Dear Fourth Grade Parents and Guardians,
We are very excited to share with you a new literacy and social studies unit of study for our fourth graders that combines reading and writing about a historical time period with the opportunity to look at a variety of sources and perspectives. Comparing and contrasting specific historical time periods to life today helps students understand groups and movements that have shaped significant historical changes and continuities in our country.
Our unit on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s allows students to look at a more recent series of events that have profoundly shaped American history. The unit builds upon our Immigration Unit when students started learning about the forced migration of Africans and, later, the Great Migration of African Americans in the 1930s and 40s.
Students will gain expertise in examining information sources, discussing multiple perspectives, and how individuals and groups can change the course of history. Some of the content discussed in the Civil Rights Movement unit may be new to your child or bring up issues that they previously have not discussed in detail. While many students may know of Ruby Bridges, for example, they may not have detailed knowledge of the processes and challenges that individuals and groups faced to bring and end to some of the discriminatory laws that kept races separate.
For some children, this may be the first time that they have discussed issues of race, race segregation, and racism. In Lexington we value providing students with the opportunity to study history from multiple perspectives and to practice having difficult conversations in developmentally appropriate ways.
As Fourth graders begin to study topic related to racial relations in our country we know that this topic may elicit a range of emotions. Our classroom teachers’ priority is to ensure that our students feel safe and respected in all conversations.
Students will know that they are allowed to feel a variety of emotions and that this is normal when learning about difficult times in history. We will work to provide a safe environment for our students while still exposing them to important concepts and historical periods.
We encourage you to open discussions at home with your child. Learning to understand the complexity of our nation’s history is a challenging task, and one that needs parent and teacher collaboration. By encouraging your child to talk about our history, we open up our children’s ability to understand different perspectives and to build their capacity to influence the world as they develop.
We look forward to partnering with you as we progress through this unit. Should you have any questions, or should your child come home expressing concern, distress, or discomfort, we strongly encourage you to contact us so that together, we can help your child process information that can raise strong emotion.
Sincerely,
Mr. Bruff
Additional Resources for Handling Difficult Topics in History
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/pdfs/hot%20topics.pdf
General tips for “hot topics” for classroom use
“Avoidance of our racial history in the United States is pervasive. And by failing to give our students the facts, we are ensuring that this avoidance will persist for subsequent generations.” In other words: Teaching various aspects of our American history is important. We help students understand that there are multiple perspectives involved in historical events as well as understand the basis for the world they live in today.
–Rothstein, Richard. “The Story Behind Ferguson.” Education Leadership, March 2015; Vol. 72, No. 6.
“Research has shown that curricula that provide students with counter-stereotypic information about people from other racial groups-and particularly with information about those groups’ experiences of racism and successful challenges to it-have a positive impact on the intergroup attitudes of both children of color and white children, providing a foundation for shared citizenship in our democracy.”
–Sleeter, Christine E. “Involving Students in Selecting Reading Materials.” Everyday Anti-Racism, pp. 150-153; 2008
Relevant Standards from the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards (a national document)
D2.His.2.3-5 Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today.
D2.His.3.3-5 Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped significant historical changes and continuities.
D2.His.5.3-5 Explain connections among historical contexts and people’s perspectives at the time.
D2.His.12.3-5 Generate questions about multiple historical sources and their relationships to particular historical events and developments.