>> Hello, everyone, and good afternoon.
My name is Kathy Mcguigan, and I work
in the Education Outreach Department
at the Library of Congress.
We are thrilled to welcome you to day two of the
second annual online conference for educators.
Our session today, Kindergarten
Historians, will be recorded
and posted to the library's Teacher page.
Without further ado, I'd like to
introduce Mike Affledorf [assumed spelling]
from the Education Outreach staff.
He is your MC for the session, and
we hope you enjoy the presentation.
>> Thanks, Kathy.
I'm going to jump right in and introduce
our presenter, Theresa St. Angelo,
the 2016-2017 Teacher in Residence
at the Library of Congress,
has been a kindergarten teacher within
Manalapan Englishtown School District
in New Jersey for 18 years.
She also taught both preschoolers
and undergraduate students
in the Rutgers Nutritional Sciences Preschool.
St. Angelo was presented with a Teacher of the
Year Governor's Award in her school district,
has been recognized by NASA for
contributing to the children's education,
and is a published author
of children's literature.
Welcome, Theresa, and take it away.
>> Good afternoon, everybody.
It's a sunny afternoon here in Washington, D.C.,
and I was thinking it's the perfect
afternoon to talk about primary sources.
So welcome, and let's get started.
So on my opening slide there's a picture
of my kindergarten students
engaged in a primary sources.
And once upon a time, I was
an undergraduate student,
and I signed up to tutor
students at a local school.
And they assigned me a kindergarten boy.
He was so enthusiastic, and happy, and excited,
and I treasured the time I spent with him,
that I decided that this was the
age group I just was dying to teach.
There was just one problem, though.
I didn't know how to play the piano.
And I remembered my kindergarten
teacher playing the piano,
and I was worried that that was a requirement.
But when I went to the education
department, they assured me, no problem,
I could get my teaching degree
and go on to teach kindergarten.
Well lo and behold, my very first
interview, the kindergarten --
the principal took me to the kindergarten room,
and there was a piano right
in the front of the room.
And she told me, Don't worry
about it if you can't play.
We have a record player.
And I know that today, very few people
use record players, but I still do.
Maybe I should do a primary source
lesson on record players [laughter].
Anyway, my goals for you
today, I -- we want to --
I hope that you'll learn new strategies to
strengthen a young learner's ability to analyze,
evaluate, investigate, and
develop reasoned explanations.
I hope that at the end of this session you feel
confident and comfortable using primary sources,
and also extending that to your colleagues,
telling them what a challenging
activity it is for everyone.
And I hope you see the value in it.
Well, I began my commitment to primary sources
when I signed on for a weeklong summer institute
that the Primary Sources office was
giving at the Library of Congress.
And if you could see the grandeur of this
main reading room, I would like to say
that the experience I had with teaching
with Primary Sources Summer
Institute was just as grand.
Once there, I met teachers from
across the country, and we learned how
to navigate the Library of
Congress website, that's just filled
with millions of primary source resources.
So the magnificence of the building was
equal to that valuable and powerful learning.
The lessons that I learned engaged students,
developed critical thinking,
and construct knowledge.
During that week, we all had to create
a lesson to take back to our classroom,
and at the end of the week, we were evaluated
by expert staff from the Library of Congress,
as well as our colleagues
present during the week.
And that was a valuable piece of information,
because what I thought was great in my lesson,
somebody else gave me another idea,
and that made it even greater.
I'm sure you can see my excitement
with the primary sources.
So when I went back to my school district,
I wanted to get everybody on board,
to use primary sources, and
to see the value in them.
So I first went to my administrators,
and my superintendent of curriculum,
I must have spent two hours with her,
and then we decided that we were going
to do a professional day for teachers.
I talked to colleagues about what I was doing
and what I learned, and they immediately went
on the website and were looking
up primary sources.
And the other thing was, I said I
had to get parents on board, too.
And to me, getting parents involved in what I do
in the classroom is vital
to the students' education.
So I drafted this piece, and I read
it to them on Back to School Night.
This is for the parents.
And it's a history in our class.
I also did show them the slide of the main
reading room, get them a little excited
about the grandeur of the program.
And as you can see, I wrote, you know,
"It's going to be an exciting year,
analyzing and discovery, and they'll
learn what a historian is and does.
And once a month, they'll have the
opportunity to be a historian, analyzing,
questioning, and discovering the past."
And then I talked about what
these special lessons would do.
And then this particular year, my first
lesson was an artifact from the Mien culture.
And so parents at Back to
School Night were all on board.
They were so excited to get started.
They were thrilled at the engagement
that this would bring their children.
So what I would like to do next is let
you get involved with a primary source.
This is a photo -- a primary
source photo taken from the Library
of Congress digitized collection.
And we're going to begin this primary
source for your first analyzing,
by asking you to write something that
you see or something that you notice.
What details did you see
that made you think that?
It's another question you could
pose at this time, which I will,
what other knowledge did you
use to make that observation?
I see -- somebody said, a train.
How -- what made you say that?
Okay, and one more question, did you
see a detail that made you say that,
or was it something you already knew?
Well, I see excellent observations.
You're noticing quite a bit.
You've noticed a lot of the
things that my students notice.
But I'm also going to ask you
now to make some reflection.
And when you make a reflection,
you start with, "I think that."
For example, I think that's a light, because
I saw one like that in my mother's kitchen.
Oh, I see, man is in charge.
Mailroom , cramped and crowded.
All right.
I see excellent engagement, excellent
observations, excellent reflections.
And now, what do you -- what
are some of your questions?
What do you want to know more about?
Why is the room so small?
That's what would happen
if there is -- was a buyer.
Very good questions.
I know, I see a lot of people
focusing on the gun.
We're going to address that later.
And slips of paper.
Very good.
Okay, so that was a very simple, fast analysis.
And we're going to continue, because I want
to show you how my kindergarten
students analyze photographs.
So this lesson I gave to them in February.
So in February, I had a lot of
preliminary work that I did prior to this.
They learned about what a
historian is, what a historian does.
They learned about what a primary source is,
and they also learned that I start these lessons
with an essential question
for the boys and girls.
I can't tell you the excitement in the
room when I read the schedule for the day.
And whenever I said history lesson
for the day in the schedule,
the excitement in the room was just contagious.
And the boys and girls would ask each other,
"What do you think the essential question is?"
And as a teacher, that was so rewarding.
Anyway, are you ready for our lesson?
Okay. Yes, it was the same photo you analyzed,
but the essential question I led this lesson off
with was, what are these men doing?
Here the boys and girls are involved
in making their observations.
I put the primary source
photo in the plastic sleeve.
Each student has a dry-erase
marker and a dry-erase eraser.
I also pass out magnifying glasses so they can
really search for details, and I tell them --
I give them the essential question, and
then I tell them to circle things they want
to talk about, or circle things that are going
to help them discover the
answer to that question.
What are these men doing?
So as you can see, they get right into it.
They love to circle details, and
I give them about five minutes.
Probably no longer than five minutes.
And then they get their history study buddy.
History study buddies can be assigned,
or sometimes I just pick their names --
two names out that are on craft sticks, and
then they go off with their study buddy.
And then they talk to each other
about the details that they found,
and what they noticed first, and why.
And I teach them how to ask those questions.
You know, describe that to me.
How did you know that was a light?
How did you know that was a bag of mail?
So again, I give them about five
minutes to work with their study buddy,
and then we gather back together
as a whole group,
and on a large chart paper I have
the primary sources analysis tool --
similar to the primary source analysis tool.
I divide a large chart paper into three
sections, Observe, Reflect, Question.
Under Observe, I write, I see" blank.
Reflect, I think blank.
And Question, I wonder blank.
So these are some of the observations made
by my students, some of the things they saw.
Men, shelves, lights, a lot of bags, a man
wearing boots, hats on men, different hats,
the letters U S. It was interesting
that a lot of you noticed the gun
when you made your initial observations.
I have to say, very few boys and girls ever
even brought that up, believe it or not.
And that's probably based on their prior
knowledge, because that gun is in a holster,
and I don't know if many of the
students even know what a holster is.
Anyway, then they make their reflections,
and then I said, "I think what?"
So then went -- they responded
by, I know they are men.
I think that's a shelf, because we have
shelves like that in the classroom.
And I think that's a light, because
I have seen lights like that before.
Then some boys and girls
were talking about the boots.
And then they would say, I never saw boots like
that on anyone, but it's taller than a shoe.
I don't know if any of you
noticed the boot on the gentleman.
And he has, like, little buttons, I believe.
And then, of course, we get the connection
they make to their own prior knowledge.
My daddy wears a hat like that.
That's why I know it was a hat.
Okay. And some other questions, I
wonder if they are in a kitchen?
And then that just -- then the kids just
ran off on that, and then somebody said,
I wonder," you know, "or is it an office?
And then somebody said, or a schoolroom?
And then, of course, some boys
and girls noticed the pipes,
and you'd be amazed that the lists go on and on.
And even though this is one list
from one particular period of time,
every year the list is different,
and the boys and girls surprise me
with the smallest little details that they see.
Okay. Now what I wanted to do was to -- we do
-- after we did the observe, reflect, question,
I told the boys and girls that we're going to go
deeper to figure out what those men are doing,
exactly, and then we're going to
watch a video, a primary source video.
And I like in this to like, peeling an orange.
And I tell the boys and girls, "We
have one piece, we peel the orange off.
We have another piece, we peel the orange off.
And maybe we even have another
piece that we peel the orange off,
until we get to that juicy,
delicious slice of orange.
And we put that in them -- our
mouths, and it's just so delicious.
It's a burst of flavor, and you're
just going to have a burst of knowledge
when you discover what those men were doing.
So that's my comparison.
When I was researching for a perfect video
to go with this lesson, I thought to myself,
the boys and girls are really
going to enjoy this.
And the reaction I have every year
is, you know, this is hysterical.
This is great.
Okay, so then I let them watch the video one
time, and we just watch it quietly, or you know,
they can say whatever they want during
that, but I don't pose a question
or ask them any questions
during that first viewing.
Then I show it again and
stop it in certain places,
so that they can make observations
again from this video.
And again, they're looking
to discover that answer,
what were those men doing in that first photo?
I know some of you may have already figured out
what those men were doing, and where were they?
Sorting mail in the post office.
Oh. Sorting mail to be put in bags.
Mailroom sorting.
Sorting mail on a train.
Because the men were on mail trains
sorting mail for various stops.
Okay. Most of you got it.
They were men.
They were on a railroad car,
and they were sorting mail.
And like I said, I don't ever even remember
getting into a discussion about the gun,
and I was thinking, you would
just say, for protection, or --
from when those observations were.
Okay, after we looked -- we analyzed the video,
then I gave the students this map, this --
and I tell them, there is
another primary source.
Again, we're peeling more of that
orange, and understanding more.
And this is a map of railroad
routes across the country.
Now, I don't know if it's big enough for you
to see, but the lines are the railroad routes.
And what I did was, I had the boys
and girls take their pointer finger,
and they could follow one of the lines.
Now I'm from New Jersey, so I tell the boys
and girls they could start at New Jersey,
try to find a railroad line, see where it goes,
and they use their pointer
finger as they go across.
And then I -- after they use their pointer
fingers, then I tell them, use your markers,
and they could do different lines
with different color markers.
And this is a powerful primary source,
because what I like to help them discover
here is how important the railroad was
for mail delivery, and how
important those men were,
and how important their job
was to the whole country.
Let me tell you, they love this activity.
Okay, after we do that, I put this slide
up of a primary source on my smart board.
Now this one, I don't have -- I don't give
out individually to the boys and girls.
This, I just have up on the smart board,
and I use this for an assessment piece.
And what I do is, I ask the boys and girls
to think about what they just learned
from the video, the railroad map,
and the first primary source.
And then I ask them to tell me
what they see in this picture,
what do they observe, what
do they think about it?
And so from their responses, I get a
quick assessment of who's on target,
what are they thinking, what skills might they
be using, what skills might I have to reinforce.
But this picture just really helped me find
out exactly what everybody was thinking.
I love that it has U.S. Mail on it,
and that the boys and girls, you know,
connect that to the U.S., the
letters U S on those mailbags.
I also like when -- they even come up with, you
know, we know it's old, because there's a horse,
and I know that they have a sense
of time and a sense of the past.
Now after that, I do give each
one this picture individually.
Again, it's another primary source.
And I do tell them it's a follow-up activity.
They know that after our primary source
study we always have a follow-up activity.
And again, I want them to notice
and -- details in the picture.
So if you want to just write some
things you notice in that picture.
A little girl getting a letter.
Mail delivery.
Very good.
Yes, I do print them on regular printer paper.
I don't even laminate them, because I'm going to
tell you something else I do with these photos.
I see some very good observations here.
Okay, so for this particular
picture, my objective is just
to see that the girl is receiving mail.
And then I go on and tell them
how much I love to receive mail.
I love to get letters from
my family and my friends.
And then I tell them, what
we're going to do today is,
we're going to write a postcard
and mail it to our families.
I have the postcards all ready, set up
with their addresses on the postcard,
and then I read the address, and
then the students raise their hand
as they hear their address, and
then they take their postcard off,
and then they write whatever message they
want to on the postcard for their family.
And again, this is an activity they love.
If it's for their family you see rainbows and
flowers, and, you know, daddy likes football.
You'll see football.
It -- they just love to write -- to mail home.
I give them, you know, as much time as they
need with that, and then we put a stamp
on the postcard, and we all walk
down to the office mailbox --
the outgoing mail, and we mail it home.
When those boys and girls -- when their
families receive that postcard home,
the excitement in the classroom is unbelievable.
Did you get your postcard?
My mom got my postcard.
And then we have a whole big discussion
again, and the involvement is just thrilling.
I see that you're posting that book about Onie,
and that's another follow-up activity I did.
It's a really good book.
You do have to preview it
with kindergarten students.
There are some things I would suggest, some
pages I might skip for kindergarten students,
but make sure you preview it before
you use it with your students,
and know what they'll understand and
what they can take away from the book.
Okay, so after we do that, the one thing I told
you at the beginning, I like to involve parents
with primary sources, so I
made this take-home piece.
And every time we do a primary source
lesson, I send this piece home,
and I attach all the primary
sources that we use.
So that's another reason why
I don't laminate the pictures.
It goes home, attached to this.
And I ask the parents, you know, to talk about
it with their students, but I also ask them
to go through it like we just did, too.
But then I tell the boys and
girls that their parents have
to do some homework, too,
and they love hearing that.
So this piece goes home, attached, and they
have to write their name and the parent name.
And then, what did you think
was happening in the print?
If I use a map, I'll replace
that with map, or --
and then I want the parents to tell
me what they learned from their child.
And then I want them to circle if they
like this activity, or they didn't like.
And obviously, if they liked
it, it would be a happy face.
And if they didn't like it,
that would be a sad face.
This is a powerful piece.
Parents love this piece.
Students love to share this.
When they bring this in the
next day and share it with me,
it's so thrilling, and they get so excited.
My dad loved that.
He was talking about this.
Mom -- my mom loved that.
We were talking about this and that.
And it's just a thrilling piece.
I didn't save a sheet that was filled
out about the train, but I did find one
about another primary source that
we used, and this was one of my --
this was a lesson that I absolutely loved.
Actually, I don't know many that I don't
love, with -- when I use primary sources.
But this one was a primary source of a
boy sitting on a box, and it was raining,
and he was waiting for the
opening day for baseball.
It wasn't, waiting for the opening
day of a real baseball game.
It was a pretend baseball field,
or it wasn't like a major league.
It was a different league.
But we had fun comparing that
with the opening day of baseball
when I gave the students this lesson.
This one I wanted to share with
you, because where it says,
"What did you think was happening in the print?"
A little boy was waiting in line
to purchase baseball tickets.
What did you learn from your child?
I found out Salvitor that you
need money for everything.
That's right.
We were -- we were talking about how you
need to give money to buy the ticket.
And then down at the bottom, this is
what is really very telling to me.
They both enjoyed the lesson, and her son
said that he enjoyed looking at the picture
and making -- and making observations,
but Mom enjoyed it because she got
to pick his brain and have an activity with him.
And really, it's not a long activity.
It's quick, and it's enjoyable.
And I can't tell you the feedback I get
from parents about how much they love it.
As a matter of fact, I gave a lesson on football
one time, and one father called me up to talk
to me all about football
for about 15, 20 minutes.
It was -- that's -- and they love to share
that knowledge, and it's just fabulous.
So, why primary sources for young learners?
I hope that you feel the same
way I do about the value,
and everything they bring to the students.
But I wanted to read to you
something that I just found on --
it was on the internet, reverseKids.com.
It's "Empowering children
to create positive change."
And it said that, "Children must
be given time to dream, to touch,
to feel, and most of all, to construct.
To build their ideas, to expand on their
questions, and to develop a sense of rootedness,
of connectedness to the world around them."
And that to me, is using
primary sources in the classroom.
By using primary sources, my young learners grow
in content knowledge, problem solving, respect.
They have to -- I teach them, they have
to respect other people's
responses, no matter what they say.
We have to respect and accept
the responses given.
My young learners grow in cooperative
working skills, speaking skills,
foundational reading skills,
which just skyrocket.
They grow in their sense of accomplishment.
I cannot tell you, the contentment in the
classroom after you give one of these lessons,
because their involvement, their engagement,
their thinking, the respect they get,
and how everyone's answer is
respected and acknowledged.
It's just so important to
build their sense of self.
Their enthusiasm for learning
has grown by leaps and bounds
since I've introduced primary
source lessons in kindergarten.
I can't tell you how many students
will bring in something, a little item,
and they'll say, Miss St. Angelo, look at this.
Look at this.
I really love this, because it's old.
And then what I do is, we -- I say, "Well
let's go find out when that was made."
Or, "Can we find out when --
the toy company that made that?"
Or, "Let's dig a little deeper,
find a little bit more about that."
Last year, one of my favorite things
was when somebody brought in --
it was Steamboat Willie, a
picture of Steamboat Willie.
And then we got into a big
discussion about that.
I tell my colleagues that my students can
source, contextualize, and corroborate.
And I tell my students -- and I did
borrow this from a popular book --
I tell my students, I love primary sources to
the moon, but I love how you analyze and work
with primary sources, to the moon and back.
And they love to hear me
say that after every lesson.
So I hope that you enjoyed my presentation of
one of my lessons in my kindergarten class.
I hope that you're ready to
run and use primary sources.
Please read on our teacher's blog.
I'm going to be posting some blogs
that you can use with young learners.
And thank you for your time.
I really appreciate sharing this with you.
Thank you.
