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Sender: American Memory Fellows <AMFELLOWS@RS8.LOC.GOV>
Poster: "Monica R. Edinger" <edinger@DALTON.ORG>
Subject: Applying New Knowledge
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I just wanted to describe a wonderful experience I had today which proved
how well my fourth graders achieved the goals I had for them when they did
my American Memory lesson (History Firsthand) this past January. Among
other outcomes I wanted them to really understand something about how to
do on-line searches.
I am currently doing a unit on the Constitution. A little background: all
year long my students work on the idea of close reading and annotating. In
September I introduce these ideas with an E.B. White study. They learn how
to read a chapter closely, annotating it as well. Midyear they study the
Pilgrims and learn how to use their annotating and close reading skills
for information texts and primary sources. Now they are putting these
skills all together by annotating the Constitution. Thus, they go from
doing this with a work of fiction (Charlotte's Web ) to factual narratives
(texts about and by the Pilgrims) to a non-narrative text. I won't go
into all I do here, but I assure you that there is a lot of work done
learning about the Constitution before they do this. There is also more
that they do afterwards (with the amendments and civil rights.) Also, we
bring current events into it as well. (e.g. recent gun control
legislation.)
At the moment the children are working in groups and creating large
posters of their annotations. For example, one poster is of Article I. I
took a version of the Constitution off the National Archives site and then
changed the font size to have it fit our chart paper. The kids glued these
onto large chart paper and are putting their annotations around the
document. Their objective is to create an annotated version for other
fourth graders. Thus, they are writing definitions for things in language
their peers would understand. Also, providing many examples. Many need to
be visual. They are drawing pictures for some (e.g. someone driving
through New Jersey holding a New York drivers license for Article IV.) So
when they started looking on the Internet for images where do you think
they went? American Memory! And it is wonderful to see how facile they
are with it. Of the photograph collections they mainly know the Detroit
Publishing Collection, but are easily moving into others such as the on on
the Presidents. They've found pictures of the Supreme Court, the Capital,
Nixon, Clinton, Johnson, and more . In fact, one child found a great
drawing of Johnson's impeachment trial.
I am just delighted to see them applying all that they learned a few
months ago in a new way. No better proof for me of the success of my unit
and also proof that this age group can indeed use this wonderful resource!
Monica
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