Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Response to article on history without reading
An essay titled "History without Reading" is running in the current weekly edition of the History News Network. The author is advocating "a history not of telling, but of showing ..." and draws interesting conclusions on the assumptions teachers make about how students study/learn history and the realities of 21st century students. (Cullen, 2010). What are your thoughts on Cullen's argument on how to prepare students for studying history?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Kristina,
ReplyDeleteI think the point the author makes about "doing history" is the perfect solution to creating lessons which cause our students to really care about history. Not only is it hard to get students to read SS or History books, the materials are often written above the reading level of the students. Students who read the chapters are rare, and adolescents realize that if they don't get the reading done, not to worry, Teacher usually regurgitates the info in lecture the next day.Anyway, there are some great ideas floating around out there for "doing History". I am going to usethe March on Washington activity fro9m the Thinkfinity site mentioned on the blog with my students next week. I think those types activities are fun and thought provoking. I also liked the description of the French and Indian War activity posted on the blog by a BTH participant.
Teaching history to seventh-graders takes nothing less than a performance! My teaching team and I joke all the time about our tendencies to think like adolescents. Cullen's article justifies our thinking like students, and explains why we are often able to 'uncover' state standards with interest. As our duty to promote socially-responsive citizens, this article also confirms our desires to teach informed decision-making strategies.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciate the author's references to "what it actually means to read". Two of my classes are with identified students who are still struggling to decode text, it takes a lot of animation and visual cues for me to facilitate learning and interest(especially in the studying of history). I also plan on using some of the ideas from this article and the above posted website to gain more age-appropriate enticements.