I contemplated professor Farrell's recommendation of moving out of
my comfort zone by reading and exploring a facet of young adult literature that I may not be
familiar with. I considered it for a few days; investigated some titles but I
eventually shelved the idea for a more applicable approach.
As educators we constantly read about and
discuss how to make the curriculum relevant to our students. Curriculum that
has real-world applications. So for me, while I may want to challenge myself by
reading a little dystopia, such as The Hunger Games, it didn’t meet my real-world criteria. Meaning, I need to investigate literature that I can use in my middle school social studies classroom. So, I fell back on the genre that led me to my college major, history, and eventually to teaching, historical fiction.
The seventh grade social studies curriculum begins with the fall of Rome and the beginnings of feudalism in western Europe. It then takes roughly the same time period, 600 to 1500, around the globe to the Arabian Peninsula, Imperial China, Feudal Japan, The America's before contact, and medieval West Africa. We spend the last third of year looking at the Renaissance and Reformation. In a perfect world I would have a novel for each unit in social studies. Realistically, that is not going to happen. There isn't enough time or resources to make this a reality, but if I could some of the books I've reviewed in the following pages would definitely be contenders to help enhance and supplement the curriculum. I chose some books because they illuminate the time period. Books set in contemporary times were chosen because they juxtapose nicely with the historical time period or because they allow students insight into a culture or place that they might not be familiar with.
The seventh grade social studies curriculum begins with the fall of Rome and the beginnings of feudalism in western Europe. It then takes roughly the same time period, 600 to 1500, around the globe to the Arabian Peninsula, Imperial China, Feudal Japan, The America's before contact, and medieval West Africa. We spend the last third of year looking at the Renaissance and Reformation. In a perfect world I would have a novel for each unit in social studies. Realistically, that is not going to happen. There isn't enough time or resources to make this a reality, but if I could some of the books I've reviewed in the following pages would definitely be contenders to help enhance and supplement the curriculum. I chose some books because they illuminate the time period. Books set in contemporary times were chosen because they juxtapose nicely with the historical time period or because they allow students insight into a culture or place that they might not be familiar with.
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