Librarian in Training
Dana Ruby
Historical fiction played a huge role in helping grow my love of reading as a kid (the Dear America series, anyone?), so I'm excited to share resources that can introduce elementary school students to the world of historical fiction!
Welcome!
This guide is for elementary school teachers who are looking to incorporate historical fiction within their lesson plans, as well as any undergraduate/graduate students studying education that are exploring the role historical fiction can play in the classroom. Using historical fiction in elementary school curriculum is an effective and impactful way to develop students’ multidisciplinary literacy skills, while teaching them more about the past and how it informs our present and future in an engaging and creative manner.
The guide includes a variety of resources to further explore this impact and the ways that it can be implemented in the classroom – there are articles, books, websites and videos that dive into these topics, as well as databases and journals that you can use to further your research. You will also find a list of articles with historical fiction book recommendations for elementary-school age children, to help brainstorm titles that can be incorporated into your classroom.
Relevant Terms to Use
When exploring search engines like Google, databases, or journals for content about the impact of historical fiction in student learning, try using some of these keywords that I found helpful when creating this guide!
"historical fiction" AND "elementary"
"historical fiction" AND "children"
You can also try the search "historical fiction" AND "(children or youth or kids)"
Other relevant terms to search alongside "historical fiction": "children's literature" , "education" , "picture books", using the boolean operator AND
When using databases and journals, searching these terms under 'keyword' , 'entire document' or 'full text' was also a helpful tool.