Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
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Visual Arts |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - Colonial America and the New Nation |
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U.S. History - The Great Depression |
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U.S. History - The West |
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Time Required |
| One to six class periods
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Skills |
| primary document analysis
critical thinking
brainstorming
information gathering
collaboration
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Date Posted |
| 4/12/2002 |
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Reading, Writing and 'Rithmetic in the One-Room Schoolhouse
Introduction
For young children, the experience
of attending school strengthens their growing sense of
independence and their relationship with the world beyond
their family. This lesson focuses on this universal experience,
using original photographs to give students a vivid impression
of how American children received an education a hundred
years ago. They learn about a one-room schoolhouse, seeing
how children learned, played and traveled to school. This
lesson encourages students to explore the similarities
and differences of being a student in a one-room schoolhouse
versus attending their own well-equipped, modern school
Learning Objectives
After completing the lessons
in this unit, students will be able to:
- Describe
a typical one-room schoolhouse: the interior, exterior
and how it was furnished and equipped.
- Understand
key facts about being a student and being a teacher
in a one-room schoolhouse.
- Compare
the experience of attending a one-room schoolhouse
with going to school today.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson
- Log
on to American
Memory to preview the photographs and descriptions
of one-room schoolhouses used in this lesson.
- For
background information to share with your students,
visit this site:
- For
additional background, you may want to read the Memoirs
of Mary D. Bradford, which describe how Ms. Bradford
began teaching in small rural schools at the age of
16.
Guiding Question: What was it like to go to school a long
time ago in America? How were the first schools in this
country different from -- and the same as -- schools today?
Suggested Activities PART I: INTRODUCING THE ONE-ROOM
SCHOOLHOUSE
Lesson 1: Introducing the One-Room Schoolhouse
Lesson 2: The One-Room Schoolhouse Building
Lesson 3: Learning Together in the One-Room Schoolhouse
Lesson 4: Traveling to School
Lesson 5: Playing Games
PART II: COMPARING YESTERDAY AND TODAY
Extending the Lesson
Part I
INTRODUCING
THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE
Lesson 1 Introducing the One-Room Schoolhouse
Begin by having the class talk about these questions:
- Why
do we go to school?
- What
activities do we do in school?
- How
is our school and classroom equipped to help us learn?
Make a list
of students’ responses to these questions.
Explain to the class that early schools in America were
very different from schools today. In rural areas, children
were sometimes taught at home. As areas of the country
were settled and farmers prospered, one-room schoolhouses
were built. Let students know they will look at pictures
to see what school was like for children their age a hundred
years ago. It may be helpful to explain to students that
their grandparents’ mothers and fathers might have attended
a one-room schoolhouse.
Lesson 2 The
One-Room Schoolhouse Building
Print or display on the computer screen a photograph
of a one-room schoolhouse in Bristol Notch, Vermont
from the American Memory archives (to find it, open
the collection of photographs of America
from the Great Depression to World War II and search
on the phrase “Bristol Notch Vermont”). Invite students
to share their impressions of the schoolhouse. Ask them
to imagine and describe how it looks inside.
Print or display on the computer screen a photograph
of the
interior of typical one-room schoolhouse from the
American Memory archives. Does it look as students imagined?
Ask the class to identify items in the classroom that
help these students learn. Explain that students had
very few school supplies, often just a stone slate and
a slate pencil. Older students may have had pens that
they dipped in ink to write with on paper. Classrooms
were simply equipped with a blackboard, chalk and a
reader. Can students identify what time of year it is
in this photo? (Students’ clothing and the drawing on
the blackboard might give clues.)
Lesson 3 Learning
Together in the One-Room Schoolhouse
Print or display on the computer screen a photograph
of a
teacher and her pupils in a one-room schoolhouse
from the American Memory archives. Ask students to point
out boys and girls in the photograph who seem to be
about the same age as they are. Can they also see younger
children and older children in the photograph? Explain
that students of all ages were in the same classroom
in the one-room schoolhouse. Students were seated by
grade, sometimes with the boys on one side of the classroom
and the girls on the other.
Ask children to find the teacher in the photograph.
Describe to the children her responsibility for teaching
all subjects to all the different grades in her class.
Every year students would have the same teacher. Sometimes
there might be just one or two students in each grade.
The EDSITEment resource American Memory includes two
photographs of a teacher giving a lesson to the only
second-grade student in her class. Show these photographs
to students. (To find them, open the collection of photographs
of America
from the Great Depression to World War II and search
on the phrase “second grade,” then select the photos
titled “Teaching only pupil in the second grade, one-room
school house, Grundy County, Iowa” and “Lois Slinker
teaching the only pupil in the second grade in one-room
schoolhouse. Grundy County, Iowa.”) What subject is
this boy learning? Explain that subjects were similar
to those taught today: arithmetic, reading, penmanship,
spelling, geography and history.
Students may be interested to hear that teachers were
responsible for all the duties involved in running the
small schoolhouse. In winter, they may have had to shovel
snow and stoke the stove with coal or wood to keep the
schoolhouse warm. They also brought water into the classroom
from an outdoor well. Older students may have helped
the teacher with these chores.
Lesson 4 Traveling
to School
Remind students that the photos they are looking at
were taken in rural America in areas without school
buses or automobiles for transportation. Ask the class
how these students got to their one-room schoolhouse.
Print or display on the computer screen a photograph
of students
and their transportation from the American Memory
archives. Ask students if they would like riding a horse
or wagon to school better than traveling by car or bus.
Why or why not? Point out the boy standing on the school
roof. Ask students to imagine why he is there.
Lesson 5 Playing
Games
Ask students to name their favorite activities at recess
and lunchtime. Show the photograph of students
playing a game from the American Memory archives.
Can students imagine what the game is, or if students
are singing a song as they play this game? Do the children
seem to be having fun? Ask students to look at how the
boys and girls are dressed in this photograph. Help
students identify a pinafore (worn by the girl on the
far left), overalls (worn by the boy in left rear),
knickers (worn by the boy ducking under the line), and
high-button shoes (worn by most children).
Part II
COMPARING YESTERDAY AND TODAY
After studying and discussing the photographs, encourage
students to make comparisons by answering these questions:
- Why
did children attend the one-room schoolhouse?
- What
activities did students do in the schoolhouse?
- How
was the one-room schoolhouse equipped to help boys
and girls learn?
Make a list
of students’ responses to these questions. Compare them
to answers to the questions you asked at the start of
this lesson. To complete the comparison, ask students
if, given the choice, they would prefer to attend a one-room
schoolhouse a hundred years ago, or a large, modern school
today. Why?
Extending the Lesson
Use one or more of the following
ideas to expand children’s understanding of this topic:
- Read
About Teaching in a One-Room School House
Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the popular Little
House on the Prairie books, was a teacher in a
one-room schoolhouse. Your students may enjoy hearing
you read aloud, or reading for themselves, excerpts
from These Happy Golden Years, which describes
Laura’s experience teaching school when she was just
15 years old.
- Compile
Oral Histories of School Experiences
Have students interview a grandparent or an older
relative, neighbor or family friend about his or her
school experience. Prior to this assignment, have
the class brainstorm several questions to ask their
interview subject. If possible, have students tape
record or videotape their interviews to present to
the class.
- Document
Your Classroom
Review with the class what they learned from studying
photographs of one-room schoolhouses. Ask students
what they would like young people of the future to
know about them and their typical school day. Discuss
what photographs students could take to document their
school experience and help them take these photographs.
Compile the photos with captions written by students
to create an archive for your school library.
- Visit
a One-Room Schoolhouse
Many communities have preserved their one-room schoolhouses
and created museums. If there is a such a museum in
your community, plan a field trip for your class,
or invite the museum’s curator to make a presentation
to your class.
- Create
a One-Room Schoolhouse Museum
Give students an opportunity to be amateur curators
creating a display representing a one-room schoolhouse,
or a portion of a schoolhouse, in your classroom.
(You may wish to use dolls and create a small-scale
schoolhouse.) Encourage students to use the photographs
from this lesson as their guide in choosing clothing
for the dolls and items to equip and decorate their
schoolhouse museum display.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/
The Blackwell
History of Education Museum http://www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/
Standards Alignment
View your state’s standards
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