A blast to the past

Deirdre Newman

Second-grade teacher Alene Williams gently opened up a scrapbook of

family photos and picked out two pictures -- one of her grandmother,

Thelma, and one of her great-grandmother, Myrtle.

“Which of these pictures looks older?” Williams asked her class at

Whittier Elementary School.

Williams used her personal photos as part of a lesson on the family --

the first unit in the second-graders’ social studies curriculum.

It’s important for her students to learn about the family first before

delving into the community and country in subsequent grades, Williams

said. And the difference between the recent past and long ago is a

second-grade state standard that meshes well into the family unit, she

added.

Williams started the unit by asking her students what information they

already knew about families and then asked them to pose some questions

about families they would like answered as the unit progresses.

She also discussed vocabulary referring to families and encouraged her

students to interview their relatives over the Thanksgiving holiday so

the class could put together a book.

In addition to learning about their own families, Delacruz introduced

her students to family customs from around the world.

Since the majority of her students are English language learners,

Williams said it’s important for them to see pictures to help them

discern the difference between the past and long ago.

“Teaching something abstract like that is difficult, so we will come

back and revisit it during the year,” Williams said.

In addition to the photos, Williams also displayed trinkets and

clothes used by previous generations of her family. The memento that drew

the most enthusiastic response from the students were two porcelain dolls

that belonged to Williams’ great-great-grandmother.

Student Francis Delacruz said it was fun to look at Williams’

pictures.

“I learned they look different,” Delacruz said.

At the end of the unit, the students will write about what they have

learned about families, Williams said.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Deirdre Newman visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.