Using Picture Books to Learn History

Last spring, 40 elementary teachers gathered at UCI to consider how we can promote students’ historical inquiry in the elementary classroom using picture books. While face-to-face workshops seem like long-ago occurrences, the connection and lessons learned are just as relevant during our remote teaching context when reading to our children remains an important way to promote literacy at home.

Our goal with the workshop was to share culturally-relevant books that put children’s agency as changemakers at the center of the story. Each of the books that my colleague, Lisa Hutton, and I shared with the teachers was accompanied by inquiry questions and relevant informational sources aligned to California’s Framework for History-Social Science. Each of the books and corresponding sources allows teachers to deepen student learning through an inquiry-based approach. The questions promote students’ historical thinking skills such as comparing today to the past, considering who makes up our community, and learning about how humans rely on our natural environment. Teachers can access the book recommendations, inquiry sets, and pedagogical strategies at tinyurl.com/CLIC4change.

While sheltering at home, elementary students can continue to engage in reading of picture books to promote literacy and broaden their perspectives to consider stories of lives different from their own. My colleagues at the University of California, Davis History Project have developed “K-5 Book Recommendation” list for elementary teachers. Additionally, we thought this teachers could share this resources to parents, who are also supporting their elementary-aged kids’ learning at home.  These books highlight stories of diversity, civic engagement, and the environmental stewardship. Another resource to promote reading for history-social science is Common Lit, which provides teachers access to a variety of texts, including historical biographies, in both English and Spanish, that students can read or have read aloud to them. With these recommendations, we can support our children to continue to learn about the world they live in, to ask and share their questions, and cultivate connections to people who have made positive change in our world.

Nicole Gilbertson is Site Director, UCI History Project and Co-Director, UCI Teacher Academy