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A Land Remembered - Using a novel to teach Florida history – Regina Stuck

This year I had my 11th graders actually read a novel; such a novel idea! The sad thing is that numerous students told me that they don’t actually read the books that are assigned in Language Arts; they just read the summaries on Sparknotes. The book that we read was A Land Remembered by Patrick Smith, which is about three generations of a Florida family. Since most of my students hadn’t had any Florida history since fourth grade this is a great way to teach some Florida history. The book is not available on Sparknotes! If you have never read it, you really should, you will learn a great deal about Florida’s history; especially if you are a transplanted northerner like me.

I had them read chapters at home with questions for each chapter.  We then spent some class time discussing what they had read. Reading and answering the questions from the book was their homework, instead of work from the textbook. Since it isn’t a book the Language Arts teachers use there was no conflict with them, the only problem I ran into was that I didn’t want them reading another book at the same time. It took us about three weeks from start to finish. We started reading it at the same time as the Civil War was being studied, since the story begins just prior to that time period.

At first students were freaked out by the almost 500 pages, but once they started reading they saw just how readable the book was. Students could tell me how they had stayed up until 2:00 am reading, not because they needed to, but because they wanted to find out what happened; what a rewarding feeling. Most of my students enjoyed not only this particular book, but the fact that they actually read a book.

If you have never included the reading of a novel in your curriculum please consider it. There are so many wonderful books that will excite and motivate your students; using historical fiction will bring new life into your classroom. 

A Land Remembered by Patrick Smith is available at Pineapple Press, (www.pineapplepress.com) they also have a two-part young reader version as well as lesson plans for both elementary and middle grades. For my high school students I just used some of the middle school resources and reworked them. There are also resources available online. Pineapple Press will negotiate with you if you buy in bulk. Here’s a plug for them – Pineapple Press always has a booth at the FCSS conference, so check them out in October! They have wonderful books about Florida.