Writing About History for Kids
How to Engage Young Readers with Written Pieces about the Past
Although young people often enjoy made-up anecdotes, some of the best stories a child will ever hear come straight out of history; the timeline of human existence is filled with enthralling tales of people and events.
Unfortunately, when these stories are rendered into written works, such as history articles or textbook lessons, they sometimes receive a bad rap. Many children think of them as boring or overly complicated. How can you, as a writer, create materials for kids about bygone times that are compelling and easy to understand, as well as accurate and didactic? Read on for some tips.
Readability
Before beginning your piece, make sure you know the grade level of your audience. Then become familiar with vocabulary generally taught at that year. Check out, www.tampareads.com, which features lists of appropriate words for each school grade.
A search of various state department of education Web sites may also yield helpful information about vocabulary for young readers. If you are using Microsoft Word, keep track of the readability of your piece by activating the application's readability statistics calculator. You can find the "on switch" for this function in the Options section of the Spelling and Grammar Check.
What's Your Hook?
A hook is an attention-grabbing sentence that appears somewhere in the first paragraph of a written work. Today, all kinds of writing—even serious news articles—begin with a snappy, interesting construction to draw in readers.
When writing about history for kids, make your hook the very first sentence of your piece. The sentence should be clear, concise, and very engaging. You may want to start off with a quote, a play-on-words, or a vivid description of an action. Evoking the senses by describing sights, smells, and noises is another good way to begin your piece. Try in some way to weave the idea in your hook throughout your writing.
Let It Flow, Let It Flow, Let It Flow
As you write, check your work to make sure that it has not turned into merely a list of dates and events. The descriptions of happenings in the text should be fleshed out and logically connected. In the end, you want to have an interesting and smooth-flowing narrative, rather than a long and wordy timeline.
Make It Matter
Some children dislike learning about history because they have difficulty relating to ways of life long ago. The barrier of time makes them feel disconnected from people and events of the past. In your writing, try to show readers how different happenings in history connect to their lives today. If possible, include information about children from the era about which you are writing. This is a good way to engage your audience, as kids often enjoy hearing about the lives of young people from different times and places.
Image Is Everything
With the advent of YouTube and cell phone cameras, children have become very adept at interpreting visual information. Including relevant images in your own work will immediately draw in your readers and enhance the overall power of your piece. Before choosing any visual, research its copyright information; you may need to get permission and pay a fee to use it. For each image, write a clear and concise caption.
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