Meet our Contributor
 | Margaret A. Robbins has a PhD in Language and Literacy Education from The University of Georgia. She is a Teacher-Scholar at The Mount Vernon School in Atlanta, Georgia. She has peer-reviewed journal articles published in The ALAN Review, SIGNAL Journal, Gifted Child Today, Social Studies Research and Practice, and The Qualitative Report. She recently co-edited a special issue of English Journal. Her research interests include comics, Young Adult literature, fandom, critical pedagogy, and writing instruction. |
Teaching Hamilton and Other Historical Fiction in the K12 Classroom by Margaret A. Robbins
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” ― George Santayana
If you are a fan of the theater, the first full weekend of June was an emotional one. CNN made history by streaming a Broadway performance live. Regardless of one’s politics, the Broadway play Good Night, Good Luck sparked important discussion about what we can do amid times of political polarization and what the ethics of journalism and reporting are. The next night, during the Tony Awards, the Hamilton cast reunited for an emotional mix-tape performance that wowed viewers. I had the gift of seeing Hamilton during the Summer of 2016 with most of the original cast, so it was amazing for me to see them all together again. I plan to spend this year’s July 4th season re-watching this favorite musical of mine.
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As a Humanities scholar born in the early 1980s, I believe this is the most polarized our country has been in my lifetime. It has been hard for me, at times, not to feel in total despair about the situation and wonder if there’s anything I can do to help. What I’ve decided is that I can control what and how I teach my students. I do not wish to indoctrinate my students and do not believe that it is my ethical responsibility. I do, however, think it’s my responsibility to teach all aspects of history in my Humanities (a blend of ELA and History) course, even the parts of American history that are not as pleasant. Historical fiction is an effective avenue in which to do that, particularly when I teach Colonial History and Early Immigration History. With that in mind, I offer a few suggestions below that I believe can work for 6-12th graders through undergraduate students, with, of course, some age-appropriate scaffolding.
My favorite historical fiction text that I have taught for several years is Hamilton. This piece can work well with Colonial History or Immigration, either one, depending on your chronological curriculum mapping and/or thematic connections. I usually teach the first two Cabinet Battles of the musical. My students and I use these Cabinet Battle songs to better understand the formation of the American government. Additionally, we discuss the rhetorical triangle persuasive techniques of ethos, pathos, and logos, and how they are present in the songs’ arguments. I have them write about real-life examples of how to use persuasive techniques, such as how to convince your parents to let you go on a school trip if they, hypothetically, were on the fence about it. For younger students, “clean” versions of the lyrics are available online. I will usually play the songs twice (or once at a slowed-down pace) and have students follow along with the lyrics as we listen. An “ethos/pathos/logos” graphic organizer is a helpful notetaking tool. For some students, comprehension questions about the songs may be helpful. Depending on how time goes, I sometimes have them write a poem or letter in which they take a persuasive stance on a chosen topic of their interest. I provide them with age-appropriate options, such as school uniforms and student meal menus.
Some years, I have also done “Cabinet Battle 3” from the Hamilton Mixtape with the students. This cabinet battle is one to approach with care, as Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and Washington discuss what to do about the issue of slavery post-Revolutionary War. The topic is difficult, but when handled right, the cabinet battle can be an important example of why politicians make misguided decisions and also of the complexity of our Founding Fathers, some of whom claimed to believe slavery was evil, but still owned slaves. It also shows Alexander Hamilton’s courage to be an upstander when some very powerful men did not agree with him. However, Hamilton’s real-life views on slavery were more complicated and nuanced than the song suggests. He was involved with organizations that worked to gradually end slavery, yet he also assisted people with transactions involved with slavery and benefited from the institution. I believe that the song is worth studying, while also acknowledging that Hamilton, not unlike other Founding Fathers, was a complicated person whose actions did not always line up with his words.
In addition to these aforementioned Hamilton-inspired works, I have shown the “Immigrants: We Get the Job Done” Hamilton Mix-Tape video to some groups of students. It does an excellent job of showing some of the modern-day struggles of immigrants. While it focuses on immigrants to the US, some of the issues are universal. It can be a useful exercise to show this video while studying early immigration and allowing the students to draw comparisons and contrasts to the immigration challenges of the early US immigration years, roughly 1890 to 1915.
Chains -- Laurie Halse Anderson
To continue the conversation about colonial America and how slavery affected it, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson is a novel that my students have enjoyed and also learned from. There are readers who have questioned Halse Anderson writing the novel as a white woman. However, as is typical of Halse Anderson, she did a lot of research and took a lot of care when writing the book. The authorship issue is one that, depending on the context of your class, should probably be addressed, though, to give a fair voice to multiple perspectives. Candidly, the fact that the novel was written by a white woman from the voice of a Black adolescent protagonist gave me pause at first. However, once I read the novel and saw how beautifully done it was, I felt that it would work in my school context, an independent K12 school. It is important, though, to prepare students for some of the language of the book (which includes Negro, but not the vile N word) and also for a harsh scene where Isabel gets branded. We involved our IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action) coordinators in conversations about teaching the novel responsibly, and they also did a talk with our students about the evolution of language use in the United States.
The novel tells the story of Isabel and Ruth, two sisters who serve a Tory household as slaves in New York during the American Revolutionary War. Mrs. Lockton, the mistress of the house, is very cruel and manipulative, and my students have been appalled by her unkindness to Isabel and Ruth. Mr. Lockton, her husband, is a more complex character, and his actions are often ones that show moral ambiguity, if not cruelty. The novel shows fascinating history about New York during the American Revolution, and also can help students to better understand how “fence sitters” and Loyalists experienced this time period, in addition to the Patriots. Additionally, the figurative language of the novel is beautiful and shows excellent examples of narrative writing. Most importantly, the book helps students to build empathy for people who had to endure American slavery and also women of different races and socioeconomic stations who had to endure mistreatment with very few resources of support. The book’s primary intended audience is middle school-aged students (roughly 9-13-year-olds), but it could also be appreciated by high school students.
Uprising -- Margaret Peterson Haddix
Another tangentially related historical fiction novel is Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Transparently, my G7 students have had different levels of engagement and reception with the novel during both academic years that I taught the book. Some have loved it, while some students told me they did not find it as engaging as Chains, in part because of its length. However, I believe it would be perfect for high school students, particularly younger high school students, and for some G8 classes.
Uprising tells the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a real-life historical event that took place on March 25, 1911. Many of the employees were very young immigrant women, and unfortunately, 146 employees passed away. The history of the fire is important because it led to reform in workers’ rights and safety measures. I highly recommend teaching historical essays about the topic, whether or not you can teach the book.
The novel Uprising has three narrative voices, all of whom are teenage girls: Bella, a “fresh off the boat” immigrant from Italy; Yetta, a Russian immigrant who has been in the country long enough to learn some English; and Jane, a well-off older teenage girl who has developed an interest in the Suffrage movement and who wants to go to college like some of her friends at Vassar, but her father will not allow it because he does not think education is useful to women. The three young women form an unlikely alliance due to various circumstances surrounding the Shirtwaist Factory Strikes, and all three become advocates for the labor reform movement and the Suffrage movement. Therefore, the novel relates well to the US history of the progressive era and early immigration history.
As an experienced Humanities educator, writer, and scholar, I have both the blessing and the curse of seeing what the worst-case scenario could be, both in classroom scenarios and in the progression of current events. While I cannot control the outcome of historical and current events, I can expose students to our country’s history. Learning history doesn’t always prevent people from repeating it, but it at least gives the next generation a fighting chance of not doing so. Plus, well-written literature can bring light to dark places.
“I wish none of this had happened…So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.” –JRR Tolkien
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