CRITICAL SUMMARY OF MY CRITICAL REVIEW

Click on title for the article.

In his article, Waters encourages teachers to make more use of literature in their social studies classrooms and provides five rationales for doing so. He also examines how literature can be used and goes on to construct five elements to be considered when choosing a book. I couldn't possibly condense all his points into two pages, so I looked at what was his main focus: the five rationales for introducing literature to socials classes.

You might think he is stating the obvious, but in my experience, it was not until late in university that a teacher/instructor ever introduced literature outside of scholarly texts. And not once in my observation did I see a socials teacher use a text other than those given them by the Ministry. Waters argues that everything from poetry to biography should be incorporated, as literature 1) makes socials more relevant to the lives of students; 2) brings life to historical events, geographic locations, and peoples of different cultures and periods; 3) enhances critical thinking; 4) facilitates students’ understanding of abstract concepts; and 5) presents young people with role models.

His third rationale, and his examination of why and how, is his best; yet, as much as I agreed with Waters, I did find what I felt to be some serious flaws in his approach, particularly with his fourth and fifth points. Not that I disagree with his fourth rationale, but all the literature he emphasizes uses heroic and moral stereotypes and he completely ignores dystopian novels and the strategies used in those novels to reflect similar ideals. And as for using literature to introduce role models, such idealism and intent gives me shivers. I am not saying we ignore strong, heroic and moral characters based on stereotypes, there might be a time and a place, but we want to be careful with the intent with which we introduce the material.

On the whole, I enjoyed Waters’ article and appreciated his attempt to bridge an obvious gap. His ideas on how to use literature to enhance critical thinking were excellent, my only criticism, and it’s a serious one, is that Waters seems to imply teachers should have an agenda when they introduce literature, an agenda which slightly tarnishes his more valid points, though just.