Fostering Habits of Mind: A Framework for Reading Historical Nonfiction Illustrated by the Case of Hitler Youth

Abstract

A disciplinary literacy approach encourages students to engage with nonfiction in a way that allows them to consider discipline-specific tasks associated with understanding the past and exploring the world around them. In this article, we offer a three-part framework ELA and social studies teachers can use when fostering students' responses to historical nonfiction and encouraging investigations of the past. This article introduces each part of the framework, using Hitler Youth (2005) by Susan Bartoletti. We discuss Hitler Youth in two ways. We first illustrate how Bartoletti used the three habits of mind in her writing and then list ways in which middle school ELA and social studies teachers model these habits of mind for students.