Curiosity That Goes Beyond the Classroom | History Matters Podcast

In Thermopolis, Wyoming, second-grade students love learning about the War of 1812, from the swashbuckling sea battles off the coast of Louisiana to the bombardment at Maryland’s Fort McHenry that inspired the “Star-Spangled Banner”—engaging lessons that build knowledge alongside literary and historical thinking skills.

This type of learning is powered by a strong, coherent curriculum that ensures learning connects from unit to unit and year to year, says teacher Laura Stam, a 2024–25 Goyen Literacy Fellow who writes about the sciences of reading and learning on her Substack, The Knowledge Exchange. “As soon as we start teaching it, teachers talk about how excited their students are,” she says.

In this final episode of the first season of the History Matters Podcast, Stam also explains that such curriculum helps bridge gaps in elementary teachers’ historical content knowledge. In elementary classrooms, building content expertise is a challenge because “we’re teaching all of the subjects,” she says. Strong curriculum is a sound starting point for teachers to build the knowledge they need to confidently teach history. And rather than curating content, teachers can focus on delivering instruction and connecting history lessons to art and culture.

“A really good curriculum brings in not just that history, but brings in all of the cultural pieces attached to it, the art and the poetry and the music that really enrich that knowledge,” she says. “If a really good curriculum has all those pieces built in for you, you just get to be the expert and deliver that, be the artist that delivers that for your students without having to curate it all yourself.”

Stam also describes how her students’ curiosity about historical topics extends beyond classroom instruction. Parents have shared stories of students connecting family vacations to history lessons about the Underground Railroad, for example, and Stam has overheard young students debating the relative merits of living in modern times versus the ancient Indus Valley Civilization while watching a local basketball game.

“They’ll go home and they want to explore their own interests,” she says. “They are getting books and looking on the Internet and finding out more information on their own topics that may not necessarily be what we learned in school. It’s interesting. It’s inspiring to know that they can learn about these things on their own. That’s the end goal, right? We want to teach them to be their own learners.”

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.

Transcript

Laura Stam 

There's a lot of battles that go on at recess that we've learned about. A lot of Greek and Persian battles that are really funny to watch. And like, We're gonna go do the battle of marathon! I think we highly underestimate their ability to understand what's going on and to make those connections in a really intelligent way. 

Barbara Davidson 

Welcome to the History Matters podcast. I'm your host, Barbara Davidson, president of Standards Work and executive director of the Knowledge Matters campaign. 

In this last episode of season one, I'm excited to share my conversation with Laura Stam, an elementary school teacher from Thermopolis, a town of 2,700 people in northwestern Wyoming. As a Goyen Literacy Fellow, Laura writes about the science of reading and learning on her substack, The Knowledge Exchange, which is how I came to meet her. Laura also celebrates the role of background knowledge in reading comprehension as a founding board member of the Reading League of Wyoming.

We talked about everything from how the ban on female schooling in ancient Athens upset the girls in her classroom to why students' excitement about the War of 1812 continues to surprise so many teachers. I think you'll enjoy this discussion.

Barbara Davidson

Well before we jump in, why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you happen to be interested in building content knowledge and history knowledge in particular.

Laura Stam 

I started teaching second grade about four years ago, and I'm moving into third this year. When I started we had just started shifting to the science of reading, and we were getting really strong with the foundational skills.

But we alsoーI also knew that we needed to make sure that we were building knowledge as well. That's also important. So I started using Core Knowledge and saw a huge difference in my students' engagement right away. They really loved it. 

So then that just really became embedded into ourーin our literacy instruction. So we'veーwe're really strong on foundational skills and really strong on building that knowledge for our students.

Barbara Davidson

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Let's talk about the responses that the kids are having to the curriculum and this focus that y'all have put on building their base of knowledge.

Laura Stam 

So as we've done this several years now, um the first graders would come in with, with some knowledge and they learned about river civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia. And then we continue that in second grade with the Indus River Valley and ancient China. And so they haveーthey're like: Oh yeah, we know about, we know about the rivers. And so they are starting to make those connections there. 

So speaking of Indus River Valley, this is one of my favorite stories. There were a couple students at a basketball game here in town. And one was a third grader and one was a second grader. So the third grader had already hadーbeen through second grade and had this lesson on the Indus River Valley. And the second grader was learning this. 

And they were discussing the Indus River Valley and deciding would they rather live in Mohenjo-Daro, that's one of the cities in the Indus Valley, or would they rather live now? And I just thought this isーso it's not only just second graders, peer to peer conversations that you're having as a whole class. They are discussing this with other students in other grades above them that have already had this. 

Another one is, one of our students went on a trip with her parents back East. And they were at theーat Niagara Falls and the tour guide brought up that this was kind of the end of The Underground Railroad. And she had learned about the Civil War and The Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman. And she just had this really rich experience with that tour guide. 

And her parents talked about they had some older children that they had taken on some trips and they just didn't seem like their older children really appreciated these historical places they were going whereas their younger daughter, who had gone through this knowledge rich curriculum, really appreciated and understand it and loved every bit of it and they just thought that was an interesting comparison between their children's knowledge and then their interaction with it in the real world.

Barbara Davidson

I think one of the reasons I am as excited about restoring history and civics and geography’s place in the elementary curriculum is that it givesーI guess I'm saying Laura, it gives students agency. You know? Are people noticing it? Areーis your community noticing it?

Laura Stam 

I've had several parents, and family, grandparents, they will say they come home and they talk about this. Iーit's kind of hard to get your children to talk about school. [laughs] They'll say it's fine. How was your day? It was fine. What did you learn? I don't know. [laughs] What was the best part? Recess. But they're coming home and they're talking about it. 

And then, I had one grandparent tell me that they're coming home and it's inspiring them to pursue other, other content and really dig deep. And because it's showing them that when weーcause when we do it in class, we're going in deep, we're talking about it. We're bringing in artifacts, we're bringing in poetry and music and art. And so they'll go home and they want to explore their own interests. Well, I really like this. And then they are um getting books and looking on the internet and finding out more information on their own topics that may be not necessary that we learned in school. But it's interesting that it's inspiring them to, to know that they can goーthey can learn about these things on their own as well. Which I think is reallyーwell, that's the end goal, right? We want to teach them to be, to be their own learners, right? And that's happening. But also the content they're learning, they're talking about it, and they're talking about it intelligently with adults. 

And even though this isーthis like K-2, they’reーI kind of have heard the argument that it's not age appropriate or something. And we're not going in depth in this, but they're getting a very good foundational knowledge about these topics so they can learn more about them as the grades go along. But, they're excited, like you said, they're little experts, and they have something to talk about now. And knowledge to share.

Barbara Davidson 

You know, Laura, I thought I would shift here to talking a little bit about the fact that you've written on a substack that you have um about the importance of teachers building their content knowledge. In your experienceーwell, how have you done that? And how would you recommend others that maybe even don't have a uh curriculum to lean on, to support them in that, do so?

Laura Stam 

Yeah, so I do have a substack. It’s called The Knowledge Exchange. And I've started this series called The Knowledge Building for Teachers series because when Iーwell when I started teaching core knowledge my understanding was pretty rudimentary. It wasn't where I wanted it to be. 

So starting with a high quality curriculum is the perfect place to start because it's written for your grade level and it's written at a children's level. So it's really a great way to start your own knowledge building. 

But just like every other content, we need to know where they're going. We need toーbecause we are the experts, right? And so we need to build our own knowledge. So, but it's difficult because we haveーespecially elementary ーwe're teaching all the subjects. And so we're trying to build our own knowledge all the time. It's a lot. 

And so I wanted to give teachers a resource. Well, here's something really simple you can start with. Usually a podcast is a great way to start, or a simple webinar. So my recommendation is like, spend the summer and just doーlike, listen to that podcast, or read that one little small book. Then the next summer, read a bigger book, and then maybe do a longer webinar or something like that. Or go to a conference. I like to go to conferences too, that are specific to these content areas. 

And then just build your knowledge over time. And then it’sーso then it's not this big, huge, I have to learn all this now. But you're continually growing your own knowledge year after year after year. And then you beーare beーcontinuing to become the expert. So that's what, that’s what I recommend because it is difficult because weーmost of us, haven't gotten this in our training at all. [laughs] So we have to do it ourselves. But it's a fun journey. 

Barbara Davidson 

Yeah.

Laura Stam 

I love doing it. It’sーI highly recommend it. 

Barbara Davidson 

Yeah, I think that's a great suggestion. And as I hear you making it, I'm also so aware of the enthusiasm that educators that I've met around the country have had for being given a curriculum that does a lot of that for them. Because we are mere mortals and we have an awful lot to learn and to plan even without having to spend every waking hour combing the internet for, for these resources and figuring out how to put it all together. 

But um anything more to say on your part about how good curriculum supports you as aーsupports you as a classroom teacher?

Laura Stam 

Yes. Well, first of all, I can't teach all of world history and all of American history in one grade. And so a nice curriculum has that broken up by grade. And then, what else is if they're doing it really well, they're repeating it as you go up the further grades. So at first grade, they're learning colonial America. In third grade, we're learning colonial America, but we're going much more into depth than we did in first grade. And then I think they get it again in middle school. And so that's what a good curriculum does. It has it sequenced out for you. And so then you know whatーwell, this grade I can focus on this because I know in the next grade they're gonna focus on this. 

And the other thing is, a really good curriculum also brings in not just that history, but brings in all the cultural pieces connected to it. So the art and the poetry and the music that that really enrich that knowledge. And so, if a really good curriculum has all those pieces built in for you, and then you just get to be the expert and deliver that, be the artist that delivers that for your students without having to curate all that yourself. 

The other thing too, if youーit gives you a really good base too. Because I like to kind of branch out a little bit. So then that frees up my time that I can go searching other resources that I might want to bring in. I like to bring in personal ancestors that maybe have been part of certain wars, American wars. I like to bring things in like that. Or bring in other artifacts, traveling trunks, virtual field trips. So that frees up my time because I'm like, well, here'sーI already have this solid base that I can work with and now I can bring in other things to really enrich that even more so than the curriculum does.

Barbara Davidson 

That's such an important point. I really um am excited to hear that from you that, you know, that that's what it has created the possibility for. 

So what's the unit that your kids have liked the most?

Laura Stam 

So in second grade, what's funny is they love the War of 1812. And before I taught it, I knew nothing about the War of 1812. Nothing. And I thought: Why are we teachーthis is the most boring. Why would we teach this?  [laughs] And it's my students' favorite. BecauseーI think because you have really fun sea battles, you have pirates. You have the Star Spangled Banner, that huge battleーthe British are attacking Fort McHenry. And the children love that story. And then he's standing out there on the boat and then he writes the Star Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key. and so for some reason they just really love that story and have a lot of connection to it.

They also love Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus River Valley. That city is really fascinating to them. They love ancient Greece. Well, I love ancient Greece, but I think they do too. They get really upset when they learn about the Athenians and that the womenーthe girls didn't get to go to school. The girls get really upset about that. They do like that the Spartan women got to do sports and had a little more freedom. 

When we do Civil War and slavery, they get really upset about slavery. That is something they have no tolerance for. And they just love those stories of bravery, of Harriet Tubman, and that there were so many brave people that were advocating for ending slavery. 

And they get very passionate about it. They talk about it at recess, they reenact things at recess. There's a lot of battles that go on at recess that we've learned about. A lot of Greek and Persian battles that are really funny to watch. And they're like: We're gonna go do the Battle of Marathon! 

Anyway so, I think we highly underestimate their um, their ability to understand what's going on and to make those connections in a really intelligent way. But when you give them that knowledge, then they do it. And it's a lot of fun to see them make connections and talk about it animatedly. [laughs]

Barbara Davidson 

You know, it's funny, I was gettingーmy last question I was going to ask you is what gives you hope? And I think we've kinda answered it, haven't we? And itーit's so perfect because I had said I wanted to talk to you as the last person in this season, in this inaugural season of the History Matters Podcast. And I thought that you would be able to give us some inspiration. 

So have I stolen your answer? Or what would you say to the question: What gives you hope?

Laura Stam

Well, what gives me hope is this isーI see this a lot everywhere. I see a lot of knowledge building happening intentionally. This isn't just, you know, just randomly picking things to read about. We're intentionally teaching history now, which is really great to see across the country. I hope that continues to grow. I hope we start seeing the value in it. I mean, as soon as we start teaching it, Iーteachers talk about how excited their students are. 

And so I'm hoping that momentum continues and it just spreads. Because, you know, I think it was E.D. Hirsch talking about: we owe it to our country and our, our children to grow them into being contributing citizens of our country and our world. Part of that is giving them this knowledge so that they can become contributing citizens of our society. 

And so, then as we're building this generation, then hopefully they will continue to, to pass it on to the next generation. We are now building a generation that is getting it and will be able to pass that on to the next generation. As we saw earlier in history, it is what happened and we get to revive that again in our time, which is really exciting.

Barbara Davidson

To learn more about Laura Stam's work, you can visit her substack, The Knowledge Exchange, which is linked in our show notes. 

This is our last episode for season one of the History Matters Podcast. I hope the podcast showed you how history serves both literacy and civic goals, and that there are practicing educators out there right now getting it done. I also hope it has inspired you to believe that this kind of instruction is within your grasp as well, and that your students deserve it. 

This podcast is produced by the Knowledge Matters Campaign. You can learn more about our work at knowledgematterscampaign.org. 

To catch all of the History Matters Podcast, make sure you subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.