Children's literature: An investigation into its use in teaching American history

This case study narrative explores how American History was taught in an eighth grade integrated Humanities classroom using children's literature as a major source for instruction. The literature review investigates why history should be taught, what we want middle school students to learn about American History, how history textbooks and trade books compare as tools for teaching history in the middle school, and why we should use children's literature in the history classroom. The inquiry provides evidence of what the teacher wants her students to learn about American history, how the curriculum was presented in the classroom, how the students responded to express their learning, and the attitudes of both teacher and students toward the use of historical fiction and children's literature with eighth grade students. Finally, the kinds of knowledge students retained from the curriculum was examined. Annotated bibliography.