Mixing it Up

 

Mixing it Up

 

            When I began to read this chapter the first thing that jumped in my mind was a high school Unites States history class.  This class was probably one of the most interesting one I had in all of middle and high school.  The topics were not any different but the way the teacher presented it was different, well at least to me.  He did many things in a different way and this chapter fits right in with the way he taught this class.

            We were just stating the U.S. Civil War unit and nothing was really different.  We went over some of the causes, the start of the war, and some of the early battles.  When the class began learning about events in 1863 we received a very different assignment.  The teacher asked us to read The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.   I had never heard of the book but my first thought was “wait this isn’t the text.”  I picked up the book at a bookstore and it was in the fiction section.  Again I’m confused because isn’t fiction about stories that are not true and we are in a history class?  Well I read the book and to be honest I was engrossed in it.  It still remains to this day one of my favorite books.  The book to me is historical fiction.  It tells a very realistic story about how the war was fought during the civil war.  It is believed to be based on the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.  I know why he assigned it to us when he did because we were heading into that year of the war.  After the assignment was complete we all figured out why else the teacher assigned the book.  He got us interested in the Civil War in a different way.  Sure the text told us how the war was fought, but this book, in a realistic way, portrayed what it was like for a soldier to fight in the war. Primary sources told us also, but they seemed very dry.  This book though not a true story, could be true and was told in a way that was not boring for the lack of a better term.  To me it is exactly what Daniels and Zemelman mean when they said it “…makes the information readable and memorable.”  (p. 53).  I understand it is not a fact about the civil war, but this gave me and others an insight to what the soldiers were facing and leads to more questions about war, why did we fight it?  Are the reasons for fight worth all the suffering the soldiers go through?  To me those are important questions also.  This type of assignment got more interested in history.  It showed me that history can be taught in different way.  The authors stated that fiction can be used “…simply set the stage, to entice curiosity.”  (Daniels and Zemelman, p. 57).  That is exactly a historical fiction book did for me.

            Another thing that developed from this type of non-textbook reading, and one that I think others will develop, is a love for reading.  This assignment made me want to read.  I had an interest in history but I really remember this assignment as the one that really made my interest grown.  I started to read more history books, not just textbooks.  I started to read more in general, not just in of for school.  It helped me develop and ask many what if type questions.  One of my favorite authors is Harry Turtledove.  He writes alternate history fiction novels.  Going into what would have happened if the South had won the Civil War for example.  It allowed me to analyze if that was possible.  Opening my eyes that I could read history without reading a textbook or even a traditional history book really increased my reading, my understanding and my overall ability to learn.