Zoom into Historical Inquiry with KidCitizen, a Digital Interactive for Young Children

Purpose & objective

The purpose of the presentation is to share implementation strategies for integrating KidCitizen into primary grade classrooms and showcase exemplars for scaffolding historical inquiry and disciplinary specific process skills for young students while using the digital interactive. The focus of KidCitizen is to facilitate a developmentally appropriate process of careful looking, historical thinking, and evidence-informed analysis that are at the center of disciplinary literacy. By slowing down the act of looking, children discover new information and construct viewpoints as primary sources are mined. Participants will:
-Discover a free, innovative digital interactive from the Library of Congress that models research-informed teaching practices to encourage inquiry with historical images, develop young students’ critical thinking skills, and promote knowledge construction across content areas.
-Examine evidence-based approaches that engage children in applying their critical literacy skills through a developmentally appropriate process of careful looking, historical thinking, and scaffolded analysis of primary sources
-Learn strategies to support and scaffold historical inquiry and disciplinary specific process skills and thinking for students while using the KidCitizen interactive.

Outline

The purpose of the presentation is to share implementation strategies
for integrating KidCitizen into primary grade classrooms and showcase
exemplars for scaffolding historical inquiry and disciplinary specific
process skills for young students while using the digital interactive. The
focus of KidCitizen is to facilitate a developmentally appropriate process
of careful looking, historical thinking, and evidence-informed analysis
that are at the center of disciplinary literacy. By slowing down the act of
looking, children discover new information and construct viewpoints as
primary sources are mined.
Participants will:
-Discover a free, innovative digital interactive from the Library of
Congress that models research-informed teaching practices to
encourage inquiry with historical images, develop young students’
critical thinking skills, and promote knowledge construction across
content areas.
-Examine evidence-based approaches that engage children in applying
their critical literacy skills through a developmentally appropriate
process of careful looking, historical thinking, and scaffolded analysis of
primary sources
-Learn strategies to support and scaffold historical inquiry and
disciplinary specific process skills and thinking for students while using
the KidCitizen interactive.

Supporting research

Berson, I. R., Berson, M. J., & Snow, B. (2017). KidCitizen: Designing an app for inquiry with primary sources. Social Education, 81(2), 105-108.
Berson, I. R., Berson, M. J., Dennis, D.V., & Powell, R. (2017). Leveraging literacy: Research on critical reading in the social studies. In M. M. Manfra & C. M. Bolick (Eds.), Handbook of social studies research (pp. 414-439). Boston, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Ledford, E., Berson, I. R., Berson, M. J., & Ledford, A. (2019). Mrs. Mink goes to Washington: The first Japanese American member of Congress. Social Studies and the Young Learner.
Varga, B. A., Berson, I. R., Berson, M. J., & Snow, B. (2019). Behind the lens: Sourcing photographs with KidCitizen. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 31(4), 28-32.
Berson, I. R., & Villotti, K. (2019). A position paper of early childhood in the social studies context. Washington, DC: National Council for the Social Studies. Available from https://www.socialstudies.org/early-childhood-social-studies-context
Berson, I. R., Bennett, L., Dobson, D., Heckart, K., Bauml, M., Christensen, L. M., Fillpot, E., Palmer, P., & Robles-Melendez, W. (2017). Powerful, purposeful pedagogy in elementary school social studies. Social Education, 81(3), 186-189.