another disadvantage to using a textbook for teaching is that there can be author bias (Tyson & Woodward, 1989). Authors have their opinions about history therefore putting bias in their writings. “Textbooks, of course, are the messengers, not the message. Publishers do not usually originate textbook content but, rather, reflect the curriculum requirements of a dozen or more of the most populous states and cities” (Tyson & Woodward, 1989). Every author and reader will have a personal perspective. McLaren contends, “Knowledge acquired in school-or anywhere, for that matter-is never neutral or objective but is ordered and structured in particular ways” (1989, p. 169). Bias can never be escaped. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 9 Educational Training Teachers are not given sufficient educational training in the social studies curriculum, which leads to inadequate preparation for teaching history in the classroom (Call, 2019). “That is, 81.5 percent of social studies teachers did not study history in college either as a major or as a minor” (Ravitch, 1998, p. 497). Ravitch points out that most social studies teachers studied education versus history. “Put another way, of those social studies teachers who have received any advanced degree, 89 percent are in pedagogy, not history or the social sciences” (Ravitch, 1998, p. 498). Although this source focuses on the secondary classroom, there is a possibility that a similar or higher percentage would be true for elementary school teachers as well. One study concluded that the feelings of preparedness were significantly related to teachers’ sense of efficacy and their confidence about their ability to achieve teaching goals (Darling-Hammond, Chung, & Frelow, 2002). General pedagogical knowledge (GPK) plays a role in whether teachers feel confident in teaching year after year. Research continues to demonstrate that, “in general, teachers with greater personal resources and competence (e.g., self-efficacy, adaptive coping strategies, and professional knowledge) are more likely to master the challenges of the teaching profession, and thus less likely to experience burnout” (Lauermann & K𝑜̈nig, 2016, p. 9). Furthermore K𝑜̈nig and Pflanzl (2016) suggest that teacher competence is recognized by the students. They stated: Our findings clearly show there is a systematic relationship between teachers’ GPK and their teaching. The higher a teacher scores in the GPK test, the better he or she is rated by his or her students regarding the instructional quality aspects of teaching methods/teacher clarity, effective classroom management and teacher-student relationships. (p. 429) BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 10 Teachers should have a strong understanding of the subjects that they teach to students. Without a better foundation or further experiences in history, it is difficult for teachers to embrace the rich diversity and stories from the past. Therefore, it is more difficult to instill in each student a greater love and desire to find out more about the lives of people and important events of the past. Until teachers can acquire the experiences and details hidden within the dry dates and times, the connections between past and present can be lost, much to the detriment of each learner. Time History has been pushed aside by the dominate math, science and language arts curriculum. Heafner and Fitchett (2012) have found that “the marginalization of social studies… is not new, but an intensified trend emerging from the accountability era, expanded with national testing emphases of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation” (p. 192). Social studies is not a focus of the national curriculum for elementary schools. Law makers have made math, reading, writing and science a priority (Heafner & Fitchett, 2012). Elementary teachers feel that history is important, but they cannot fit it into their schedule. This means that social studies is taught infrequently, if at all. Teachers’ daily school schedules are burdened with demands that they teach the core subjects as well as new programs that are introduced each year. Time is a crucial factor in meeting all the demands that teachers face. Heafner and Fitchett (2012) conclude that “Time is fundamental to good teaching” (p. 191). Without satisfactory time slots and dynamic blended learning techniques, teachers will not keep students engaged in experiencing the richness of our history. Teachers may want to practice effective social studies integration with other curriculum or alternate schedules to help with the time issue (Holloway & Chiodo, 2009). Some teachers BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 11 introduce history only on open time slots within the week or postpone teaching history altogether until there is more flexible time at the end of the year. Holloway and Chiodo (2009) claim: If teachers practiced effective integration there would be an opportunity for social studies concepts to be taught in the elementary curriculum. Teachers could teach a richer content embedded within a larger context which will help students construct a broader network of understanding (p. 240). Many teachers are moving towards using a form of blended leaning in their classrooms as a time saving technique. Blended learning is described by So and Brush (2008) as “any combination of learning delivery methods, including most often face-to-face instruction with asynchronous and/or synchronous computer technologies” (p. 321). This style of learning has a greater effect on student engagement, motivation and academic excellence (Saritepeci & Cakir, 2012). One platform that is used by teachers to support learning is Nearpod. As cited by McClean and Crowe, Dugdale states Nearpod uses a “participatory architecture to support communities of learning, harnessing the power of existing physical place and the emerging virtual space” (p. 1). This type of teaching platform offers a new approach and strategy for teaching history through the eyes of those who experienced it. Experiences Few elementary teachers have learned or experienced history in a personal way, and therefore may portray and/or teach history as abstract facts, leading to a lack of enthusiasm by teachers and students alike (Passe, 2006). This contributes to textbook teaching rather than engaging students in the personal stories and experiences of history. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 12 In studying history, students gain a greater understanding about where they came from and how to solve problems in their current circumstances (Hunner, 2011). In studying the past, people can ask questions like: How did we get here? Where are we going? How does this affect my present? By thinking historically and acting locally, students no longer see learning as something mandated by the teacher that takes the form of memorizing unfamiliar names and dates. Instead, they embrace the learning process as their own. (Hunner, 2011 p. 36) In order to engage teachers and students in the richness of our historical stories, oral interviews and personal experiences should be brought to the classroom. Teachers will continue using the textbook. However, those lessons can be “balanced in their use with oral history projects and other techniques designed to assist teachers in the imaginative reconstruction of the past, which is at the base of a love for history” (Crocco, 1998 p. 22). This can be done in a quick and effective manner by introducing interviews from living history participants from mountain man rendezvous or other historical festivals. Bringing in a variety of sources from living history participants provides more perspectives than merely a history textbook, and while nothing can eliminate bias, multiple perspectives provides a more complete narrative about the past. Bias is an understood and an acknowledged factor in every participants’ viewpoint, but not always limiting. In the modern classroom, personal opinions are studied and debated in order to foster empathy for those that lived before. This also develops critical thinking for future learning (Jones et al., 2001). Once supplemented, classroom curriculum can inspire student curiosity and can also allow teachers the ability to present lessons in an effective schedule and to engage the students in exploring these rich experiences. Using living history interviews helps educators broaden their BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 13 perspectives of the past and makes history come to life for the students. Hunner (2011) suggests, “In addition to making history come alive for participants, oral history celebrates the ordinary and incorporates local people into a regional and national narrative” (p. 41). Bringing a richer dimension to history can be done so that students will feel that the past has relevance as they see it brought to life. Crocco (1998) recognized a decade ago that students need to see themselves as historical actors in order to develop empathy to those portrayed in the events of the past. Endacott and Brooks explains historical empathy as follows: Historical empathy is the process of students’ cognitive and affective engagement with historical figures to better understand and contextualize their lived experiences, decisions, or actions. Historical empathy involves understanding how people from the past thought, felt, made decisions, acted, and faced consequences within a specific historical and social context. (p.41) Understanding the past is so essential for functioning in the present. Our historical past has lessons that can be applied to current policies and cultures. Historical knowledge helps us to appreciate and function in the present, to become better citizens, and gives modern students the ability to progress in the future without the same problems and errors from the past. Preparing students to become citizens of a democracy demands a “thorough grounding” in history, civics, and social studies (Adams, 2013). “Students need to understand the past, different cultures, and their place in the world. Ultimately, the goal is to create thoughtful, engaged citizens and thoughtful voters” (Adams, 2013, p. 11). Summary The way in which history is taught has changed throughout time. Teachers are not being given enough historical experiences or educational training to feel confident in bringing BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 14 engaging lessons to the classroom (Ravitch, 1998). Historically, classrooms have depended on teaching history with textbooks and rote memorization. The language of textbooks is written with authority which encourages students to accept without question the authors’ opinion and perspective (Romanowski, 1996). Modern elementary classrooms do not have enough time to cover history. Because of the strong emphasis of standardized tests in math and language arts, social studies lessons are of little priority (Evans, 2006). Blended learning is becoming essential in the classroom because of time constraints. History can be streamlined while keeping its rich potential for students’ involvement. It is crucial that history be taught in a way that engages students, fosters learning, and develops well-informed, global citizenship. Using the platform of Nearpod, which is described as a positive experience by students, reinforces understanding, access learning and encourages participation (McClean & Crowe, 2017). PURPOSE This curriculum project is three-fold: 1. We produced three Nearpod presentations of living history participants who, in a public domain, performed live voluntary historical reenactments. The reenactments were offered publicly without pay and were videotaped with permission through a signed oral history donation form by each reenacting participant. 2. Current expert elementary history teachers (a total of six) viewed the Nearpods and provided feedback during a focus group on their expertise about the use of the Nearpods with their upcoming students and their perceived effectiveness of such pedagogical practices through integrating social studies with language arts core curriculum. The questions that were discussed in the focus groups are: 1) After viewing the Nearpods, which curriculum standards did you feel could be covered by discussing the videos with your students? 2) In your understanding of the BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 15 historical event and the accuracy of its portrayal, how might you have your students gain a greater depth of knowledge of the content/event and increase their rigor of research pertaining to the perspectives portrayed in the reenactment? 3) What are some possible concerns or problems with using this type of technology in teaching history and how might it help or hinder your instruction of the social studies and language arts curriculum? 3. We analyzed the focus group discussion to understand how expert teachers perceived the value of Nearpod technology usage in helping their students understand historical events in more interactive processes as well as provide insights into how expert teachers come to know and teach social studies in the current culture of high stakes testing which excludes history as a priority subject to teach. METHODS We used a focus group to analyze our Nearpod curriculum project. Focus groups are used in qualitative research to explore the collective views, experience, beliefs, and motivations of individuals. Focus groups are a viable common method of data collection in qualitative research (Kitzinger, 1995; Kruegar, 2014). In this project, the focus group consisted of six teachers who were vested in the exploration of new pedagogical tools in the teaching of social studies. The focus group discussion used the three questions as well as any follow-up questions that arose from the discussion. The three questions were 1) After viewing the Nearpods, which curriculum standards did you feel could be covered by discussing the videos with your students? 2) In your understanding of the historical event and the accuracy of its portrayal, how might you have your students gain a greater depth of knowledge of the content/event and increase their rigor of research pertaining to the perspectives portrayed in the reenactment? 3) What are some possible concerns or problems with using this type of technology in teaching history and how might it BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 16 help or hinder your instruction of the social studies and language arts curriculum? The focus group discussion was limited to 60 minutes and was recorded and transcribed. The analysis provided the researchers with teachers' views, norms, and meanings of historical events as well as clarified and extended pedagogical practices associated with social studies and language arts instruction. The discussion also generated new ideas and expectations teachers had of curriculum components. This depth of insights of teachers, as a collective, benefitted how social studies could be taught in the future and the importance of the discipline in everyday instruction. Participants The teaching participants volunteered to participate because of convenience in working in nearby schools and their interest in incorporating more social studies in their teaching of elementary grade levels that focus on State and National history. The participants in our project were three fifth grade teachers that teach United States history. We also had three fourth grade teachers who teach Utah State history and who expressed interest in this type of curriculum and blended learning through casual conversation. All participants were female, public educators from the Northern Utah region. The age range of participants was between thirty and sixty-five years old and were all Caucasian. All participants have a bachelor’s degree in education and have varying years of professional experience. We did not identify the teachers by name. Setting The focus group discussion was held in a conference room that was in an educational center. The panel was seated around a large conference table. The atmosphere was pleasant and informal. A recording was made and later transcribed of this discussion. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 17 Procedures In developing curriculum lessons with Nearpod, which was the purpose of our curriculum project (see Appendix A), we looked for language arts and social studies standards. Then, we filmed and accumulated interviews from historical reenactors. These recordings were then edited for lesson content. We developed three Nearpod lessons incorporating blended learning with language arts and social studies. We then developed lesson plans that went with each Nearpod presentation. We developed three main questions that our participants could consider while reviewing the curriculum. We sent the Nearpod curriculum to participating educators for review and then scheduled a date for the focus group discussion to get expert feedback. The comments from the focus group were then transcribed and analyzed. Finally, we studied the results/transcription for common threads that pertain to this study. We facilitated the discussion by presenting the questions. As researchers and curriculum developers, we allowed the conversations to be open and uninterrupted. We informed them that any feedback, positive or negative was acceptable. The participants were not reimbursed for time or travel and freely participated without incentives. Because the educators were chosen specifically for grade level curriculum, their responses may include built in biases. We acknowledge, as researchers, that because we teach and study these topics, there is a built-in bias towards this curriculum as well. We also realize that by developing the curriculum, bias may be built into the Nearpod presentations and lesson plans. This is the reason we chose to use a focus group to try to eliminate observable biases. We found that the subject matter seemed to resonate beyond us and may not be a bias towards the authors perspectives but in future endeavors looking for expert teachers of various cultural and racial backgrounds could provide more insights into greater knowledge and/or biases. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 18 Data Collection and Analysis The data that we collected were from a discussion with a professional focus group of six elementary teachers. We guided questioning but did not otherwise participate in the discussion. The focus group was instructed to give honest feedback without being concerned for project outcome. This data was collected with an audio recording and then transcribed from the audio to a document format. This document was then analyzed in a qualitative manner. We looked through the focus group transcript and color coded for specific themes. The themes that we were looking for were teacher training and education, personal experiences, lecture and textbooks, bias, blended learning, time and Nearpod technology. Each theme was given a specific color code and organized into the main threads to help answer the three questions that were discussed in the focus group. These major themes helped us establish the basis of our analysis. The data was not analyzed through a statistic program. The researchers used the following three questions to understand if this project, in the Nearpod format, is a viable curriculum approach. The following is how our project was perceived through these three original questions. Question One After viewing the Nearpod lessons, which curriculum standards do you feel could be covered by discussing the videos with your students? In the focus group, it was mentioned several times that, “Standards listed were definitely met.” One participant suggested that technology standards should also be included. “If you attached it (technology standards) it’s one of those things that are covered in other subjects, it’s not one you teach alone.” Another participant said that there were so many standards from reading, writing and technology that she was “overwhelmed with joy.” In our research, we claimed that dynamic blended learning techniques will help keep students engaged. This is BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 19 consistent with So’s and Brush’s (2008) findings that using multiple ways of instruction in conjunction with computer technology will have a greater effect on student engagement. One participant in the focus group stated that, “Technology can be a craft instruction. That’s the way a kid should be learning.” Another statement was, “I think it helps because of the engagement. You know, they like to see living history so those characters dressed up would be exciting for them. They love videos. They love games.” Time is a crucial factor for teachers in the modern-day classroom; therefore, blended learning is essential (Heafner & Fitchett, 2012). One teacher noted this by saying, “I really like how it’s language arts and social studies together because you pretty much can’t teach one without the other anymore. If you try to teach, you can’t even fit in social studies unless you do language arts, so I like that those are integrated really well.” This was consistent with Halloway’s and Chiodo’s (2009) findings that effective integration within elementary curriculum would allow for more subject matter to be taught within a shorter time frame. Our findings back up what was previously known in our literature review about the need for social studies to be integrated with language arts so that more curriculum can be taught in smaller time allotments. We could also include technology standards within the Nearpod lesson formats. Question Two In your understanding of the historical event and the accuracy of its portrayal, how might you have your students gain a greater depth of knowledge of the content/event and increase their rigor of research pertaining to the perspectives portrayed in the reenactment? The Nearpod lessons allow educators to create opportunities for greater depth of knowledge. One teacher said that she could use the lessons and ask deeper questions such as, “If they were playing the part, how would they speak? What terms would they use?” She also spoke BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 20 about how the students could reference events from that time period and how to research people from historical times. The reenactment portrayals in the lessons were exciting for the educators because they would be “transporting them to the time period. Characters kind of increase their (the students) rigor of research because normally they (the students) are just reading something instead of seeing a live person speaking about an event. It gives them a little bit more.” This echoes the assertion made by Endacott and Brooks (2013) that empathy with historical figures allows students to be involved with how historical people dealt with issues and problems specific to that time period. Students would then apply that knowledge to the demands of today, helping them to become better citizens and students. The portrayals done within the Nearpod lessons help students think deeply about content and historical events. This is supported by Adams (2013) who suggests that, “students need to understand the past, different cultures, and their place in the world” (p. 11). Interacting with modern historical reenactments and living history participants allows for deeper engagement and better understanding for students and teachers. Question Three What are some possible concerns or problems with using this type of technology in teaching history and how might it help or hinder your instruction of the social studies and language arts curriculum? In one of our Nearpod lessons, we put a longer piece of text for the students to read. The comment from our focus group was, “There were a couple of slides that were all text and I felt like those needed to be broken up either with some pictures or condensed into a smaller amounts because fourth and fifth graders aren't going to want to sit there and read all that.” This coincides with the statement from Norman and Spohrer (2016) that “traditional methods are weakest in the areas of engagement and the ability to provide individual assistance.” Lecture and textbook use BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 21 can frequently become tedious and dull for teachers and students when used in the classroom. The use of technology programs such as Nearpod allows for a variety of experiences that encourages engagement. Educators in our focus group mentioned several concerns when previewing the lessons from Nearpod. Some of these included collaborative slides not coming up or being cut off, links not working, video pop-ups that may be inappropriate, and too many ads. They were also concerned that kids would not use the scrolling feature to get to the rest of the material or that the students would click into different programs. The opinions from our panel acknowledged that reading longer pieces of text is an important skill. However, in the Nearpod blended learning format, longer texts might not be conducive to student engagement. We did not revise the longer text in the Nearpod lessons. However, revisions are recommended before use in the classroom. There were no criticisms from the focus group regarding teaching history or language arts through this medium. These lessons help teachers by condensing textbook lecture into a shorter time period, allowing blended learning with technology to help both students and educators gain a deeper level of knowledge and a desire to research more. The focus group was very excited about using the lessons in Nearpod. One said that, Nearpod is “so much more interactive than a PowerPoint and almost the same kind of goal but the kids are going to have so much more fun doing Nearpod than they are looking at a PowerPoint.” One teacher would like to use these lessons to supplement the activities that she already has planned in her classroom. “I love it. It’s a great resource.” McClean et al. (2017) support the assertion that Nearpod uses a “participatory architecture to support communities of learning, harnessing the power of existing physical place and the emerging virtual space.” BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 22 DISCUSSION The results of this project are important to the field of education in highlighting how these Nearpod lessons can facilitate a dynamic learning situation in classrooms. Modern day classrooms have many different constraints on them such as time, teacher training, and outdated resources. Using our Nearpod lessons allows for blended learning and opportunities for teachers and students alike to engage in the curriculum. The lessons can also support a greater depth of knowledge and create a personal experience for students. However, there are limitations with the use of technology and the Nearpod program. Some teachers said that they would have to continue to preview the lessons in order to make sure that there are not inappropriate ads or pop-ups. The participants also suggested that they might want to edit the lessons in order to suit the needs of their own students. Not all classrooms will have the same devices or computers so the lessons might not work appropriately on all platforms. Because of this inconsistency, more glitches may appear unexpectedly. Nearpod is not a great platform for long passages of text for students to read. Our focus group mentioned this and recommended the use of shorter text passages so that student attention would not wander. Our discussion panel also brought up the concern of not being adequately trained in the social studies curriculum. One teacher talked about going on field studies on her own time and then said, “You have to kind of get after it.” Another teacher said, “You have to do it on your own. I definitely wasn’t (trained) for world history.” Most of the teachers felt that they needed to gain more knowledge on their own time in order to be prepared to teach the lessons in their classrooms. It is simply not feasible always to invite guest speakers into the classroom for live discussions. This project incorporated interviews gathered from living history participants. We would suggest that a larger collection of video material be gathered to facilitate digital Nearpod BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 23 lessons and more opportunities for teachers to receive historical knowledge through such programs in the state like Driven 2 Teach. Participants in the panel said that teaching social studies was their favorite subject to teach. “History is my favorite subject to teach and it’s pushed out. It’s always the first one to go.” Another said, “I’m not doing it just for fun, I love the history.” The teachers were excited to keep and use these lessons in their classrooms. There was a great request for more of this type of lesson. We recommend that more lessons of this type become available to teachers. Future research using blended learning in history and language arts along with technology is highly recommended and we would encourage more teachers to share their wealth of knowledge from their own personal experiences with history. The three lesson titles and respective links are: Founding Fathers: George Washington; John Adams & Benjamin Franklin, Degrees of Freedom in Colonial America; and Rendezvous. Teacher lesson plans are also included (see Appendix A). https://share.nearpod.com/ljwd3XUToY https://share.nearpod.com/mvSxsLgGbZ https://share.nearpod.com/PaEPzGXToY BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 24 REFERENCES Adams, C. (2013). Advocates finding ways to bulk up history learning. Education Week, 32(36). Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.hal.weber.edu Call, H. B. (2019). A case study of the Driven 2 Teach program: Site-based experiential professional development for history teachers (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Utah State University, Logan, UT. Crocco, M. S. (1998). Putting the actors back on stage: Oral history in the secondary school classroom. The Social Studies, 89(1), 19–24. Crothers, A. G. (2002). Bringing history to life: Oral history, community research, and multiple levels of learning. The Journal of American History, 88(4), 1446–1451. doi:10. 2307/270068 Darling-Hammond, L., Chung, R., & Frelow, F. (2002). Variation in teacher preparation: How well do different pathways prepare teachers to teach? Journal of Teacher Education, 53(4), 286–302. doi:10.1177/0022487102053004002 Endacott, J., & Brooks, S. (2013). An updated theoretical and practical model for promoting historical empathy. Social Studies Research and Practice, 8(1), 41–58. Evans, M. (2006). Educating for citizenship: What teachers say and what teachers do. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue Canadienne de l’𝑒́ducation, 410–435. Evans, R. W. (2004). The social studies wars: What should we teach the children? New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Heafner, T. L., & Fitchett, P. G. (2012). Tipping the scales: National trends of declining social studies instructional time in elementary schools. Journal of Social Studies Research, 36(2), 190–215. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 25 Holloway, J. E., & Chiodo, J. J. (2009). Social studies is being taught in the elementary school: A contrarian view. Journal of Social Studies Research, 33(2), 235–261. Hunner, J. (2011). Historic environment education: Using nearby history in classrooms and museums. The Public Historian, 33(1), 33–43. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/tph.2011.33.1.33 Jones, E. B., Pang, V. O., & Rodríguez, J. L. (2001). Social studies in the elementary classroom: Culture matters. Theory into Practice, 40(1), 35–41. Kitzinger, J. (1995). Qualitative research: introducing focus groups. Bmj, 311(7000), 299–302. König J., & Pflanzb B. (2016). Is teacher knowledge associated with performance? On the relationship between teachers’ general pedagogical knowledge and instructional quality. European Journal of Teacher Education, 39, 419–436. doi:10.1080/02619768.2016.1214128 Krueger, R. A. (2014). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. Sage publications. Lauermann, F. & König, J. (2016). Teachers’ professional competence and wellbeing: Understanding the links between general pedagogical knowledge, self-efficacy and burnout. Learning and Instruction, 45, 9–19. doi:org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2016.06.006 McCarthy, P. (2014). Living history as the “real thing”: A comparative analysis of the modern mountain man rendezvous, renaissance fairs, and civil war re-enactments. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 71(2), 106–123. Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.hal.weber.edu/ehost McClean S., & Crowe, W. (2017). Making room for interactivity: using the cloud-based audience response system Nearpod to enhance engagement in lectures. FEMS microbiology letters, 364(6). BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 26 McLaren, P. (1989). Life in Schools. New York and London: Longman Inc. Morris, R. V. (2009). Bringing history to life: First-person historical presentations in elementary and middle school classrooms. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Norman, D. A., & Spohrer, J. C. (1996). Learner-centered education. Communications of the ACM, 39(4), 24–28. Pang, V. O. (1998). Democratic values: How elementary teachers view and teach these values. Unpublished manuscript, San Diego State University. Passe, J. (2006). New challenges in elementary social studies. The Social Studies, 97(5), 189–192. Ravitch, D. (1998). Who prepares our history teachers? Who should prepare our history teachers? Society for History Educations, 31(4), 495–503. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/494312 Romanowski, M. (1996). Problems of bias in history textbooks. Social Education, 60, 170–173. Saritepeci, M., & Cakir, H. (2015). The effect of blended learning environments on student motivation and student engagement: A study on social studies course. Egitim ve Bilim, 40(177). Tyson, H., & Woodward, A. (1989). Why students aren't learning very much from textbooks. Educational Leadership, 47(3), 14–17. Wade, R. (2002). Beyond expanding horizons: New curriculum directions for elementary social studies. The Elementary School Journal, 103(2), 116–130. Zhoa, Y., & Hoge, J. (2005). What elementary students and teachers say about social studies. The Social Studies, 96(5), 216–221. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 27 Appendix A Nearpod Lesson Plans Lesson: Founding Fathers: George Washington, John Adams, & Benjamin Franklin Created by Cynthia Bascom and Leigh Okleberry Duration of Lesson: (suggested 45 – 90 minutes)______________________________________ Notes:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Objectives: Students will be able to discuss qualities of remarkable citizens and great leaders. Standard: 5th Grade Social Studies 2.2.b Profile citizens who rose to greatness as leaders. English Language Arts: Reading: Informational Text Standard 7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently. Reading: Informational Text Standard 9 Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. a. Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding. Language Standard 4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 5 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. c. Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases. Materials Needed: Laptop or iPad BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 28 Lesson Plan: 1. Teacher will log into Nearpod and go to Founding Fathers Nearpod. Click live lesson. Project code for students to enter into their device. 2. Students will go to nearpod.com and enter the code that is projected. 3. (Slides 2 and 3) Go over the standards and objective for this lesson. 4. (Slide 4) Collaborative board. Students choose one of the leaders and tell what they know. When they are done answering the question, it will project up on the board. Once everyone has posted their answer, discuss what they wrote. 5. (Slide 5) Have students read content on website, George Washington, Facts Kids. If they have time, students may open the virtual tour of Mt. Vernon at the bottom of the page. 6. (Slide 6) Introduction to the video clip. Read with students. 7. (Slide 7) Watch video clip. 8. (Slides 8) Think/Pair/Share with a discussion following. Bring up the point that leaders sometimes do things that are hard or would rather not do for the betterment of others. 9. (Slide 9) Conduct poll with students. 10. (Slide 10) Have students read content on the Duckster website about John Adams. If they have time, students may take the quiz at the bottom of the page. 11. (Slide 11) Vocabulary words. Go over words and definitions with students. 12. (Slide 12) Watch video clip with John Adams. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 29 13. (Slide 13) Students will fill in the three blanks using the vocabulary words. 14. (Slide 14) Open ended question. Students will answer question and it will project up on the screen. John Adams asks you, "What does serving your country mean?" Discuss answers with class. 15. (Slide 15) Have students read content on website, The American Revolution for Kids. This is all about Benjamin Franklin. 16. (Slide 16) This slide will introduce the video clip of Ben Franklin. Instruct students to listen for qualities or characteristics of this leader. 17. (Slide 17) Watch video clip of Benjamin Franklin. 18. (Slide 18) Collaboration board. Students will answer a question. What do you admire most about Benjamin Franklin? After all students are done, talk about their responses. 19. (Slide 19) Students will take a 3-question quiz. They may use the reference box to answer the questions. You may review answers when all done. 20. (Slide 20) Reference slide. 21. Conclude lesson and have students log out. Reflection for next time: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 30 Lesson: Degrees of Freedom in Colonial America Created by Cynthia Bascom and Leigh Okleberry Duration of Lesson: (suggested 45 – 90 minutes) ______________________________________ Notes:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Objectives: Students will be able to understand and discuss the rights and responsibilities of women, indentured servants, and enslaved people during colonial times. Standard: 5th Grade Social Studies Social Studies Objective 3 Distinguish between the rights and responsibilities held by different groups of people during the colonial period. a. Compare the varying degrees of freedom held by different groups (e.g. American Indians, landowners, women, indentured servants, enslaved people). English Language Arts: Reading: Informational Text Standard 7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently. Reading: Informational Text Standard 9 Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. Reading: Foundational Skills Standard 4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. a. Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding. Language Standard 4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 5 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. c. Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases. Materials Needed: Laptop or iPad BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 31 Lesson Plan: 1. Teacher will log into Nearpod and go to Degrees of Freedom in Colonial America Nearpod. Click live lesson. Project code for students to enter into their device. 2. Students will go to nearpod.com and enter the code that is projected. 3. (Slides 2 and 3) Go over the standards and objective for this lesson. 4. (Slide 4) Tell students to look for the following vocabulary words on this slide. 5. (Slide 5) Students will watch a short video about indentured servants. 6. (Slide 6) Students will answer the open-ended question, What are some of the rights of the indentured servants? Then, as a class discuss their answers. 7. (Slide 7) Collaboration board. Students will answer this question, What would you be willing to work for without pay for 7 years? Discuss answers as a class. 8. (Slides 8) Have students read content on the Duckster website about slavery. If they have time, students may take the quiz at the bottom of the page. 9. (Slide 9) Introduction to Billy Lee, George Washington’s slave. 10. (Slide 10) Play video of Billy Lee. 11. (Slide 11) Poll: Would you rather have nothing and be free or have your needs met yet still be a slave? After all students are done, have them turn and talk to their neighbor to discuss why they picked the choice they chose. 12. (Slide 12) Introducing the dilemma of slavery. Read with students. 13. (Slide 13) Have students watch the video of colonial leaders talking about slavery. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 32 14. (Slide 14) Collaboration board. Students will answer a question. What were some of the problems that slave owners faced? After all students are done, talk about their responses. 15. (Slide 15) Have students read content on the Duckster website about women’s roles. If they have time, students may take the quiz at the bottom of the page. 16. (Slide 16) Fill in the blank activity for students. Content will come from Women’s Roles on Duckster. Have students read and fill in the blank with the answers provided. 17. (Slide 17) Memory Test for vocabulary words. This is a fun memory game that students will complete. 18. (Slide 18) Have students watch video of Mama Africa. 19. (Slide 19) Collaboration Board and Reflection. Students will answer the following question, How does this lesson pertain to you and your life? What can you do to make life better? After all students are done, talk about their reflections. 20. (Slide 20) Reference slide. 21. Conclude lesson and have students log out. Reflection for next time: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 33 Lesson: Mountain Men and Rendezvous Created by Cynthia Bascom and Leigh Okleberry Duration of Lesson: (suggested 40 minutes) __________________________________________ Notes:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Objectives: Students will be able to understand the cultural significance of a rendezvous festival. Standard: 4th Grade Social Studies 2.1.C Explore cultural influences from various groups found in Utah today (e.g. food, music, religion, dress, festivals). 2.3.A Explain the relationship between supply and demand. 2.3.B Describe the role of producers and consumers. 4th Grade English Language Arts Reading: Literature Standard 9 Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures. Reading: Informational Text Standard 4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area. Language Standard 4 a. Use context (e.g., definitions, examples, or restatements in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 34 Speaking and Listening Standard 2 Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud, or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. Materials Needed: Laptop or iPad Venn Diagram and pencil (Optional) Lesson Plan: 1. Teacher will log into Nearpod and go to rendezvous lesson. Click live lesson Project code for students to enter into their device. 2. Students will go to nearpod.com and enter the code that is projected. 3. (Slides 2 and 3) Go over the standards and objective for this lesson. 4. (Slide 4) Collaborative board. What do you know about rendezvous? Students will type in their answer and it will project up on the board. Once everyone has posted their answer, have a discussion about what they wrote. 5. (Slide 5) Rendezvous introduction by Limping Woman. She will tell what a rendezvous is. 6. (Slide 6) Play video of Limping Women. 7. (Slide 7) Students will see an open-ended question. They will type the answer to the question. (What is one thing that you learned from the video.) Then as a class, you will discuss some of the answers. 8. (Slides 8 and 9) These slides talk about the events at a rendezvous. Go over slide 8 with them and then have them look through the sway of pictures. 9. (Slide 10) Students will again use a collaborative board to project one activity that they would like to participate in at a rendezvous. Discuss some of of the reasons why when all have entered their answers. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 35 10. (Slide 11) Review the clothing slide with the students. This slide gives the name of each article of clothing. This is a general idea of their clothing. 11. (Slide 12) This slide is a sway of articles of clothing from local rendezvous. Have students go through each picture looking at the things that they wear. 12. (Slide 13) Students will draw a piece of clothing or an item that they would like to wear at a rendezvous. Then have students turn and talk to a neighbor about the item that they drew and why they picked that article. Then have a class discussion about the pictures that were drawn. 13. (Slide 14 and 15) Trading. Have students watch video about supply and demand. 14. (Slide 16) Limping Women giving a definition about bartering/trading. Have students watch the video. Have students’ comment after the video is done about trading bartering, producer, consumer, supply and demand and why it might be important back then and in the present. 14. (Slide 17 and 18) Vocabulary words. Go over words and definitions with students. 15. (Slide 19) Matching game for students to do with the vocabulary words. 16. (Slide 20) Collaboration board. Students will find an example of supply and demand or producer and consumer with text or pictures from a rendezvous. Discuss their answers when all students are done. 17. (Slide 21) 1830 rendezvous. 18. (Slide 22) Have students read this passage about the 1830’s rendezvous. BRINGING VOICES FROM THE PAST INTO THE CLASSROOM 36 19. (Slide 23) Collaboration board. Students will answer this question. How might an 1830’s rendezvous differ from a rendezvous today. After all students are done, talk about their responses. 20. (Slide 24) Poll: Which rendezvous would you rather attend? After all students are done have students turn and talk to their neighbors to discuss why they picked the choice they picked. 21. (Slide 25) Open-ended question. The question is: Why might an annual Rendezvous be a culturally important event? Why is the rendezvous important? Discuss answers. 22. Click to last slide and explain a rendezvous goodbye. Reflection for next time: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________