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[CCBC-Net] Historical fiction as the spoonful of sugar
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From: Jonathan Hunt <jhunt24>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 22:45:38
Using historical fiction to "supplement or launch a historical lesson" is a wonderful idea, but finding the time and resources to make it happen present an incredibly formidable challenge to most teachers--especially when history/social science is not on a standardized test. Every history class is a survey course with way too much information presented. Finding the right balance between depth and breadth is always tricky.
For example, we have several major areas of study in fifth grade--Indians, Explorers, Colonies, Revolution, New Nation, Pioneers, Geography, and Current Events. The aforementioned MY BROTHER SAM IS DEAD would supplement a unit on the Revolution very nicely, but would take me four weeks to cover if we read it straight through and did nothing with it--no lessons, no worksheets, no discussion, nothing. Obviously, I just don't have the time, and my school district isn't providing me the resources (aside from the ubiquitous history/social science textbooks most of us dearly cling to). I'd love to use WHAT'S THE DEAL: JEFFERSON, NAPOLEON, AND THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE by Rhoda Blumberg in a unit about the New Nation, but who's footing the bill for a class set?
I don't think anyone is advocating historical fiction instead of nonfiction either, but it happens nevertheless. When the curriculum demands start to overwhelm teachers, they will take shortcuts and, as Monica noted, kill two birds with one stone (i.e. satisfy curriculum demands in reading/language arts and history/social science by teaching historical fiction).
My school district just decided to keep MY BROTHER SAM IS DEAD as a fifth grade core literature book because, in large part, eighth grade teachers use it as the foundation of their teaching (remember when you read that book in eighth grade . . .). Sounds like surrogate history to me.
The pairing of OUT OF THE DUST or CAT RUNNING with nonfiction is great, but the Dust Bowl is in the eleventh grade curriculum in California (and probably much of the U.S. as well) and many high school teachers are not too keen on using children's and young adult literature in their classrooms. Our high school juniors, for instance, read THE GRAPES OF WRATH.
Jonathan Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
Received on Tue 21 Nov 2000 10:45:38 PM CST
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 22:45:38
Using historical fiction to "supplement or launch a historical lesson" is a wonderful idea, but finding the time and resources to make it happen present an incredibly formidable challenge to most teachers--especially when history/social science is not on a standardized test. Every history class is a survey course with way too much information presented. Finding the right balance between depth and breadth is always tricky.
For example, we have several major areas of study in fifth grade--Indians, Explorers, Colonies, Revolution, New Nation, Pioneers, Geography, and Current Events. The aforementioned MY BROTHER SAM IS DEAD would supplement a unit on the Revolution very nicely, but would take me four weeks to cover if we read it straight through and did nothing with it--no lessons, no worksheets, no discussion, nothing. Obviously, I just don't have the time, and my school district isn't providing me the resources (aside from the ubiquitous history/social science textbooks most of us dearly cling to). I'd love to use WHAT'S THE DEAL: JEFFERSON, NAPOLEON, AND THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE by Rhoda Blumberg in a unit about the New Nation, but who's footing the bill for a class set?
I don't think anyone is advocating historical fiction instead of nonfiction either, but it happens nevertheless. When the curriculum demands start to overwhelm teachers, they will take shortcuts and, as Monica noted, kill two birds with one stone (i.e. satisfy curriculum demands in reading/language arts and history/social science by teaching historical fiction).
My school district just decided to keep MY BROTHER SAM IS DEAD as a fifth grade core literature book because, in large part, eighth grade teachers use it as the foundation of their teaching (remember when you read that book in eighth grade . . .). Sounds like surrogate history to me.
The pairing of OUT OF THE DUST or CAT RUNNING with nonfiction is great, but the Dust Bowl is in the eleventh grade curriculum in California (and probably much of the U.S. as well) and many high school teachers are not too keen on using children's and young adult literature in their classrooms. Our high school juniors, for instance, read THE GRAPES OF WRATH.
Jonathan Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
Received on Tue 21 Nov 2000 10:45:38 PM CST
