Clark, Penney. “Teaching History Through Literature.” (2008)

In this chapter, Penney Clark advocates for the use of literature in teaching history. She argues that while textbooks are clinical, literature is emotional and helps students personalize events, key for developing historical empathy. She broadens the definition of historical literature by including non-fiction sources like biographies with fiction, and provides criteria for choosing appropriate sources to teach with, such as its interest-value, fit with other resources, and teaching-value. Clark offers ideas for using literature in history classes, like pairing up with an English teacher so you both are covering the same information, or using excerpts of novels throughout a lesson, and provides a sample activity for comparing the literature with other material a history teacher may use.

The strength of this short article is the extensive, seven-page annotated bibliography of historical literature teachers can use in middle or high school classrooms. The brief annotations are broken down by time period and focus on literature written for teens rather than adults.