In the article titled “Historical Fiction in English and Social Studies Classrooms: Is It a Natural Marriage?”, we see a study group of ELA and Social Studies teachers that share the lessons they learned from reading historical fiction and nonfiction together. Through this, they are able to explore different approaches for a text from both disciplines, and how seeing through the different approaches can more fully contextualize the work, as well as cultivate historical empathy. For me, this was a difficult read. I had a hard time focusing in on the information the author was giving us and picking out certain topics that seemed important. I did pick up on a few things, such as contextualizing. Contextualizing is described by the author as, “the act of placing an event in its proper context—within the web of personalities, circumstances,” (Hinton, Suh, Colòn-Brown, O’Hearn, 23). When I was in high school, one of my social studies teachers gave us a historical novel. She told us the object of the novel was for us was to gain a better sense of knowing and understanding of the context of the time period discussed in the novel and the chronology of that context. This allowed us as students to gain a true understanding of the characters, time period, and events that happened in the novel.
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Carter!
ReplyDeleteI can totally agree with how this was a hard read. When I was reading throughout the article I could not fully understand the study the teachers did to discover these habits of the mind. I also was confused about how "The Book Thief" went into it as well. Like it made sense, but at the same time I did not understand how they connected it all. I agree with you that contextualizing is the easiest to pick up on and understand how to intertwine social studies and literacy.
-Katie
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