The History Matters Podcast

In the typical American high school, 9th-grade history students are expected to dive into the historical content, grapple with complex ideas, and engage in deep inquiry. But teenage students often lack the historical knowledge such tasks require. If you haven’t learned much about the Civil War, for example, you won’t be ready to discuss whether the Compromise of 1877 was a fair deal.That’s one of the challenges described by this episode’s guest, Ebony McKiver, a curriculum expert and former high-school history teacher and state social studies lead. In her high-school history classroom, she recalls, “we were trying to keep pace with the scope and sequence and teach content that was actually going to be new for students, [but] we were actually spending a lot of time revisiting old, previous content that students should have had.” The missing link? “Better history curriculum for our elementary students.” Young students love history, which has a “natural lens of storytelling,” she notes. Strong history instruction is coherent and chronological instead of “one-off facts about important people and events.” It deserves more time during the school day and can be paired with English Language Arts (ELA).“Historical thinking skills and literacy skills are two sides of the same coin,” she says. “If we truly want stronger readers, we need ELA and social studies to work together at every level.”McKiver offers examples of states developing curricula: Louisiana, Massachusetts, Georgia, and Utah. She describes visiting a Louisiana classroom where an ELA lesson “had students that were building timelines and analyzing decisions made by leaders like George Washington.”“It is proof that when you prioritize social studies and you work intentionally with other content areas, especially ELA, all students no matter their age, are capable of engaging deeply, mastering historical content, and also applying historical thinking skills.”This podcast is produced by the Knowledge Matters Campaign and StandardsWork, on behalf of the History Matters Campaign. Follow the History Matters Campaign on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X. Search #historymatters to join the conversation.Production by Tressa Versteeg. Original music and sound engineering by Aidan Shea 

Angela Barfoot, a second-grade teacher, and Lauren Cascio, a fifth-grade teacher, share their transformative experiences using the Bayou Bridges curriculum in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. They highlight how content-rich social studies instruction captivates students, making history exciting and relevant. Engaging visuals and virtual field trips, like their visit to the Poverty Point site, bring lessons to life. Additionally, linking social studies to ELA instruction fosters a love for historical texts, sparking enthusiasm and critical thinking among young learners.

Sean Dimond, a former middle-school teacher and now senior social studies editor at the Core Knowledge Foundation, shares insights on creating a high-quality history curriculum in Louisiana. He highlights the pitfalls of vague standards that once hindered learning and how the new Bayou Bridges curriculum offers a coherent, chronological approach. Discussing a captivating Civil War lesson, Dimond emphasizes the importance of narrative in teaching. With positive teacher feedback, he expresses hope for engaging students in meaningful historical learning.

Elementary schools spend almost no time teaching history. How did we get here, and how can we reprioritize this crucial foundation for literacy and knowledge? Host Barbara Davidson begins the eight-part “History Matters” podcast with a reflective and forward-looking conversation with guest Robert Pondiscio, an author and former fifth-grade teacher who founded the Knowledge Matters Campaign.Pondiscio recalls his youthful passion for history, sparked by the nation’s bicentennial celebrations nearly 50 years ago. As a teacher, he found his students had learned very little about the past. Rather than learn facts, administrators wanted students to grapple with “essential questions”—which Pondiscio notes is impossible without the knowledge to understand them. Later, federal accountability rules prompted schools across the country to overwhelmingly focus on tested subjects. But reading is more than decoding—it is comprehension. Without background knowledge, students cannot make sense of what they read. “Everything was reading, reading, reading, math, math, math,” he says. “That’s just not how you build a reader.”Historical knowledge is especially powerful: Pondiscio notes that the nation’s founders recognized that a republic is fragile and needs virtuous, educated citizens to maintain it. Davidson asks: If you had a magic wand, what would you do? Pondiscio sets forth two big changes. First, that every school use knowledge-building curriculum. Second, that representatives from every state and district decide what basic, foundational historical knowledge kids should learn in each elementary grade:“What is it we expect kids to know to be literate, to be competent citizens, to be engaged, to be excited in participating and playing a part in the American experiment? I’d love to see schools take up that challenge.”This podcast is produced by the Knowledge Matters Campaign and StandardsWork, on behalf of the History Matters Campaign. Follow the History Matters Campaign on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X. Search #historymatters to join the conversation.Production by Tressa Versteeg. Original music and sound engineering by Aidan Shea.

Welcome to the brand-new History Matters Podcast. I’m your host, Barbara Davidson, President of StandardsWork and Executive Director of the Knowledge Matters Campaign. This podcast was born out of a vision—one I believe all educators have—of inspiring our students to ask big questions, develop their love of learning through reading, and feel empowered to go out and explore their community and the world.We believe great history education can be a spark that causes this to happen. The History Matters Podcast will explore how it’s done.We decided to launch the podcast because, while the national conversation about the science of reading is growing, the role of content knowledge in reading is still woefully understated. We’re also concerned that much of the interest in civics education is ignoring the groundwork that must be laid in the elementary grades.I hope this podcast will show you how history serves both literacy and civic goals, and how some ground-breaking work, and practicing educators, are out there, right now, getting it done!  Welcome to the History Matters Podcast: Season 1.This podcast is produced by the Knowledge Matters Campaign and StandardsWork. Production by Tressa Versteeg. Original music and sound engineering by Aidan Shea.