Hornbooks can be utilized with students as a class or small groups in various ways. The more modalities students use in gaining information, the higher the retention rate of knowledge. Using hornbooks, students hold the colorful, laminated guides, see the facts, listen as others read aloud, and write using dry erase markers to highlight specific facts.
Start with a Social Studies lesson. The first schoolbook in early America was the hornbook. Go to www.americanhornbooks.com and print the History of the Hornbook. Share the history of early American education with your students.
As a class or small group, the suggested initial activity with hornbooks is guided reading. Allow students to read and follow along together as they observe the amount of concentrated content and its organization. Given the large amount of content, cover one section or column, based upon available time. Pause to allow students to elaborate facts, recall prior knowledge, and cite examples. Read sections with the class for specific purposes or review in its entirety several times throughout the school year as a refresher as the need or test arises. For example, before students write a composition, read with them the Process Writing and Elements of Literature sections of the Language Arts Hornbook. The more students familiarize themselves with the content and organization, the more often they will use it and remember essential facts.
Use hornbooks to prepare for national and state tests. The hornbooks are based on national and state standards so students are given the facts they need to know. It’s hard to review numerous concepts in a short period of time and keep it fresh for students before an important test. It’s easy to use hornbooks to prepare. Read the relevant hornbook aloud with students. Begin with the initial quote, a springboard for discussion. Discuss the timeline of events. Each of the columns contains a wealth of facts so it may take more than one class to carefully read through all the content. Use as review in the form of a Science Bee, Hangman, Baseball (Correct answers result in bases scored ‘round the room.) or Your Choice! Allow students to use the hornbook to answer factual questions in the first few rounds of a game. Then put them away and check their recall.
Teachers may choose to use index cards to create flash cards in advance of games or for self-assessment. When students seem confident with content, conduct the games without the hornbooks. Knowing the right answer and earning their team a point stimulates learning while having fun. Durable and student friendly, they can be tucked into folders for drill at home or in the back of a car seat for drill on the road.
Use to refresh content. Students are bombarded daily with information. Hornbooks cut through the superfluous details and state the “need to know” facts. The hornbooks were created for the teacher who taught the parts of speech and vertebrates, but somehow a show of hands finds only a few with appropriate recall. Hornbooks revisit those lessons by providing the critical facts they need to remember. Allow students to use a Math Hornbook as a tool during tests. Students needing to verify an algorithm or double check facts have it accessible, making them successful.
The hornbook is a springboard to in-depth learning. Hornbooks provide concentrated subject content not found within standard texts. Use the academic hornbooks to give a heavy dose of Geography, Language Arts, or Science. Use the multicultural hornbooks to awaken students’ consciousness of various ethnicities and the important roles they played in our country’s history.
For example, read the Women in America Hornbook in conjunction with Social Studies lessons on
the Harriet Tubman or suffragettes. Delve into hornbooks further by using them to generate
student projects. Have students choose a Hispanic American from the hornbook and research
his/her background. Students deliver a short monologue as that person and may bring an object that provides a clue to the character. Have the class guess the identity.
Use the history section from your state hornbook as a guide to create a state timeline. Starting with the period of Native Americans before the Europeans arrived, divide students into fifty year increments. Students research their assigned time period and can create a poster to display historic milestones or enact state history with costumes or props.
The academic hornbooks fill knowledge gaps. The hornbooks were created for all students. This includes those absent from school, those who have learning disabilities, and for those learning English. Educators have a difficult task of teaching all students with their varying abilities. As a student resource, hornbooks help by focusing on the key facts students might have missed and need to know to get to the next level.
Bring new or substitute teachers up to speed in all content areas. The hornbooks provide overall content for academic and multicultural areas at the elementary and middle school levels. Substitute teachers in Social Studies or Science can easily spend an entire period reading through the hornbooks with students. Hornbooks can be used in conjunction with other resources. For example, the Native American Hornbook, Level 1, directs students to read Brother Eagle, Sister Sky. This stirring, nonfiction work gives Chief Seattle’s response when asked to sell his land to white settlers. The classroom teacher can come back to a class that has reexamined and refreshed subject content. Because the hornbooks are laminated just like colonial hornbooks, they can be used again and again.
Safe websites continue the learning process. Hornbooks direct students to carefully selected websites. For example, the Science Hornbook, Level 1, empowers students to be proactive in protecting themselves. By accessing www.kidshealth.org\kid, students learn to handle everyday illnesses and create healthy meals. The United Nations website cited on the American History Hornbook, Level 2, www.un.org, provides its history, a list of the member states, and breaking news.
Did you say homework? Today’s students are busy and many are frequent travelers. Whether it’s a family vacation or an out-of-town event, it’s easier to take hornbooks on the road than textbooks. Have students read through content several times over several days. An adult or sibling may quiz the student to insure an adequate amount of retention. No batteries needed!
Hornbooks are perfect for school libraries. Both levels of hornbooks are a ready resource for students and their varying abilities. A group set of 12 or class set of 25 allows the media director to investigate specific subject or multicultural content with students to elicit interest and learning.
The hornbooks were designed to fit perfectly in a student folder. A plastic binder ring keeps several hornbooks together and makes it easy to flip to the desired fact guide.
End with a Social Studies lesson. The unique shape of American Hornbooks was modeled after a historical hornbook. Allow students to trace its shape onto cardboard, cut it out, and create their own hornbook. Students can focus on their community, a particular area of class study, or their choice. Students will learn, organize information, and expand their writing skills as they research animals in habitats or the history of their city. And they will be proud of their hornbook!
Teaching Suggestions
American Hornbook Company
The "Need to Know" Facts
Aligned to National and State Standards
