Blog#5: Points of view through letters in history

A student in one of my social studies class wrote a beautiful letter from an aid station behind the front lines at the Battle of the Somme. The writer was able to draw in my mind a vivid image of the carnage she saw as a nurse helping receive the wounded from the English first attack across No Man's Land. Not only was the letter a great writing prompt but it showed a deep understanding of the subject matter we had just experienced through a creative activity to explain trench warfare. The students wrote letters home after playing a trench warfare simulator game and I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of understanding I was seeing in the students letters. The letters were a good assessment of the student's knowledge but also showed some creative thoughts of different perspectives. There are some very useful strategies in Chapter 9 of Improving Adolescents Literacy and I can see some prompts that can be creatively used in different areas of social studies.