Welcome to the blog of author Shelley Stout,
created for teachers and students of U.S. History!
Radium Halos is historical fiction, based on the true story of the Radium Dial painters. Who were they? What happened to them? Why is their story important?
Very few people are aware of this tragic, true story from American industrial history, in which teenage and young women factory workers in the 1920s were exposed to radiation, while painting watch and clock dials with radium paint. Although they reported their resulting illnesses to their superiors, they were denied timely medical coverage or compensation.
If you are a student, how do you make sense of what has happened in history? How can you relate to young people or adults from other centuries and the decisions they made? How did they overcome adversity and learn from their mistakes? What can we learn?
If you are a history teacher, it’s important for your students to see connections and draw parallels between history and current events. You want to expose your students to as much of our historic past as possible, so they can understand how something that happened decades or centuries ago is still relevant in our present-day lives.
Radium Halos works well with your existing history curriculum, either for middle schoolers or high school students. A curriculum guide, (included with your classroom book order), features unit objectives, pre- and post-reading activities, writing assignments, cross curriculum activities, and student assessments with answer keys. Also included are activities for eBook readers, AP, and special needs students.
I welcome your comments, suggestions, and testimonials.