The book A HISTORY OF US FROM COLONIES TO COUNTRY 1735-1791 written by Joy Hakim, brings history to life. Her teachings are a delightful animated story telling. One that motivates me to continue my read for history. Joy Hakim's style of teaching is very effective for me and appealing to my students.
Her style of teaching, I believe would be effective for both right and left brain learners. The left brain learners have the primary sources such as facts, quotes, pictures and maps. The right brain learners will engage themselves in the creativity of her true storyline that bring the history to life. Hakim's book is threaded with cartoons to help remember the facts and stories being told. As we learned in our small group during our May activities, cartoons are pictures of many words, most of them not to be forgotten. One of my favorite cartoons is on page 38, showing Benjamin Franklin, who was trying to help the Indians. My students could relate to many of the true accounts in this book.
My students are good at relating to Ancient Civilizations by comparing "Then" and "Now" by using graphic organizers to see the similarities and differences of today. Joy Hakim makes it easy to relate to her stories of history or maybe not! When I was reading the chapter "Summer in Philly" a time when bathing was thought to be unhealthy and they had "necessaries" or "privies", holes in the ground to bathe in, well this made me think. On page 163, Elizabeth Drinker states, "I bore it better than I expected, not having been wet all over at once, for 28 years past." I'm not too sure my students could relate to that however, I think they will remember that! Also on the same page it sounds as if the first jacuzzi was in the making. It states, "Benjamin Franklin did have a bath. He never let other people's ideas stop him from experimenting. He had a round wooden tub built and set it on large paving stones that were heated by fires circulating hot air under the stones. Stories made for discussions!
This book is made to use across the curriculum. These history stories would be appealing to my students for their writings. There are many open-ended questions on the character of the early Americans and the heroism and adventure that was compared to the Greek history on page 61. The study of the maps would also be interesting. Working across curriculum is valuable due to the time restraints during PSSA prep time. This would work in my classroom.
2 comments:
I especially like your comment about cross-curricular applications. That approach not only supports the Common Core approach to literacy, but it also allows students to make more connections that in turn will enhance retention and understanding. The interesting facts you mentioned were intriguing and would fascinate students whose parents probably hound them each night to get a bath before bedtime!
The differences in everyday life are always a good way to engage people in discussions of history. We never can truly put ourselves in their places - our frames of reference are too different - but we can at least get an inkling of the difference.
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