Learning about the Civil War? Go to a battle re-enactment.
Lewis and Clark? Stand on the places they stood on their trip West.
Visiting Nana in New Mexico for a month? Be sure to go fossil hunting, try on different outfits at the Indian Cultural Center, and visit as many pueblos as you can.
Can't make a trip? Read excellent books that relate history as a story, not just a series of facts.
We've reached the end of our history curriculum and I'm getting worried about what we'll do next. Now that the kids will be doing high school level work, does it have to be boring? One of them recently wrote a paper about Alexander Hamilton and, I'll tell you, there's not much information about him that's written in an interesting way. By the time I was done helping her with her paper, I remembered very clearly the glazed-eyes boredom that always used to come over me in history class.
In fact, that's ALL I remember from my history classes - how boring they were.
So, the challenge is, how do we take history to the next level without losing its story, the part that makes it live?
Suggestions?
3 comments:
Competition. What about developing a game based on the historical facts? Maybe, something along the lines of Scene It where different media is used in the questions. Have the kids do the work of deciding what facts, pictures, events, people etc to use. It could be done on the computer in something like PowerPoint (which will also build other skills for them) or perhaps build a set of trivia cards or maybe build your own deck of Time’s Up cards. Both building the game and playing it (especially with other teens) will be educational.
Hi Patty -
I googled "making learning history fun" and ran across this site. It's for learning art history, but it's full of ideas from grade school to high school teachers.
Ideas include a game (like Brenda suggested) and a birthday party for the artists that you are studying. The students bring 6 items that are gifts to the artists that they are studying. For example, a set of building blocks for Frank Lloyd Wright.
http://tinyurl.com/oqkuqq
At the school my niece goes to, each year is dedicated to one theme/era and every subject is tied in to that era.
Another idea is to ask the students themselves/your gilrs for ideas on how to make it fun to learn history.
Have fun! I wish my history teachers had your creativity!
anita
We begin this fall, travel will be on my list...
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