{"id":907,"date":"2023-01-26T20:15:27","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T01:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/elemsocialstudies\/?p=907"},"modified":"2023-01-26T20:47:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T01:47:40","slug":"historical-fact-or-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/elemsocialstudies\/2023\/01\/26\/historical-fact-or-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical Fact or Fiction?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greetings fellow classmates,<\/span><\/p>\n

Whew! I don\u2019t know about all of you, but my mind has been spinning ever since our Tuesday night class. There\u2019s so much to reflect upon when it comes to learning how to teach elementary history and social studies topics, and I\u2019ve found myself contemplating the best ways to integrate language arts in a cross-curricular fashion to get students interested in reading and learning about the past.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To add some personal context, I\u2019m forty-something years old and my elementary school years were in the eighties. (And yes, my younger friends, it was as fantastic as you\u2019ve heard!) But from what I remember about learning history as a child, I found it boring. Painful. The subject to endure. History was taught from a textbook only. There were no supplementary materials. And I hated it. However, I loved to read . . . but only fiction. English was my favorite subject, and all subjects were taught separately and distinctly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That brings me to the following central teaching question that I\u2019d like you all to ponder: Should we as educators use historical fiction to help teach our elementary students history? Or, will this blending of genres impede a child\u2019s ability to discern fact from fiction? Should we avoid historical fiction until a certain grade\/age level or introduce it as early as possible to potentially help students (like a younger me) become more engaged in learning about the past?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve compiled a few varying viewpoints on the teaching and learning of history through historical fiction below:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n