Page 143 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

of infusing literature into history curricula frequently advance these and other claims, it should be noted that the research base on the topic is quite limited and that many poten- tial literature choices are distorted, chauvinistic, or otherwise unsuitable except as negative examples. However, appropriately selected literature used in support of relevant history teaching goals can lead to positive affective and cognitive outcomes (VanSledright & Frankes, 1998).
History-based fiction can be helpful in “making history come alive” for elementary students. For example, the book Sarah Morton’s Day (Waters, 1989) depicts a day in the life of an English child born in Holland in 1618 who came to Plymouth in 1623. Through engaging narrative and photographs (taken at the reconstructed Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts), the book chronicles what might have been a typical day in Sarah’s life. Much of it recounts the many chores that Sarah had to complete between dawn and dusk, but it also mentions lessons (in the home), social chat and games with a playmate, and excitement at the sighting of an incoming ship. In the process, the book communicates a great deal about what life was like in this colony, especially for children. It is based on an actual child and family and depicts events that are authentic given what is known about the time and place, although the depicted conversations are fictional. Most fifth graders are quite taken with the story, and especially with its details about the life of children in the colony, such as the notion that Sarah had to do chores almost all day and had to stand while eating meals even though her parents were seated.
Comparisons of children’s trade books with social studies textbooks indicate that the trade books have a great deal to offer as substitute or supplementary sources of curricu- lar content. Historical trade books’ emphasis on human motives, solving problems, and the consequences of actions compares favorably with the emphasis on facts, names, and dates in the textbooks, and the trade books’ emphasis on ordinary people, the human aspects of famous people, and the effects of world or national events on the lives of com- mon people compares favorably with the textbooks’ emphasis on world leaders, famous people, and big events (Tomlinson, Tunnell, & Richgels, 1993).
Textbooks feature almost exclusively expository writing, but historical fiction features narrative writing; trade books feature longer and more complex sentences that neverthe- less are easier to understand because they offer deeper elaboration of a smaller subset of topics and more cohesion across sentences and paragraphs than the textbooks do; the trade books are unrestricted by readability formulas, so they offer richer vocabularies, more varied styles, and more descriptive and elaborated language; in contrast to the use of past tense verbs that lend a sense of distance and unreality to the events portrayed and make the people seem lifeless, trade books present the people and events as living and use present-tense verbs and dialogue that lend a sense of immediacy and reality; and trade books emphasize human stories well told that make for greater interest, reader involvement, and memorability (Richgels, Tomlinson, & Tunnel, 1993). However, you will need to exercise care in selecting historically based trade books meant for children because many of them offer romanticized rather than realistic portrayals of historical figures and events, feature chauvinistic or otherwise biased interpretations, or reflect other problems in content selection or representation that undermine their value as historical content sources (Tunnell, 1993).
Children need help in keeping fictional sources in perspective so that they do not confuse the real with the fictional (like the student who named Johnny Tremain as a leader of the American Revolution) or generalize from the specific (like the students who developed the notion that life for all children in all of the colonies was like Sarah Morton’s life among the Puritans at Plymouth Plantation). These examples illustrate how the potential motivational and insight benefits that might be derived from using fictional sources must be balanced against their potential for inducing distorted learning. Some
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
CHAPTER 5 How Can I Teach History Powerfully? 115