July August Assignment

For the July-August Assignment I needed to read The American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood, The New American Revolution Handbook, and The American Revolution Picturebook.  As I stated in my previous posts, history was very difficult for me growing up.  It was difficult because I memorized and you can't memorize history because there is so much history out there and even more various interpretations made by historians.  I really liked the Hakim book that we needed to read earlier this spring/summer.  The picturebook was very similar.  It had wonderful illustrations and tid bits that kept me wanting to read more!  I think kids will really enjoy it and understand it better than the other two books we had to read for this assignment.  It was especially neat to see the pull-out letters.  Those, in way, drew you back into the time period.  I always had a rough time comparing and understanding the differences between the colonial and British soliers.  This book shed some light onto that because they had a whole section devoted to comparing the two.  It even had diagrams and captions of the soldiers.  I never realized that the colonial infantry soldier had it so rough compared to the British.  I really learned a lot from this section. I love this book and I will definitely use it in my classroom!

As far as the other two books we needed to read for this assignment, well they didn't match up to the picturebook in my mind.  I like it simple.  I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy these books, but they had a different purpose.  The handbook was great for looking up certain battles and other facts.  I think this might be good for kids if they a particular question reguarding a moment in time during the revolution; of course I would have to break it down more for them.  Though the Wood book is more detailed, it really draws you into the perspective of the historian.