Teaching Reading in the Content Areas of History Article

Teaching Reading in the Content Areas of History - Article Example Student-teacher collaboration and cooperation is essential in understanding the relevance and significance of historical events. Students should be encouraged to use their analytical and logical reasoning while reading history. While lectures and tutorials have their respective importance in conveying theoretical knowledge; yet visual aids and tools enhance the comprehension level of students. Reading is the first and the foremost way of communication between teachers and students. Reading opens the avenues of knowledge for the students, with or without the guidance of teachers. One of the main aims of reading is to understand and process the information and teachers can make reading either fun or boring experience for the students. Reading has a unique significance in the context areas of history. Historical evidence and the hierarchy of events are represented to the readers in their text books in a number of ways. Pictorial, graphical, and illustrative aspects of history text books make the subject matter appealing to the students. However, interactive reading can have multiple benefits in enhancing the levels of comprehension. A number of scholarly articles and publications have been reviewed in this research paper, in order to study the implications of interactive reading particularly in the context areas of history.... Reading should be made an innovative experience for the students and visual tools like charts, props, book marks, sticky notes and paper-plate dials help make reading a fun and interesting experience. Discussion and documentation are also important in reciprocal teaching because students learn through each others’ points of views and keep a record of whatever they have learnt for future reference. Teachers have three primary responsibilities during a reciprocal teaching session: Before reading, activate prior knowledge of words or ideas students will encounter during reading.During reading, monitor, guide, and encourage individuals or groups in their use of Fab Four. After reading, encourage student reflection and ask students to share which strategy helped them the most and why. (Stricklin, 2011) 2. Working with Materials rather than Memorizing Facts ‘I can do this: Revelations on teaching with historical evidence’ explores the common approach in teaching history , which is memorizing dates and facts; but history students need more than that. They need excitement and passion in order to learn about history and comprehend the significance of events. By having students work with materials rather than memorizing parts of the text book, by having students understand and participate in the process of historical thought, and by having a system to analyze student’s historical work, a type of learning where students are engaged in historical inquiry holds great promise for the future teaching of the discipline. (Burenheide, 2007, p.60) 3. Handling PowerPoint Wisely The article ‘Ban the Bullet-Point! Content-Based PowerPoint for Historians’ reveals how PowerPoint can act as a great or a worse tool in classrooms. Maxwell