Teaching Students to be Discerning with Evidence

         "Typically, and for too many years, elementary social studies lessons have consisted of a single story," say Muffet Trout (University of St. Thomas) and Jeff Sambs (St. Paul, Minnesota teacher) in this article in Social Studies for the Young Learner." They describe the very different depictions of Christopher Columbus that Sambs encountered as a student.  His 5th grade teacher portrayed Columbus as a hero (In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...) , but a decade later a college professor said Columbus was a villain who stole and subjugated.  Both instructors, say Trout and Sambs, "had missed the opportunity to help their students think with more complexity." leaving them unskilled in the key social studies competency of being able to "read, reconstruct, and interpret the past" (National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies). It also left them unprepared for the key civic duty of deliberation - being able to discuss, listen and come to a fair (not purely self-interested) resolution.

        As a rookie elementary teacher, Sambs was determined to do better.  He asked his fifth graders to look at the events of 1492 and 1493 through the lens of the European explorers and then from the point of view of the Indigenous people of the Caribbean.  His students were able to do this quite well, and over the next 18 years, Sambs developed what he calls the Evidence on the U approach.  The goal has been to support deep and complex student thinking and gradually place much of the responsibility for learning on students.

        Here's how it works.  Groups of students examine a wide variety of paintings, original source documents, texts, and artifacts and debate where to place them on a U-shaped graphic, with evidence tending toward one point of view (for example, Columbus as a hero) on one side, evidence supporting the opposite viewpoint somewhere on the other, evidence that's more complex at the bottom.  "We have found that the highest quality of conversation happens in that in-between spot," say Trout and Sambs, "when resources do not reflect an extreme position.  Students begin to focus on their justification, causing them to examine closely and think analytically, requisite skills for engaging in complex deliberation." Using a U-shaped continuum rather than a straight line emphasizes the complexity of evidence and pushes back on the idea that the middle is where the truth always lies.  For the final assessment, students are presented with new documents or artifacts and asked where they belong on the U-graphic, with grades based on how well they justify their decisions.

        As a follow-up, Sambs set up student chairs in his classroom in a large U and has students think through a provocative issue (for example, whether students should be required to wear uniforms), develop an argument somewhere on the continuum, and then sit in the location in the U corresponding to their argument.  Students are then asked to shift to a new location and make the argument from that vantage point.

        Sambs has found he can use the U graphic in several other curriculum areas, including when students write persuasive essays, explore current events, and present inquiry findings.  He's also found it helpful for discussing issues where there's a continuum from one extreme to the other - for example:

• From colonizer to colonized - Guiding question: How does the process of colonization influence specific populations?
• From us to other - Guiding questions: How do we view people who are different from ourselves? In what ways are they different? How do we behave toward someone we see as "different"?
• From aggressive to passive response to a conflict - Guiding question: What are the costs and benefits to being aggressive, assertive, or passive when handling a conflict?
• From individual to community - Guiding question: How do you balance your rights as an individual with your responsibility to others?
• From private to public - Guiding question: What are some examples of personal freedoms (e.g., saying what you want) that are limited by public needs (e.g., safety, privacy, personal respect)?

"A Teaching Strategy to Strengthen Habits of Deliberation: The 'Evidence on the U' Graphic" by Muffet Trout and Jeff Sambs is in the Social Studies and the Young Learner, September/October 2020 (Vol. 33 #1, pp. 17-21); the authors can be reached at trout@stthomas.edu and jeff.sambs@spps.org. 

(Please Note: The summary above is reprinted with permission from issue #856 of 

The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.)