African Griots (ESL Social Studies)

Introduction

This is a good introductory lesson for World History. It provides knowledge of early African kingdoms while encouraging communication in the classroom. African griots were the story-tellers during the early African kingdoms, so the class can branch off this concept to tell stories about themselves and their families so that the whole class can get to know each other better. The authors of Teaching Social Studies to English Language Learners Second Edition - state that “Incorporating students’ personal stories into social studies is an effective way of both validating ELL’s backgrounds and helping them develop language skills … This approach helps them integrate BICS [Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills] with academics” (Cruz & Thornton, 2013, 58).

This is also a good introductory lesson because the teacher can explain what exactly history class is and some of its purposes through the story concept. Put simply, history is a compilation of stories. People will tell a story differently and pull on different facts to tell stories. They will also interpret historical facts differently. Therefore, history also analyzes the sources of the history/story. Students can tell stories about the past as well, so they too are historians.