Synthesis Blog #4 - Historical Fiction in English and Social Studies Classrooms: Is It a Natural Marriage?
Summary:
Social Studies and ELA teachers form a study group to develop understandings of disciplinary literacy and make connections across content areas. Social Studies and ELA teachers read both historical fiction and nonfiction texts while approaching the readings from both disciplines; pairing historical fiction with nonfiction has value related to promoting historical understanding and thinking in both ELA and social studies classroom. Teaching historical fiction in both disciplines helps fully contextualize a historical period along with promote historical empathy.
Social Studies and ELA teachers form a study group to develop understandings of disciplinary literacy and make connections across content areas. Social Studies and ELA teachers read both historical fiction and nonfiction texts while approaching the readings from both disciplines; pairing historical fiction with nonfiction has value related to promoting historical understanding and thinking in both ELA and social studies classroom. Teaching historical fiction in both disciplines helps fully contextualize a historical period along with promote historical empathy.
Make connections:
This article focuses on bringing ELA into other subject
areas; I knew this article would be similar to the other article I read, Tearing Down the Wall: Literature and
Science. I can connect the information in the article to my primary area of
emphasis, science, by coming up with ways to being ELA into my classroom. It is
extremely important that I stress the importance of bringing ELA into
classrooms based on personal experiences. All my years in middle and high
school, I feel that I lacked this connection and that my past teachers did not
focus on cross-curriculum.
Critique the article:
The article was clear and informative. I liked how the
conclusion wrapped everything up by explaining what lessons were learned. The article
left open-ended questions that left us wondering, but also left us thinking
back to what we learned from the article. Some things that didn’t make sense to
me were some of the names that the author included because I had never heard of
him or her before. The article also includes texts that I was not familiar with
other than the information that the author provided.
Explain why the article is important:
The article does such a great job of informing the reader
of the importance of cross curricular studies. The readers are able to understand
disciplinary literacies, make connections across content areas, and understand
the importance of contextualizing.
Word count: 314
Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you in that my past teachers in high school and middle school did not focus on Cross-Curriculum as much as they should have. If I had seen content in multiple classrooms, I think it would be very beneficial to my learning. As future teachers, we definitely need to be conscious of this cross-content strategy and use it as much as we can.
Word Count: 66
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI read the same article as you. I thought it did a great job of giving strategies and examples on how to bridge the gap between literature and social studies. It's so important for teachers to incorporate cross-content strategies into their curriculum. By doing so, it teaches our students in a more in-depth and well-rounded way.