by Joan Inong

Created on: June 07, 2010

One of the best ways to teach students about history is to encourage them to ask questions. When students are fully engaged in the learning process, they can learn more than just about the subject itself. With the help of this article, you can teach your primary school students about Oklahoma’s history.

 To start off with, ask your students to write down some questions that they want to answer before you start working on the activities. Give your students a few broad topics from which their questions might emerge. For instance:

- National wars

- Local and state economics

- Politics

- Social history

- Early history

Once your students have formulated their questions, you can read all of them aloud and write them down on the chalkboard. Ask your students what they already know about Oklahoma. What is the state’s motto? What is the state’s bird or animal?

The next day, a researching activity might be useful. You can either ask your students to research using websites and books, or you can ask your students to use a Virtual Field Trip maker. This type of software allows students and teachers to create a “website” that is very informative; links, pictures, descriptions, and other bibliographic material can all be synthesized into a few pages. Students will enjoy how interactive this activity will be, and they will have fun looking for information to add to the VFT maker.

If you live in Oklahoma, it can be interesting to take a class field trip to a historical site, or to ask your students to visit a couple of historic sites on their own. Before you go on the field trip, however, your students should have questions written down and they should have researched the site. That way, if a tour guide is available, your students can ask questions. Don’t forget that as the teacher you should also have a few questions (and answers) of your own!

After you have gone on a field trip or after your students have compiled information using a VFT maker, your students are ready to start discussing some issues related to the state’s history. Your job is to explain to your students the difference between primary and secondary sources. You will choose one primary source for your students to read carefully. Then, a few days later, you can conduct a Socratic Seminar. Start with a 30-minute long discussion. The next day, the discussion should last an hour.

As you can see, teaching your students about Oklahoma’s history should take a multifaceted approach that is based on your students’ questions. 

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