Getting Students to Read Historical Novels

Literacy and Social Studies should go hand-in-hand. It’s a natural blending of two powerful forces that can enhance the learning and understanding of our students.

Literacy can take several forms, from understanding the organizational methods used by a textbook to deciphering a population graph to comparing historical maps to…. reading nonfiction as well as fictional books with a historical basis. This isn't just limited to history: any of the social studies -geography, economics, psychology, government, etc. - fall into this realm.

There are many advantages to using these written resources – especially fictional – in the Social Studies classroom. It can add color and character to otherwise dry places and figures. It can add a depth of reasoning as to why people did what they did, and often fiction can do this in a way that nonfiction cannot.

Many Social Studies teachers hesitate to encourage their student to read ‘historical fiction’ because, well, it’s fiction! But, with a good selection of material and a process to help the students gain a true understanding of history, historical fiction can be a very useful resource.

One of the blogs that I follow is Speaking of History, created by Eric Langhorst from Liberty, MO. In his blog, Langhorst provided a list of books, a form to use with students to enable them to get the most out of the reading, as well as a podcast describing the process. It’s a worthwhile thing to read and listen to. Click on Speaking of History to go to the blog entry.

Essential question: Is historical fiction a valuable tool to use in our Social Studies classrooms to enhance the understanding of the students?