Literature to Support the Australian Curriculum: History by Fran Knight
Pledger Consulting, 2012. ISBN 978-1-876678-26-5.
Highly recommended. The Australian Curriculum has teachers and
teacher librarians all over the country busy implementing the new
syllabus in their own schools. The history curriculum has been a
focus for purchasing new nonfiction and fiction resources during
2012 and many teacher librarians have trialled the units.
Book sellers are cleverly packaging their resources into boxes
according to the year level of the history curriculum, to help with
purchasing and while this is helpful it still involves a lengthy
process of previewing and selecting for teacher librarians. Some of
the resources are great, with inspiring ideas and starting points
for designing units that sit well with your school and students, but
some are just collections of tedious worksheets that will kill an
interest in any topic.
What was missing was a detailed bibliography of literature to
support the teaching of history in schools until this publication
came along. For me it was a 'just in time' discovery as I had
started to collate my own literature list. Stories make a time in
history come alive for students, a 'walk in their shoes' type of
experience and this bibliography cites some excellent resources.
The book is divided into year levels from foundation year to year 10
and lists books in author order providing an annotation and extra
information when applicable, such as teaching notes available on the
internet. There is an excellent range of books to please most
reading abilities and interests.
A large amount of the books would be in print with others available
in most libraries. The list is up to date and includes such titles
such as the Our Australian Girl titles, a popular series
currently being read aloud by two of the teachers in my school and
inspiring great student interest in the year 4 and 5 units. It is
these types of experiences that will help develop a love of history
and Fran's book is a must have purchase for every school library.
Jane Moore
Editor's note: The book can be purchased here.