Expert: Irulan Serena - 1/5/2006

Question
Hello Irulan, I am teaching my children about history with Susan Wise Bauer's cd The Story of the World.  We're learning about Sinbad and then a large snake with a magical sword in it; and monsters that walked across the world quickly to get pails of water.

How does this fit in with history?  Was Sindbad real?  I know there's no magical sword in a snake - how do I teach my children what's fantasy and what's not if I don't even know.  And why would fantasy be in a cd about the history of the world?
Thanks.
Elizabeth

Answer
Hello Elizabeth,

Why would fantasy be in a cd about the history of the world?  Simply for the entertainment advantage – the entertainment grabs the students attention and interest = then the lesson is taught and learned faster.  

Was Sindbad real?  No, Sinbad was not a real person.  The voyages of  Sinbad the Sailor, is one of the stories from a collection of Arabic travel-romances, myths, partly based upon real experiences of  Oriental navigators; partly upon ancient Homeric and other mythological poetry, and  partly upon Indian and Persian mythological collections.  Am sure that you have heard of :

Stories from the Thousand and One Nights

…which   is part of the most famous collections of ancient tales, Alf Layla wa Layla, the Arabic name of One Thousand and One Nights, commonly known in English as The Arabian Nights.

The original Arabic compiler is reputedly the 9th century storyteller Abu abd-Allah Muhammed el-Gahshigar.  These stories came to Europe during the Middle Ages, but were not written down in a European language until the beginning of the 18th century, when Antoine Galland a French orientalist, translated them into his own language. Translations into English were made later by Edward Lane and Sir Richard Burton in the 19th century.

The stories were desperate entertainments of a wife delaying execution by her husband, this translation of 42 stories from a much larger collection has become the most well-known of folk tales for younger readers: Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp, the Voyages of Sinbad, and Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves are part of this collection.

Basically the 1000 and one nights  is as follows:

………it is  the story of a king, his vizier, and the vizier's daughters Shahrazad and Dinazad. These same characters appear in the story that frames One Thousand and One Nights, though here the main plot is built around two brothers, the Sassanian kings Shahzaman and Shahriyar, one of whom rules in Samarkand and the other in India and China. Both find out that their wives have been unfaithful, and all the women and slaves involved in their affairs are beheaded.
Shahriyar, then gives his vizier (meaning minister in Persian) an order to find him a new wife every night (in some versions, every third night). After spending one night with his bride, the king has her executed at dawn. This practice continues for some time, until the vizier's clever daughter Shahrazad (better-known in English as "Scheherazade") forms a plan to become Shahriyar's next wife. She persuades her father to let her go to the king, taking her younger sister Dinazad with her. After their marriage, she instructs Dinazad to ask her for a story every night. She spends hours telling her sister and the king stories, and each time she stops by dawn, at a crucial point, thereby arousing the king's interest in hearing the rest of the story the following night. She is then able to make them last for one thousand and one nights.
During this period Shahrazad gives birth to three male children by the king, and when her storytelling finally ends he offers to grant her a wish. She asks the king to spare her life for the sake of their young children, which he willingly agrees to do, and they live happily ever after.

They have absolutely nothing to do with history, however as part of mythology they are important because they present exercises in imagination for children which teaches them differences between fact and fiction.

How do I teach my children what's fantasy and what's not if I don't even know.  

As part of the study of literature myths are  important precisely because the  stories are so  supernaturally fantastic that it is impossible to believe that they are based in facts.  Your background in mythology seems to be weak. I am assuming that this is the reason for this question.  In the teaching of English / literature it is not enough to teach about the strict grammatical structure of language nor the just the classics, it is important to give a student the basics of mythology because these stories  form the basis of our Western civilization thus if the background is weak, it will eventually affect the student [in this case you as a teacher] because you will not understand the origin of these stories.

Discovering Where History Stops and the Story Starts

It's easy to discern fact from fantasy in a Disney movie — just wait until the animals break into song. Less than obvious is what's historically accurate and what isn't. Our students are faced with the same dilemma when we teach with historical fiction. How can we help them differentiate between make-believe and history, and recognize the interpretive nature of historical reporting? Here's what I do.

o   Raise students' awareness......alert kids that historical fiction and written accounts of history are different types of literature    

o   Bring in resource people. Invite experts into your classroom so kids have an opportunity to discuss their observations and explore questions. Remember, an expert can be a grandmother who was interned, an uncle who has traveled extensively, or a local lawyer who can tell your kids how trials really work.

o   Integrate skills across the disciplines.... fold reading practice — such as distinguishing between fact and opinion, and fiction and nonfiction — into social studies.

o   Investigate sources......author's notes are particularly valuable. When kids read independently,  frequently conference about the sources used. It's also critical to read more than one kind of resource so students have the opportunity to discover multiple perspectives.

o   Facilitate access to resources. To aid in student inquiry, enlist the help of our public librarians who make an "all call" on books throughout the county.

o   Observe illustrations. When possible, find photographs to compare with illustrations. Look for incongruities as well as confirmations, what's been included and/or left out, and so on.

o   Consult primary documents ..... photocopy primary documents and analyze them for reliability;  develop questions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of various sources, and identify possible biases and inaccuracies.  

o   Encourage questions. Develop a classroom environment where no one knows all the answers and let's find out are the three words you say most frequently. Get kids comfortable with ambiguity so they know it's okay to have questions.   

o   Use graphic organizers. Help students analyze assumptions, scrutinize facts, and discern patterns through graphic organizers. Lists, diagrams, wheels, and charts help students assimilate information from diverse resources and encourage critical thinking.



Hope this has helped,

Regards,

Irulan