In order to give my students the full picture and multiple perspectives of Columbus and his voyage I first needed to assess their prior knowledge. I tried to do a K/W/L chart, but I found out my students really did not know anything about Columbus. I found this interesting because they are second graders and usually this topic is covered in earlier grades, but was delighted that I would not have to battle pre-learned untruths. I moved from the What We Know section to the What We Want to Learn section. I charted the the students’ questions: Who was Columbus? What did he do? Why do we have a holiday? Why don’t we have school?
I began our exploration of this topic with a simple read aloud from a typical book on Columbus. This book had all the typical information: 3 ships, lived in Italy, sailed for the Spanish king and queen, and “found” new world. This book also happened to mention that Columbus met people when he landed and left it at that. After I read the book to students, we looked at our questions and decided which questions we answered. We then charted the answers to the questions and called it a day. One student raised his hand as we were finishing and said this, “If Columbus met people on the island he landed on, how did he find a place?” I let the question go and watched as the students started to ponder this.
The next day I decided to read my students another account of Columbus and his journey. This one was from the perspective of Columbus himself. It was an excerpt from his diary that can be found in Rethinking Columbus. (I had to reword some of the language to make it more accessible to 2nd graders but changed none of the meaning.) Over the course of the next few days I read tiny portions of the diary to my students. After each read aloud we charted our findings and any new questions we had. As we read students began to see Columbus in a different light. They noticed things like his greed and fascination with gold. They wondered how a person could knowingly treat others so unfairly or claim the land of others as his own. They began to question the understanding they had of Columbus as a hero. We documented all of this information on our KWL chart.
After we finished Columbus’s diary, I read aloud accounts of the Taino people and their society prior to Columbus’s visit. We looked at world maps and found where the Taino people lived-modern day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We looked at the route Columbus took on his voyage and pondered what life might have been like on the ship. My students, a majority of which are Dominican now felt a powerful connection to this subject. They seemed even more engaged in the topic now and raised their hands with more questions.
The last article I read to my students was also from Rethinking Columbus. This article told about the horrifying gold collection system set up by Columbus and his men. The system required the Taino people to bring the Europeans a specified amount of gold-gold that didn’t exist on the island. Those who brought the right amount of gold were given a pendant to wear. Those who did not got their hands chopped off. “Why didn’t they run away?” remarked one students. Tainos who ran away were hunted and attacked by dogs. Though gruesome, this article captivated and awed students. “How could this happen?” they asked. They were now critically thinking about the topic. “Wait a minute. How could you collect gold without hands?” asked one students. The others all agreed this system was not the best one. After this reading the students erupted into chatter on the subject. I knew I had harness this interest and enthusiasm and really assess students’ understandings of the topic.
Once we had finished our read alouds I asked the students what their opinion of Columbus was; Hero or Not? We explored the difference between fact and opinion and then created a T-Chart of reasons why Columbus could be a hero or why he could not be a hero.
I then asked my students to write down their opinions of Columbus’s heroship along with justifications for their positions. I surprisingly got papers representing each side.
I thought we were done. However, my students were not yet satisfied with our study.
Tags: 2nd Grade, ASL, Christopher Columbus, Education, Sign Language, Social Justice
