The Rookery

The Story is Never Simple

The re-enactment of the Boston trial.

One of the most exciting things about teaching fourth and fifth graders is their new found ability to understand perspectives other than their own. Young children cannot understand that another person may have an experience different from their own. But for fourth and fifth graders, the world suddenly contains multitudes.

Role play is an ideal teaching tool for students this age. They are young enough to still enjoy playing and they will fearlessly inhabit a role without being self-conscious. However, they are now sophisticated enough to accurately think through how their character might be affected by an event and how their character might feel differently about things than they (modern 4th and 5th graders) might.

For our current study of the events in the British Colonies from 1750 to 1776, each Heron has been assigned a role. Some are laborers, some are merchants, some are farmers, some are soldiers. They live in different parts of the British Colonies, have different religious views and live in different social strata. We spent time at the beginning of our theme researching our characters' lives so we would have a better idea of what was important to them.

We then started reading "the news of the day" together. For some, news about a new law regarding trade solicited a shoulder shrug, for others, it threatened their lively hood. After the French and Indian War, viewpoints began to diverge more rapidly. Some colonists supported the King's need to have the colonies pay for such an expensive war, others felt (strongly) that the taxes were unfair. The king's decision to quarter soldiers was met with more universal frustration. But many felt that the Sons of Liberty in Boston were too radical in the ways they challenged British rule.

Over and over, students learn that the same event can be viewed very differently by people. We talk often about whose story becomes the "official" history. Re-enacting the trial of the soldiers in the Boston Massacre allows students to see that even at the time, their characters struggled to make sense of things and understand what was "really" happening. Just like our understanding of science changes over time, our understanding of history is not static. Students learn there is no one "true" history to be learned because so many different people experienced events differently. The web of connections is incredibly complex and the "objective facts" are never black and white.

One challenge I've wrestled with is how to amplify the voices of people who were marginalized both during the colonial period and in the historical record. Enslaved people and indigenous people experienced the British colonial period much differently than the British citizens did but asking a fourth or fifth grader to play that role poses challenges. The stakes are higher to portray those viewpoints accurately. If a child doesn't quite yet understand how their Virginian blacksmith character would react, I don't feel as though I've done a disservice to the other students' understanding of the Colonial period. I don't feel the same way about misplaying an enslaved or indigenous person.

One partial solution I've found is that I share how an event might impact Johnny, an enslaved man in Williamsburg that there is some written documentation for. The students know this character but I'm not "playing" him in the same way they speak as their characters. In addition, books such like Molly Bannaky to help students learn about the lives of people we are not portraying in role play.

Another approach I've taken this year is that we occasionally "take our hats off" and consider the events from our 2023 perspective instead of in our colonial characters' perspective. The Herons did an amazing job thinking about how the different events we'd read about would have affected enslaved people, indigenous groups and indentured servants.

It's not a perfect solution, but it can't be. The story is too complex for us (or anyone) to know in its entirety. And that's exactly what I hope the Herons will learn.

Brainstorming how marginalized groups would have experienced pre-revolutionary events

Seeing the World in a New Way - John Latimer, The Herons and Phenology

John visiting with the Herons back in 2017

In the fall of 2016, the Herons started sharing their nature observations on KAXE radio.  That summer, I had gone to a workshop hosted by John Latimer, the KAXE phenologist. When I walked through the door, I had no idea what phenology was -- I just knew that a friend from Wolf Ridge recommended it and it was a great excuse to spend some time up north. We spent the day exploring the woods and learning how to script and record a phenology podcast. (I also learned that phenology is the study of seasonal change in which one records the date of important "phenophases" or changes in plants and animals.)

John and the other educators shared their phenology notebooks full of observations of specific events over the years: first ice on a lake, first snow, the last vulture, peak color, the chickadee's "fee-bee" call were all things to watch for. We listened to previous reports and I began to get a feel for what information would be useful.  I was, I admit, a bit skeptical.  As an adult I could recognize these things and find them interesting but would my students?

I need not have worried.  In our very first report, the students reported 19 species, noted a nature mystery they were trying to solve (dead mice on successive days) and commented upon the bird behavior they saw in our woods.  Over the years, we've evolved our style a bit.  We have a signature greeting and sign off.  We often have two reporters sharing information and interacting with each other.  But the student interest has remained a constant.

I think the students are drawn to phenology for the same reason I was - I started to see nature differently. The season changes became an accumulation of familiar events, events I was watching for and noticing. John had been a mailman when he first began his work in phenology. His rural route took him the same way every day and he began to notice the things he saw along his way. The Herons, similarly, watch certain trees for their first bud break. They know the hawks that nest in our woods and watch for their return.

Last week, I asked the Herons about their phenology work and what they had learned from it.  They each wrote a statement on an index card and we took phrases from the cards to create a poem together.  This is what they wrote (apologies for the formatting...html doesn't do very well with line breaks):

For John

I never noticed how

fawns jump,

fox kits play,

a bald eagle perches,

peak color hits,

a murmuration of birds 

covers the sky in a

flapping of wings.

I am mesmerized,

excited to watch.

 

Sometimes the littlest things

are best.

Noticing the clouds,

the wildflower in my backyard,

the changing leaves,

the hidden mushroom,

the birds singing their usual song.

My backyard holds generations.

All the little things gather into 

one big thing:

a season.

 

When I was small, I didn’t notice.

Now I ask questions.

I pay attention.

I look

delicately.

I welcome the spring’s first heron.

I say goodbye to the fall’s last dragonfly.

 

I have a whole new way 

to see the world.

 

This next week marks John's 40th year sharing phenology observations with the world and encouraging us all to do the same.  The students wrote the poem to celebrate his accomplishment.  I hope, maybe, you'll notice a little more along your daily route, too, and think of John when you do.