Interdisciplinary Teaching With Historical Journals

The art of teaching is constantly reinventing itself as we practice, study, collaborate, and learn from each other and our students. As two middle school teachers who collaborate often in our English and social studies classes, we are always seeking ways to enhance and deepen learning. Historical journaling was an idea we developed to help students learn more about history, strengthen their writing and researching skills, and, hopefully, sustain their learning.

Historical journaling is just the most recent addition to our yearlong collaboration project with our seventh-grade students. To start this work, we have students choose from a list of historical figures connected with United States history from around 1400 to 1865 (the span of the seventh-grade social studies curriculum in our district). Our list has over 70 people on it, and we encourage students to explore anyone of interest to them before they decide on the person whom they will be studying all year.

Throughout the school year, they have multiple research and writing assignments focused on these individuals. The first assignment in class is a paragraph-writing exercise to develop students’ analytical writing skills. Then they move through informative, argumentative, and narrative pieces. We thought historical journaling would be a perfect activity to add a component of research and writing.

Identify Compatible Topics and Necessary Materials

Early on, we developed a list of topics that connected to the seasons, holidays, era, or what they were learning in either social studies or English. For example, our list included things like local geography, winter traditions, new technology, harvest time, and controversy. This has been a fun, collaborative, ongoing conversation as we keep adding to the list—making sure we have ways to approach each topic that can connect to multiple decades and cultures.

Next, we made a plan to obtain special materials for this project. We wanted it to be in a dedicated notebook that students would use exclusively for this journal. Luckily, we were awarded a small grant from the Kalispell Education Foundation to buy special notebooks, but a common composition notebook could fit the same purpose, especially if students decorate them. This effort was noticed by our students, as one said, “I also love that I have the opportunity to write with a fancy pen, in fancy pages, in a fancy notebook.” We keep these notebooks in one of our rooms, organized by their English class period, and they only come out on journaling days.

How Journaling Days Proceed

On journaling days, we follow the same procedures in our respective classes. First, we present and discuss the day’s topic using Google Slides. We happen to have a double room, and sometimes we work on lessons and projects with both classes at the same time. To ensure that the discussions are lively, the topics we assign connect either to content that students have just experienced or to something that is currently relevant to them. Students share examples of what they have learned in social studies and realize how it applies to their work, directly or indirectly. Then we provide a model journal (we use ChatGPT to generate these drafts).

For example, when the topic was to write about what people ate during the time period, we gave the following prompt to ChatGPT: “Would you please write a journal entry from Thomas Paine’s perspective about eating a typical dinner? Please write this at a seventh-grade level.”

More generally, we ask ChatGPT to respond to the same prompt that we give the students. We edit the output for length and clarity, and share the models with our students. The models should be well-written but attainable. We also provide samples of effective internet searches for each topic. Finally, we remind the students of our guidelines:

• Write in the point of view and voice of your historical figure.
• Follow the topic you are given for each journal entry.
• Do a little research to generate ideas (find three facts to include in your one-page journal entry).
• Use your best handwriting. Take your time, and form your words and sentences carefully!
• Be creative but also include evidence about what you know or discover about your person, the person’s geographic location, the time period, and the culture.

By this time, students are excited to get started. We distribute their journaling materials to them as they conduct their research. As we walk around the classroom, we hear students sharing little bits and pieces they are learning about colonial food or the kinds of clothes people wore or the types of work they had to do. Students start to make connections and see contrasts among their historical figures and their place in the history of the period. Our students often ask if they can read to us what they have written. They also ask how to make a “Q” in cursive. Early on, a couple of students asked if they could add sketches, and since then, we have encouraged that addition.

As students finish, we offer opportunities for them to share with one another. This takes different forms, depending on the time we have. Usually, students share with partners or in small groups. Sometimes, students ask to share their entry with the whole class.

Journaling Helps Students Tap Into Creativity

This has proven to be a joyful collaborative project. One of our students wrote, “These journals allow our imagination to thrive; we get to experiment with historical narrative writing. We get to add facts and make up the in-betweens. I’ve learned a lot about my historical person this way, and it has improved my writing.” The students have remained engaged, even though we are now on the 12th entry. The historical journaling project allows students to practice and develop many skills in research, writing, handwriting, and speaking and listening.

As one student commented, “This project created a fun opportunity to go deeper into the more imaginative and creative side of history.” An additional benefit of this project is the improvement of students’ note-taking skills as it pertains to their social studies practices. Reading, discussions, videos, and lectures all require a level of quality note-taking that this project has enhanced.

Importantly, this sort of journaling wouldn’t have to be a yearlong process. It could be a simple addition to a unit in any subject or a way to have students think, research, and write about a person or character in a different way. It also invites collaboration with other teachers. Quite simply, this sort of work can keep all of us learning.