Historical settings and past events open up the class discussions to new and wonderful ideas. For instance, our middle school classes are studying Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. In the first discussion about the novel, the family is moving from one town back to Salem, Massachusetts. The students were asked to consider the differences for a family move back then compared to a family move today. The topic allowed students to think about the tremendous amount of work involved in moving, and most believed it was much more difficult in the late 1700’s. However, there were good points about the challenges in finding a new home in modern times!
Some of our classes are reading novels set in the Puritan culture. Some are studying remarkable individuals, including Benjamin Franklin and Amos Fortune. And some students are visiting the bygone era of the earliest settlers that made their homes in the wilds with the indigenous people around them. With rich settings and times, we want to help our students connect to the facts that, most likely, our lives look completely different. Instructors take the time to help their classes consider the many ways the daily life of the characters required planning, hard work, and hope. It is this focus that we encourage all of The Write Journey community to explore this month. We hope families help their students “walk a mile in their shoes” to grow in understanding, appreciation, and perspective.
Here are some questions to ask your students, whether they attend our classes, or if you are teaching the subject at home:
What did [character’s name] do on a typical day?
How did a family get their food?
Where did clothing come from in this story?
What steps would a person have to take to build a house or building?
How were the laws and rules different back in the story’s time?
What was school like in this story?
Do the people in the story care about the same things that you care about today?
Name a couple things about daily life that you believe were very challenging from the story.
Try asking these questions and others like them to explore the rich history from any story’s setting! This will open up wonderful discussions for everyone involved. This often helps students LOVE learning even more.