Jamie's Last Book Club Post

For our last book club we decided that because chapters three and four of Janet Allen's Reading History combined were around the same length as the other chapters we would read both.  These two chapters seem to cover what we have been learning in our methods course, with added focus on literacy.

One of the methods that causes differing opinions is Outlines/Story Maps on page 65.  I personally believe that knowing how to make an outline is incredibly important.  I always found outlining to be a helpful study technique, however as a homework assignment it is definitely not challenging enough.  The R.E.A.P method on pages 66 and 69 is definitely a method I would use in class and as homework.  R.E.A.P. stands for: Read on your own, Encode the [text] by putting the gist of what you read in your own words, Annotate the text by writing down the main ideas (notes, significant words, quotes) and the author's message, and Ponder what you read by thinking and talking with others in order to make personal connections, develop questions about the topic, and/or connect this reading to other reading you have done.  In our methods course we focused on historical thinking as an important part of teaching social studies courses.  I feel that RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic, pages 75 and 78), over the year, will be a quick way to help students get into the right perspective for each reading that they do.  It would build their historical thinking skills by helping them to learn how to think and see things from different historical perspectives.  On pages 80 and 82 timelines are presented.  I feel that, like outlining, students need to be able to create, question, and analyze timelines; social studies classes are full of timelines, whether it be in the textbook, or classroom posters, they are important to understand.

In chapter four, Janet Allen identifies ways to highlight "best practice" in regards to reading skills in the social studies classroom.  Allen states on page 92, "While there may not be any one best way, I do believe there are effective practices that create a foundation of support for making our study and reading of history accessible, informative, and enjoyable."  The chart shown after this quote is one of many reasons that I'm glad I bought this book, I will definitely be referring back to it in my classrooms for different methods to use, and ways to make my social studies classes more fun for my students.