Monday, June 24, 2013
Using Roll Jordan Roll in education?
For those of you who work in education or will be (hopefully) working in education soon I would like to hear your thoughts on using a book like Roll Jordan Roll as part of a class lesson. After reading some of the responses about how this book can be best understood by viewing it in the context of when it was researched and published I personally think it could useful to use in a lesson on how some books and ideas are a product of the times, and have students compare the ideas put forth to some more modern research in a higher level American History course. Any thoughts?
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Yates,
ReplyDeleteI assume that you are refering to using Roll, Jordan, Roll in an upper divsion college course. I think that if you plan on using a book like Roll, Jordan, Roll, you would be forced to limit yourself to one or maybe two chapters at the absolute most. Unfortunately, I don't think many students will invest the time necessary to adequately read the text. I think your apporach is definitely a good idea though for those History majors that are considering a Masters or PhD. Another option would be to use Roll, Jordan, Roll as a means of talking about the historiography of American slavery. You can have your students review Roll, Jordan, Roll and see how other authors in later decades have used, expanded upon, or critiqued Genovese's work. This would provide students an excellent opportunity to see how ideas grow over time and how individuals in academia not only borrow but advance the ideas of those that wrote before them. Thoughts?
Mark
Yates,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mark in that you will not have enough time in any high school classroom to read and discuss this entire book. However, I do think you can use the book to find primary sources that you could use in the classroom. Genovese brings in numerous sources that could provide further insight into issues surrounding slavery. Unfortunately, with time restraints and the amount of information you have to cover, this is about as far as a teacher could go with this material. Hope this helps!