Integrating History into Novel Studies

At our November professional development, we focused on integrating Montana history and English Language Arts. Attendees shared such great resources for novel studies, that I thought it was worth compiling and sharing them more widely.

First stop for cross-disciplinary ELA/history material has got to be OPI's Indian Education Division's website, particularly their ELA model lesson plans, which include units for such commonly taught middle school books as Code Talker - A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two, Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond and Birchbark House and high school titles like Killing Custer: The Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians and Wind from an Enemy Sky.

Middle School Teachers

Do you teach Hattie Big Sky?  Find relevant sources here.

High School Teachers

Click on the links for resources related to these novels: 

• Fools Crow, by James Welch: “Blood on the Marias: Understanding Different Points of View Related to the Baker Massacre of 1870
• Grapes of Wrath, by Jon Steinbeck: Letters from some of drought-stricken farmers to Montana governor John Erickson; Library of Congress: Farm Security Administration Depression-era photographs [loc.gov] (find photos from Montana, or your town, by using the search function); Hope in Hard Times: New Deal Photographs of Montana, 1936-1942, by Mary Murphy (This is the best thing written about Montana during the Great Depression. A PDF of Chapter 1 is available for free download); PowerPoint created with text and images from the Hope in Hard Times exhibit.
• Autobiography of Malcolm X: for a Montana connection, check out the Montana in the Green Book story map.
• There There: Montana Mosaic Chapter 6, Federal Indian Policy, is a nineteen-minute video that uses the history of the Juneau family to explore the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ relocation policy and the effects the relocation program had on American Indian identity. Here’s a link to the video and here’s a link to the user guide.

Other Useful Links

• Mary Johnson has published a blog [tpsteachersnetwork.org] on TPS Teachers Network on using primary sources in English class to complement fiction. It has examples and links! (You need to register to view it, but registration is free.) 
• The National Council for the Social Studies publishes a list each year of Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. You have to be a member to view the most recent list, but the backlists are available for free. Here’s the 2019 list [socialstudies.org].
• For more great ELA ideas and collaboration, join OPI's Secondary (5-12) ELA Teachers Online Sharing Community [docs.google.com], which meets the second and fourth Tuesday of every month from 3:45 p.m.-4:45 p.m. 
• Stay tuned for MHS's next professional development (for which you will be able to earn one renewal unit). We'll gather via Zoom on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, to share our best ideas and resources for integrating Montana history into U.S. history. Sign up for the session here.