Monday, October 1, 2007
Columbus Day
As Columbus day approaches, many teachers are beginning to teach a little bit on the explorer. I wanted to see how teachers are currently teaching this subject and if you agree with the way it is taught or disagree. I know that my teacher is going to shed a little light on this topic and mention moreso the voyage and who Christopher Columbus was. I am in a first grade classroom and I thought that the way my teacher was going about this topic was just right for this age. She was going to focus on how long the trip was and what kind of ship he traveled with. She was also going to talk about explorers and other famous ones in the United States. She felt that it was important to talk about who he was since we do have a day just for him. I wanted to see how other teachers were going to portray this man and the whole topic of Columbus.
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My mentor teacher hasn't even discussed if she is even going to talk about Columbus to our class. Unfortunately in my classroom there is really no time for social studies. Since we just had our plan time today after school my mentor didn't schedule in any social studies for the next two weeks. I am sure that the day after Columbus day my teacher will slightly discuss why we got off Monday. Today I was in the work room and one of the teachers came in to make a bunch of copies for her class. Ironically she was making copies about Columbus and she was talking to another teacher about how much she loved Columbus day. She went on to say that Columbus was such a good man and she always got excited when it came the time in the year she would tell her students about Columbus. Instantly I knew that she would be telling her students, who are 3rd graders, that Columbus was such a great man and probably not mention one negative thing about him. I would like to approach my teacher tomorrow to see if she even considered talking to our class about Columbus. If she says no I would like to talk to my students about Columbus but I am curious to see if my mentor restrains me from telling the truth about Columbus.
I asked my mentor teacher if she was going to implement Christopher Columbus into the curriculum. She said that she is a little behind so she sometimes does not address him. However, when she said that another Kindergarten teacher came in and asked for a lesson plan based on Christopher Columbus and his ships. They are going to make little ships and talk about Christopher Columbus. I confronted my teacher and asked her if she knew the truth about Christopher Columbus. She said that she learned about the real story in college as well and she said that with children so young, it's probably best that she leaves it out. I think her approach is positive and negative. I truly believe she is trying to do the right thing for her students, however I also feel like she does not want to touch upon a controversial topic. I also believe that in the school, teachers may know the facts about Columbus but choose to ignore them due to the controversy and the inconsistency among grades.
I spoke to my mentor about this. She showed me what the children did last year. Before Columbus day, she reads them a book by David Adler entitled, A Picture Book About Christopher Columbus. As soon as I heard this author and title, I thought back to the book I looked at in class, and it was the same. I remember how Adler misrepresented Columbus and dehumanized the Native Americans. I thought to myself that if any book was the worst to read to children, it would be this one. However, after my mentor showed me this book, she said she also reads Encounter to the children. They then compare and contrast the two viewpoints of both of the books using a Venn Diagram. I think that although she does present a rather bad book to the children, it is balanced by Encounter. The chidlren are forced to see how different people have various viewpoints on one topic and the children recognize these differences and similariries in the Venn Diagram. This activity is done in a 3rd grade class and from the Venn Diagram they made last year, I can see that they really thought about how two people can see the same event differently.
I am currently in a 5th grade class. Just today my CT began teaching about Native Americans and explorers. She gave a relatively brief overview of each topic the class would be reading about in their upcoming units. Of course, when asking the class who some of the explorers were, everyone yelled out Christopher Columbus first. She started mentioning how he made a mistake by thinking he was actually in the Indies, so on and so forth... but then she mentioned the fact that the Native Americans were already there. She asked how the students would feel if someone came into their home and started taking over. Obviously, the students responsed that they would be upset. Then she went on to say that Columbus was mainly interested in the Native American's gold, and that he would capture Native Americans to be used as slaves. I was surprised that she even mentioned the fact that he and his men would kill the Native Americans. And this was just the short version of Columbus! My CT was not afraid to mention the wrong things that Columbus did. I am interested to see what she gets into full detail about when it comes to the actual chapter that mentions him and his explorations.
In regards to this question, my CT has not talked much about Christopher Columbus. On Monday she talked briefly about him when she was pointing out important dates in October during calendar time(I'm in 1st grade). I do not think the 1st graders understood what she was talking about (all they saw was they would get a day off of school...and I do not think even most of them came to that conclusion). All she said about Columbus was that he was great man who lived a very long time ago. Later, I asked her if she was going to do a social studies lesson talking about him and she said yes (since we do not have any social studies throughout the week). Since I am in a first grade class, I think the only way you can address this issue is to talk about the good things he did or the good things that came out of his journey to this continent. At a 1st grade level, I feel you can not go very indepth. Either the students will not understand what you are saying or it will be too much for them to handle. At that age, you have to keep it as simple as possible and use words they understand.
One of our Little Village interns told me in class earlier this week that she'd decided to teach an alternative Columbus lesson to her fourth graders. She taught the lesson today, and I got an email from her tonight reporting on how it went. Here's part of it:
"I taught the lesson on Columbus today. I used a KWL chart, the 1492 song, Encounter, and the "discover a backpack" activity...AND it was awesome! The kids did a great job! They were thinking and responding and reflecting and questioning. A few of the students especially got into it. One girl told me that she wasn't going to "celebrate" on Monday because she said she didn't understand why we celebrated a man who did bad things. Another boy said that he was going to do more research on Columbus at home over the weekend. Even the students who often look bored during class were participating and asking tons of questions! It was just fabulous!"
I was really glad to hear that she'd taken the plunge and tried it, and it sounds like the lesson really engaged her 4th graders and pushed them to think. Very cool.
My mentor teacher is not going to talk about Christopher Columbus. Like Sarah's mentor, she just mentioned that we had Monday off due to Columbus Day, but nothing else. I asked her if she was going to talk about Columbus but she said he's going to come up later in the year. I also feel like Dana. I feel like teachers see it as such a controversial topic that they fail to touch on it. However, I do not believe that the point is to make Columbus look bad but rather provide multiple perspectives and make students think and question. I see history as one big puzzle with each piece representing a different opinion that one must put together to make their own interpretation. I hope what I'm saying makes sense. I am also glad to see that the Little Village intern had a such a successful lesson. It must feel great to see that one of your students is going to take their time at home to research more about the topic. When presenting different social studies lessons, that is what I want my students to do.
This topic actually came up on Friday for a little bit. My mentor teaching was telling the kids how we have no school monday because of Columbus day. One of my students who is originally from Korea raised his hand and asked, "What is Columbus Day?" Now after this question was asked, I was really interested in how my mentor would answer. My mentor gave a very brief answer. She explained that he is the man who discovered the Americas and so this day is just to celebrate his discovery. Right then and there I wanted to go up and ask her if anything else would be said or what they do with Columbus day, but I couldnt and I didnt get to discuss it later either because us interns had to leave early. I am hoping to get into a discussion about it with her on Tuesday or even see if it comes up again after the day off.
I am in a second grade bilingual class, and was therefore wondering how my CT would approach the idea of Columbus Day. In Mexico, Columbus is not a man to be celebrated. He conquered their land, and killed many people. However, my students and CT now live in the United States. I could see them having very mixed thoughts when it came to Columbus Day.
Prior to the holiday, my CT did not mention anything to the students, so I was wondering if she would mention it at all. She did, however, mention the holiday during the morning meeting the following Tuesday. She read a short story to the class similar to the ones we reviewed during social studies. The story gave basic information about Columbus, and ended when the land was "discovered."
Unlike many teachers, she did discuss that people already inhabited the land, and mentioned the interaction between people. She did not want to dive too deeply into the subject matter, so she told the students that there is more to the story, but she would save it for another day.
I thought this was a good approach to Columbus Day for a second grade class. She mentioned a few negative aspect to Columbus, but did not give them more information than they were ready to handle. She finished the lesson by saying that if it weren't for Columbus, none of them would be speaking Spanish. This gave a positive spin to the situation without glorifying the negative aspects.
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