Reading American History: The Influence of Multiple Sources on Six Fifth Graders

Abstract

Traditional elementary history textbooks have been criticized severely. These criticisms, along with movement toward whole-language approaches in some schools and the availability of alternatives to textbooks, have resulted in increased use of biographies, historical fiction, and literature-based accounts of the past, providing students with multiple sources for learning history. In this exploratory study, we examined effects of the use of such sources on 6 fifth graders' experiences learning about American history. We assessed the teacher's views and the learning opportunities he provided. We also questioned 6 students from the class about their reading interests with respect to the various texts, how they distinguished among the texts as sources of historical subject matter, and how the different texts influenced the development of their historical thinking, critical reading, and historical understanding. 7 themes emerged from the data: (1) the students preferred alternative texts; (2) the students did not note how text differences might influence the ways texts could be used as sources; (3) students' retellings of what was studied were free from conflation of content with textual form; (4) use of multiple sources raised no questions among students about validity and reliability of evidence; (5) without a record of where authors obtained evidence; (5) without a record of where authors obtained evidence, students could not assess the texts' sources; (6) instead, in judging the validity of the texts, students used an information-quantity criterion; and (7) 3 students showed emerging signs of critical reading and advanced historical thinking. Implications of these themes for students' learning to become historical thinkers and critical readers of American history and for enhancing historical understanding are discussed.