hiSTORY

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Home : 2002 : August : 24

hiSTORY
By Carolyn

I like the approach of making history into a story. I, myself, have always liked the language arts approach to teaching history.

What I am doing with my fifth grade students is exactly that. I only have one class per
week in social studies this year, and that is because of the increased emphasis and expectation that students will be using computers in the computer lab. This really limits my time. What I do, then, is introduce the social studies lesson we are going to have for the week on Wednesday afternoon for about 15 minutes. We look at the headings, vocabulary, maps, and understand what they

are going to read--the main idea. I assign the reading to be due on Friday, the day we can have social studies. I give them an assignment.

We have just started the year, so I am modeling the assignment for them. It is to finish the "story" of the lesson. I write a story, leaving blanks for them to fill in. The story might begin something like: "Once upon a time, there was a group of people living in a continent known as ____________. The problem was that these people wanted freedom from a country known as _________________." This encourages them to become involved in the reading. We illustrate the stories. This can be done with flip books, trifolds, etc. You could even have them create a hanging mobile out of the lesson.

As the year progresses, I will expect the students to make up their own stories on the lesson, complete with main characters, setting, problem, story details, attempts to solve the problem, and ending.