Storytelling and historical images in social studies

1. USING STORYTELLING AND
HISTORICAL IMAGES TO
TEACH SOCIAL STUDIES
Presented by: Manda
Cawthon
and
Jermeka
Ford

2. THE ART OF STORYTELLING
Story telling can be a great way to share history with students. There
are several tips that teachers can use in order to cultivate their
storytelling skills and they are as follows:
1. Central idea- Start with a major theme or topic.
2. Resources- Use textbooks, picture books, primary resources,
family stories, newspapers,props and other sources to help enhance
and make your story relevant.
3. Remove extraneous sections- leave out slower or less interesting
parts to your story.
4. Visualize the setting and the characters- change the tone, pitch
and intonation to represent central characters and or focal point in
your story.
5. Make the story your own-Practice telling your story, remember it

3. THE ART OF
STORYTELLING(TEACHER EDITION)
General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea/ The Atlanta
Campaign.

4. TEACHING STUDENTS HOW TO
BECOME STORYTELLERS
Tips for teaching students how to use history to tell stories.
1.Conduct talk arounds or discussions to help get students
comfortable and in the habit of sharing information about given or
student selected topics.
2. Help students to select topics that they are familiar with or topics
that they want to know more about.
3.Provide students with a rubric and or graphic organizer to organize
their thoughts.
4.Allow students to use various mediums as to how they would like to
share their stories. Examples could include: videos, dramatic scenes,
radio/ news broadcasts, essays, poetry, journals, diaries,
reenactments, wax museums etc.
5. Give students time to practice, and most of all encourage them to

5. STORY BUILDING GRAPHIC
ORGANIZER
Theme:
Characters:
Setting
Plot:
Climax:
Ending:
How does this story relate to the real-world?
Resources:

6. THE ART OF STORY
TELLING(STUDENT EDITION)
Please click the button below to listen to students share information
on President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.

7. AFTER THE STORYTELLING IS
OVER…
There are many ways to assess the students after the teacher and or
students have shared their stories some of the ways are as follows:
1.Response journals
2. Letters to characters
3.Identifying characters, main ideas/ topics, supporting details
4. Understanding timelines/ chronology
5.Creating pictures in response to the story.

8. USING HISTORICAL IMAGES
FOR INQUIRY- BASED
LEARNING
www.loc.gov

9. OBSERVE, REFLECT, QUESTION

10. SEGMENTED IMAGE
Cut an image into 4 segments
Give each group a segment to investigate
Why?
Students focus on the details of one segment of the photo. This is less
overwhelming than trying to focus on the photograph as a whole.

11. http://www.historynet
.com/westward-
expansion

12. 1 2
3 4

13. SEQUENCING ANCHOR IMAGES
Select images that align with the content you are teaching
Provide each group with a full set of images to put in order.
What is the purpose of this activity?
 Practice chronological thinking
 Document analysis
 Identify causal relationships among events
 This can be used as an introduction to the course at the begining of the year. Don’t
provide the key. Post the images on the wall and move them around as the content
is taught.
 Use as a review. Students will engage in great discussion about what the image
shows and where it fits in the sequence of events.

14. These
teachers are
sequencing
images for
events
covered by
5th grade
standards

15. OTHER USES FOR HISTORICAL
IMAGES
Collect images within a unit.
Use the images for writing prompts (literacy standards).
 What do you think is happening? How do the people feel? What would it be like to
be there yourself? How is your life the same as or different from the lives of the
people in the image?

16. GREAT RESOURCES FOR
HISTORICAL IMAGES
Library of Congress
 https://www.loc.gov/
DocsTeach (National Archives): This Finding a Sequence Tool allows
students to view and sequence images online.
 https://www.docsteach.org/tools/finding-a-sequence
Google Arts and Culture
 https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/u/0/
 You need to view the content ahead of time and bookmark what you will use in
class. This site is continuously updated and you do not want to explore this site in
front of the students.
 Virtual tours, artwork, historical photographs
 The zoom on the images is incredibly detailed
http://www.historynet.com/

17. RESOURCES
http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume2/febru
ary04/teachstrategy.cfm
https://www.storyarts.org/classroom/
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/the-
psychological-comforts-of-storytelling/381964/
https://www.loc.gov/
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzi
ng_Photographs_and_Prints.pdf
https://www.docsteach.org
http://www.historynet.com/