DOES HISTORICAL FICTION
HELP
OR HURT
HISTORY STUDENTS?
Written by Dr. Mark Lynch and Liz Bardelli for
Anne Arundel County Middle School Students
Introduction
Imagine that the following letter was written
to a newspaper in your county:
| Dear
Editor:
Students in the United States don't know their American History.
Just ask a few middle schoolers about the American Revolution or the Civil
War, and you will be shocked at how little they know. And what they
do
know is probably wrong.
One major reason
for this is that our students are not reading real history.Instead
they are reading historical fiction! The definition for "fiction"
is "something invented with the imagination; an imaginary story."Believe
it or not, our students are reading such books as April Morning,
Across
Five Aprils, The Fighting Ground, and Johnny Tremain.
All historical fiction! No wonder students' knowledge of history
is all wrong.
What's the solution? Teachers should spend more time teaching their
students real, accurate non-fiction history instead of historical fiction.
We need to remove books like April Morning from the classrooms so
students get a better picture of what history really is.
Signed,
A
concerned citizen |
What do you
think about the use of books like April Morning? Do they help
students learn history, or do they confuse students with wrong or inaccurate
information?
First,
what is historical fiction?Historical
fiction is imaginary stories based on historical events and people.It's
purpose is to take readers beyond simple facts and as close as possible
to really living through historical events. But maybe, as the letter
writer states, books like April Morning give students incorrect
information about history. It's an important question to consider.This
project will give you a chance to see if April Morning, a well-known
novel, misleads students with false information.
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