Supplemental Books in the HS History Class Room
The Value of Reading Books Beyond the Standard Narrative Text
Dec 26, 2008
There is value and benefit in assigning supplemental books to students in high school history classes. Selecting the proper books, however, can be a daunting task. How many books should be added to the standard text in each semester? How long should the books be? Should upper level classes like Advanced Placement courses include more extra readings than college prep or basic classes? There is even the debate that no additional readings should be added and that the standard text for the course should suffice.
The Importance of Additional Readings
Standard history texts present a very general, often brief narrative of events in American or World History. Despite attempts to provide students with supplemental information such as original source documents frequently archived in on-line companion web sites, the depth that may be needed to understand certain crucial topics may be missing. This may include topics in Women's History, Black History, American slavery, or Holocaust materials.
Additional readings provide the depth that can lead to better class discussion while focusing on highly pertinent areas of history. In World History, for example, watershed periods like the French Revolution or the Renaissance are often enhanced with specialized focus books. Students studying World War II in an American History class might benefit from a reading of Alex Kershaw’s The Bedford Boys (De Capo Press, 2004), which not only details the personal experiences of soldiers at D-day but chronicles life on the home front.
Supplemental books encourage students to read, a process that has been supplanted by internet use. On-line reading is very different from book reading as recent discussions have shown. It is one of the reasons schools assign summer reading for students entering the next grade levels and even many colleges have begun the practice of mandating assigned books for in-coming freshmen.
Type of Books as Supplemental Reading
Additional books should be brief, fun to read, yet educational. They should complement specific focus areas in the curriculum. Sometimes they can be broken up over an entire semester. Teachers that wish to highlight the role of Native American culture and contributions may find Jack Weatherford’s Indian Givers (Fawcett Books,1988) an excellent source that spans the early Spanish colonial efforts with the contemporary treatment of Central and South American Indian populations.
Many teachers have found Michael Shaara’s Killer Angels (Ballantine Books, 1974) a source students respond well to. Upper level classes might enjoy the controversial thesis of James McPherson’s What They Fought For 1861-1865 (Louisiana State Un. Press, 1994), which, at 69 pages, represents a compact argument for men fighting in the Civil War. Stephen Oates’ The Fires of Jubilee (Harper & Row, 1975) recounts the Nat Turner rebellion in easy-to-read prose.
The selection of books should take into account the level of instruction as well as student perspectives. Students are more apt to read shorter books that tell a story rather than longer books that sound too much like their narrative texts. Finding books that have no on-line notes (such as Spark Notes) or that have not been turned into movies forces students to think independently. For example, The Scarlet Pimpernel (Pocket Books, 2004), a fun book about the French Revolution that is decidedly not historically accurate, can be viewed in a number of different film versions, yet none of these movies follow the plot of the book.
Should books be necessarily historical? Some historical fiction may serve a purpose and be entertaining at the same time. Additionally, some historical narratives such as Allan Eckert’s colonial series on early American history are lively, written from a first person point of view, yet follow documented facts.
Finally, first person accounts like The Diary of Anne Frank (Novel Units, Inc., 2004) or Europa Europa (Wiley, 1999), both World War II true stories, tend to fascinate students. Sharon Linnea’s short volume, Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death (Jewish Publication Society, 1993) is always well received by students when studying the Holocaust. Using supplemental books serves many positive purposes in the history classroom and should be encouraged.
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