ODF4 Unit 5 Reading Practice L3

Reading practice – Level 3
1 Read the letter. Choose the best summary of the writer’s point of view.
1 Reducing history to a series of unconnected names, dates, and events has resulted in students
from poorer backgrounds failing their exams, which in turn, has meant that educators have had
to change their approach in order to make the subject more relevant to their lives.
2 Despite recent changes to the history curriculum in U.S. high schools, teachers continue to fail
their students by concentrating on conventional topics, such as the Civil War between the North
and South, in preference to more recent historical events, which are more relevant to the lives of
students.
3 The current approach to teaching history in U.S. high schools is letting students down because it
presents the subject as a series of boring facts. A new approach is needed which gets students to
analyze and interpret history and to relate what happened to their own experience.
4 By taking a more creative approach to history as a high school subject, which involves getting
students to visit museums or look at their own family histories, we are in danger of losing sight
of its main goal, which is to provide students with a solid grounding in the key facts, dates, and
events of our nation.
2 Read the letter again. Summarize the main argument of each paragraph A–D in your own
words. Then note down one piece of evidence or example that supports the argument.
Paragraph A
Main argument:
Evidence or example:
Paragraph B
Main argument:
Paragraph C
Main argument:
Paragraph D
Main argument:
Reflect
3 Imagine you are a history teacher. Write a list of five things you could do with your students to
make the subject more interesting. Use your own ideas or ideas from the letter.
1
2
3
4
5
4 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE

Reading practice – Level 3
EDUCATION TODAY
Letters to the Editor
Send us your views on all things educational, and we’ll publish the most interesting and relevant letters.
We’re Teaching History Wrong

A In U.S. high schools, history is a core subject, but to my mind, the way it is taught requires
a rethink. In the experience of a majority of students, the subject is reduced to a series of
names, dates, and events, none of which seem to connect to another, and few of which have
any meaning or relevance to their lives. For instance, we teach students that there was a civil
war between the North and South, but fail to engage with how society and culture in the North
and South were shaped by the fallout from that war and are still influenced by it. If history
were taught more creatively, with an emphasis on getting students to do research and to relate
historical events to their own lives and society, it could be the most fascinating subject on the
curriculum. As it is currently taught, it is uninspiring. Drastic action needs to be taken to come
up with a solution to this problem.
B Having worked with students from a wide range of backgrounds in a career which has lasted
over 20 years, I believe I am well placed to comment. I currently tutor young adults from
disadvantaged backgrounds. They are in their late teens and early twenties, and have chosen
to enroll on evening courses. Having done badly at school when they were younger, they have
returned to education to pass an exam in history in order to obtain their high school diploma.
All of them, therefore, are highly motivated, even desperate, to pass. At the start of the
course, they should have been enthusiastic about the subject. Instead, they saw it as a boring
chore – years at school had taught them that history was about acquiring boring facts. One
student showed me a page of dates matched to events, but sadly, he had never realized that
there is so much more to history than that! It took me a while to persuade them that it doesn’t
need to be boring at all.
C History is the study of human struggles, of victories and setbacks, of decisions and their
consequences. In my classes, I have tried to reflect this, and in the process, have moved away
from a curriculum that is little more than a series of dry facts. Instead of teaching students about
“facts,” which implies that they were inevitable and unchangeable, I ask them to interpret and
justify the individual actions of people in the past. So, we look at the decisions people made that
led to the Civil War, and I encourage my students to think what else people could have done.
This approach encourages students to think, to get involved, and sometimes, to take sides.
D Another aspect of history often forgotten when it is taught conventionally in schools is that we
are part of it. Not only do we have museums full of artifacts and exhibits, but we have our own
personal possessions and photographs. By asking students to share their own family histories
and relating the experiences of their grandparents and great-grandparents to historical events,
such as the economic crisis of the 1930s or the events of the Second World War, we can
make history accessible on a personal level. One of my students was moved to tears when we
explored how the Wall Street crash of 1929 must have had an impact on her ancestors.
In short, history is never boring. More importantly, it can be made relevant to the life of every
student, whatever their background. Rather than teaching it as a series of meaningless and
disconnected events, it should be presented in a way that affords students the opportunity to
question, to inspect, to interpret. More than anything else, students should be encouraged to see
how we, ordinary people, have traveled from back then to right now.
4 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE

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Reading practice – Level 3

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We’re Teaching History Wrong

4 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE

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