July/Aug.

After reading the autobiography of Ben Franklin and The Shoemaker, I learned many things that I didn't know before. I had never heard of George Hewes. These books are not just facts that were memorized and then forgotten. They shed some insight on the history that we learned. These books are much different than the history books that we read when we were in school. The interpretations are much different and now I realize the bias that comes from some authors that you don't get from primary resources.

I chose to compare how the two books dealt with the explanation of the Bill of Rights. In Hakim, George Mason asked the question, " All those brilliant men and they forgot a bill of rights?" I liked how Hakim explained the bill of rights with the traditional story telling method. It is an easier read. The people come to life as you read the details. They aren't just a name and a date to memorize. James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights guaranteed that we wouldn't lose our precious liberties and got Congress to pass it. That is something that I'm sure I learned but had forgotten. The thing I didn't know and don't think that I had learned was that in the Wood book it states that James Madison proposed 12 amendments but only 10 became the Bill of Rights. I think the styles and audiences for which both texts are written is definitely different. We can see both left and right brain styles and audiences. I prefer Hakim but Woods definitely adds different facts that you may not know had you only read one book. Woods more factual, no pictures or sidebars and Hakim more visual and easier to read. I can appreciate both.

May Post

I read A History of US. Hakim's book gives a different look at what history books should look like. The layout of the text is much more interesting than what our history books looked like or sounded like. I would like to see a book that would give examples of what first grade history books would look like using this style. The story telling method and connecting to history is definitely what our students need. The integration of history into our Language Arts classes is how we can "fit it in" to our busy schedules as teachers. We can connect with our left and right brain learners in this way. I like how the timeline is at the end of the book to connect the storytelling method to the dates/events method.

Reading the assignment articles reminded me that we need to teach to both left and right brain learners in all areas including social studies. We need to allow for students to not only listen to the events in history but allow them to discover the events on their own by exploring various types of trade books and information in our classrooms informally as well.

Break

I hope that everyone had a nice break!

Hello!