2.1 Families and Primary Sources

In Standard 2.1, students develop a beginning sense of history through the study of the family — a topic that is understandable and interesting to them. Students are introduced to primary sources related to family history, including photographs, family trees, artifacts, and oral histories. In response to the question How do families remember their past? students study the history of a family and may construct a history of their own family, a relative’s or neighbor’s family, or a family depicted from books. By studying the stories of a diverse collection of families — such as immigrant families, families with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender parents and their children, families of color, step- and blended families, families headed by single parents, extended families, multigenerational families, families with members having a disability, families from different religious traditions, and adoptive families — students can both locate themselves and their own families in history and learn about the lives and historical struggles of their peers.

In developing these activities, teachers should not assume any particular family structure and ask questions in a way that will easily include children from diverse family backgrounds. They need to be sensitive to family diversity and privacy and respect the wishes of students and parents who prefer not to participate. Members of students’ families may be invited to tell about the experiences of their families. Literature and informational texts may be shared to spark inquiry and help students acquire deeper insights into life in the past and the cultures from which the families came; the stories, games, and festivals that parents or grandparents might have enjoyed as children; the work that students as well as their families would have been expected to do; their religious practices; and the dress, manners, and morals expected of family members at that time. Students are encouraged to compare and contrast their daily lives with those of families who lived in the past. To deepen student understanding and engagement, teachers may have students read When I Was Little by Toyomi Igus, Dear Juno by Soyung Pak, The Boy with Long Hair by Pushpinder (Kaur) Singh, and In Our Mothers’ House by Patricia Polacco.

To develop the concept of chronological thinking, students may construct timelines of their school day and important events in their lives. To culminate this unit of study, teachers may have students interview an older adult or family member about life in the past and then create a timeline of the person’s life.