“One of the chief
advantages of history instruction that emphasizes individual narratives is its
motivational power for children: They
are captivated by stories that help them explore how people responded to
dramatic situations or give them the chance to imagine taking part in the
events of the past” (Barton & Levstik (2004), p.155).
Barkton, K. &
Levstik, L. (2004). “Teaching history for
the common good.” New York,
NY: Routledge, Taylor, and Francis Group.
All teachers begin teaching with the hope that their
students will come to class each day with the same passion and desire for their
content subject as they do. The reality
is many students require some level of motivation from the teacher in order to
encourage a high level of active engagement with the work. Barton and Levstik discuss the power of
narrative as a powerful cultural and motivational tool in the history
classroom. The use of narrative is long
standing practice in American society. Socially,
students are raised to admire certain qualities. From an early age, we teach young children
about superheroes, such as Superman, and encourage children to look to positive
role-models. American students are long
told the stories of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, and Neil
Armstrong. We encourage students to look
to these influential Americans as role models and heroes of our society. Students are encouraged to examine these “heroes”
choices and convictions during times of danger and adversity in hopes that
during times in their lives where they might be faced with adversity that they
will take the moral high ground in the same respect as our heroes. However, one must question whether teaching
students to regard the individual narrative as complete truth, is beneficial to
students’ comprehension of the past.
While stories of George Washington and the cherry tree, for example, can
be captivating, does this story accurately describe the human characteristics
of George Washington? Furthermore, does
this story provide explanations for General Washington’s decisions in the
Revolutionary War?
As a motivational tool, the use of individual narratives
has clearly seen positive effects. One
can take a stroll around any Barnes and Noble and find a large section of
historical fiction. Therefore, it can be
assumed that if adults take pleasure in reading individual narratives in their
free time, then students might also enjoy reading similar works. In my own practice, I have encountered and
used individual narratives to assist students in my cooperating teacher’s
classroom. At the beginning of the
school year, my cooperating teacher and I discussed strategies to help
struggling students understand American life in the 1700’s. A fan of historical fiction myself, I
suggested asking the librarian to pull historical fiction novels for one
particular student who is an avid reader.
I made this suggestion thinking that if the student could read the
content in a medium other than the textbook, that perhaps the information would
“click” in her mind. After reading
Barton and Levstik, I am conflicted by my decision. As a motivational tool, I believe that this
approach worked. The student began to
become more engaged in the class. Her
formative and summative assessments slightly improved, but did not reveal
mastery of the content. Thus I am not convinced in the ability of individual
narratives to provide a complete understanding of events of a time period or a
balanced conception of the individual.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteMy reading of B&L makes me think you have no reason to fret. To make choices about the best way to engage a specific student using only theory (and no context) would likely lead to failure. As you observed, the student's engagement and scores all improved, so this must be counted as a win.
I think that the point of B&L is that balance must be found, and that educators must always have an eye towards fostering democrats. Narrative is a great way to enthrall young people and, to the extent the narrative is chosen wisely, narratives can even provide confidence. (I say chosen carefully because I believe that students may be intimidated and dis-empowered by narratives of "Great Men" such as MLK, but could find hope in a narrative about A. Philip Randolph or John Lewis.)
I agree, I must remember to use that idea some time with a student. For my part, I wonder if B&L's misgivings about narrative aren't a bit overwrought. But I suppose it is useful to understand the risks you run when resorting to a particular educational device. Maybe it all goes back to last semester's emphasis upon mindfulness (in the UbD materials and Dr. Sheppard's remarks), except this time of unintended consequences as well as one's own objectives. As teachers, we are surely right to solve a pressing problem (in this case, your student's relative disinterest in history), even if that means giving up hostages to fortune. The point is to make your choice knowingly, so that you can anticipate the next problem down the road.
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