Using fiction in the social studies

[John Lee]

What are some works of adolescent fiction (books, films, plays, etc) that can be used in middle grades social studies classes as windows into the study of places or periods in history?

[Kimberley Thurston]

Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great book for middle grades that can be used as a gateway into talking about expanding the frontier and slavery. Although this book is more fiction than historical it takes its reader on a journey through the late 1800’s.
The novel is written in the vernacular, so it is able to give students a sense of the time. It also focuses a lot on Geography; providing students, again with a sense of time and place.
The novel is about a mischievous boy named Huck Finn and his attempt to stay “unsivilized”. Huck finds a sum of money and tries to run away, taking a runaway slave with him. The novel continues with their adventure and the breaking down of the walls of racism that existed at the time.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, also known as Mark twain, was and still is a very well-liked author. His novel Huck Finn is known as “The Great American Novel” and Faulkner even called Twain “The Father of American Literature”.
Wikipedia has some great information on the novel and its author.

[John Lee]

I like your idea for using Huck Finn the study geography. What are some of the places in Huckleberry Finn that might serve as a focus for a social studies activity?

[Echo Pierce]

One issue with H.F. that manifested itself several years ago when I was teaching 5th grade, was that in our area gang membership was a large issue. In my class I had at least two students who were known to be 3rd generation gang members. Twain's sense of irony about Huck's initial preoccupation with "murder gangs" was not fully appreciated and made many of the students uncomfortable.

[Lauren Ward]

I think that The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis would be a great book to use in a Social Studies classroom. First of all, it is a fun and enjoyable read that all different types of students can easily get into. Secondly, it is a great glance into the lives of African Americans in the 1960s and the differences that existed in the different parts of the United States. The ending scene with the bombing in Birmingham can evoke many emotions with the students. This text is very rich in cultural knowledge and is very relatable for the students. This book would be a great opening before a unit on the Civil Rights Movement.

[John Lee]

This is a great book. Say a bit more here about the plot of the book and how you would use it in a social studies class. Are there particular historical antecedents from the book that are interesting or useful? What is the cultural knowledge that you think would be valuable?

[Casey Stewart]

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Summary
It is 1942, and Bruno, a nine year old, boy living in Germany comes home to his family’s housekeeper, Maria, packing up his belongings. Concerned, Bruno finds out from his mother that Gretel, his sister, along with his mother and father are moving to “Out-With.” His father has been promoted to Commandant in the German Army and “has done very well with his job.” Much to Bruno’s dismay, the family has to be relocated. His family finally arrives, and the new area for Bruno is horrible. The new house is only three stories compared to their latter five, and there are no kids in the new neighborhood, or so Bruno thinks.

Looking for something to occupy his time, Bruno explores his new room. To his surprise, he finds a hidden window that looks outside. Instead of seeing the image of beautiful gardens that he once remembers, Bruno sees something that sends chills through his spine. Outside of his window, he sees groups of people, men of all ages, gathered around. He sees rundown huts, crowds of people, and filth. Soldiers are yelling at the men and children, and they all seem to have one thing in common, grey striped pajamas. Although Bruno finds this to be interesting, he can’t understand why he is divided from his “neighbors” by a barbed wire fence.

Bruno’s naivety and suspicion gets the best of him and he begins to occupy his time with exploring. Bruno has missed his friendships from back home in Germany, and finally he meets a young boy, named Shmuel. Come to find out, they share the same birthday. Over a year passes, and Bruno and Shmuel’s friendship has grown. They have seen each other almost every day, yet they have never touched, only spoken to one another through the fence keeping them apart. The time has home for Bruno to return back to Berlin, and it is Bruno’s last meeting with his best friend Shmuel. What starts as a goodbye and a see-ya later, turns into a sad story of friendship, and loss.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas would be a great book for students about to learn about the Holocaust. Told from a nine year old's perspective, students gather a perspective from a child whose view of something tragic is different from what they have been taught their entire lives. In a social studies classroom, teachers could use this as a window for the time period of WWII. Also, this book would be a great way for teachers to get their students talking about other fences that are put up around our world. How is our world today separated by fences?

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was made into a film. A website with really great information about the book and the author is http://www.johnboyne.com/.

[Michelle Rena Harris]

Chinue Achebe is a well-respected author in the African literature community. He puts the passion of his own history in to his works about life in Nigerian, some based off his own experiences and others off of stories he has heard through years of Africa's oral traditions.

I believe that Chinue Achebe's Thinga Fall Apart would be a great read for middle schoolers as a gateway into the study of the West African culture and gtraditions as well as the affects of colonization on the continent of Africa and abroad. This novel tells the story of a Nigerian warrior who does everything in his power to be sure that family lives up to the ex.pectations laid out by Nigerian tradtions and culture. He reaches the top of his society, with more barns of yams than any village or clan for miles around. He is on top of the wpqrld unti missionaries come in an flip the societal hiearchy, taking a farmer like him to the bottom of the pyramid. In the end, the man hangs himself because the "new world" proves to be too much.

This would be a great book to use because it presents authentic Nigerian traditions in narrative form, making the study of African culture more reader friendly. I know I would rather read about it from the pages of an engaging novel than those of a dry textbook. After discussing traditions and culture, I would also us it to to study colonization of the Gold Coast and its affects on the African tradtions and ways of life. It seems tha the book has already created the bridge between the two. I t begins by emphasizing the culture and traditions and then the missionaries come in and begin conversion, nullifying all those traditons.

As an activity, I would probably begin with an overview of the history and culture of Nigerian and have my students journal about how life would have been for them as nigerians. Then, we would study the effects of the missionaries on West Africa and I would ask the students to journal about how life would have changed as a result of colonization. Afterward, we would read the novel and the students could draw their own conclusions about the affects of colonialism which must be supported by historical facts and documentation.

Or, I could have the classroom set up like the Gold Coast and have half the class assigned as Africans and the other half as missionaries and have them folloklw scripts that I have prepared which followl the original coarse of history which is the colonization and apartide of Africa. I would then have the studients journal about how they felt. Then, I would have the students read the novel as the start to our unit on colonial west Africa.

[Julie Treadwell]

Catherine, Called Birdy By Karen Cushman historical fiction novel set in London in 1290. The novel is a Newberry Honor Book, set up in a journal style- each chapter is a month and Catherine writes each day about her daily life. She is a 14 year old girl who hates her everyday task of spinning and wishes that she could be as carefree as a commoner. She visits her brother in a monastery and decides she wants to be a monk so she will no longer have to sew. Soon she has bigger problems; her father has started talking with suitors about her betrothal. Catherine plots against each man who comes seeking her love. Then, she is upset by the fact that her most beloved uncle and her best friend have fallen in love. She sets a spell on them to make them fall out of love and is then surprised because they really don’t work out. Aelis is betrothed to someone else so Catherine’s uncle negotiates for someone else. Catherine cannot believe she cast a real spell, but is excited because she thinks that will help keep the male suitors away.

This book would be a great way to get students interested in 6th grade European history. Katherine's journal shows what everyday life was like in London back then. She talks about class society, her brother's life as a monk, her other brothers life as an english soldier, and most of all her life as a maiden. Also, it talks surfacely about politics and health care back then. The book is interesting and students could relate to the character while learning about the time period.

[John Lee]

This is a great book. I could see it opening up all sorts of avenues for the study of Medieval Europe. As an adolescent, Catherine should be appealing for students. The book also deals with religion in an interesting and engaging manner.

[Brian Carnesecchi]

The Chronicles of Narnia's The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis would be a cool book to use to make connections to places and periods in history. This particular story is set in a situation where the children, who are the main characters, are sent to the English countryside to escape the German bombings on Britain. The rest of the story takes place within that scenario. Although the rest of the story does not deal with this historical aspect, this aspect is addressed at the beginning. This book could be a great tool to use as a window to look at the geography of Great Britain, as well as the history of World War 2.

An activity that could be fun is to have the students create their own fictional stories about what would happen to children who had to escape to the English countryside to escape the bombings. Any variation of this could work as well. For example, you could have them create a fiction about children who had to escape the to the countryside of Germany to avoid the Allies bombings.

[Mary Ashley Osment]

Johnny Tremain is an example of a fictional work that can be used in a middle grades social studies class as a window into the study of the Revolutionary War. Esther Forbes, the author of the novel, was born in 1891, in Massachusetts. Growing up, Forbes had a particular interest in books dealing with history. She then went on to major in history at the University of Wisconsin. Forbes became involved in WWI and began writing Johnny Tremain on the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941.

Johnny Tremain is the story about a young boy who goes from being a silversmith’s apprentice to becoming a messenger for the Sons of Liberty at the dawn of the Revolutionary War. This book contains many vocabulary words relating to the Revolutionary War, such as, Whig and Tory. It tells the story of the Revolutionary War through the eyes of a fourteen year old boy living during that time period. This would be great to use in the middle school classroom because it gives accurate historical information, such as dates, names, and places, while delivering these facts in an easy-to-read story format. Unlike textbooks, which contain facts only mostly, Johnny Tremain presents historical facts through a fictional, fun to read, “Coming of age” story.

A preview of this book can be seen at: http://books.google.com/books?id=r9_0WSNKPJMC&printsec=frontcov...

[John Lee]

Johnny Termain was written some time ago, but seems to hold its own 60 years later. What are some events, themes, or ideas that be explored through this book when studying the American Revolution? You mention the distinction between Whigs and Torries, but are there other some substantive topics? Or, if the issue is Whigs and Torries, how can the book support an examination of the differences between the groups?