Students learn best when they are enjoying assignments. Not every student may demonstrate the same level of creativity, but cooperative, group projects that put together students of differing abilities and motivations can help to facilitate a lasting way to learn American colonial history as well as fulfilling curricular objectives and desired outcomes. The following projects, though geared to colonial American history, work equally as well with other eras or key events in history.
Creating a Board Game
Student-made board games are a great way to teach history. As a base, teachers can start with the ever-popular and easily adaptable Monopoly or the more creative Game of Life. The Game of Life originally challenged children of the 1950’s and 1960’s to learn the benefits of a capitalistic society that rewards risk taking and wise investing. Applying similar goals to a Game of Life with a beginning point of 1773 and ending with 1800 enables students to determine which events allowed early Americans to move ahead.
Students should be encouraged to develop their own board spaces based on group collaboration. Examples might include:
- Pay Stamp Act tax; move back three spaces
- Sign the Declaration of Independence; move ahead three spaces
- Redeem war bonds purchased at “start” and double your income
- Spend winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; lose all cash
A colonial Monopoly board could be divided into the different geographic sections of colonial America. The typical “chance” cards could be used as vocabulary terms that must be correctly defined. Teachers can establish guidelines for board games that include covering geography, the colonial economy, and the Revolutionary War. Students should also be told to avoid any inclusions that might be deemed offensive or inappropriate.
Writing a Play
This assignment enables student groups to improve computer research skills while key-boarding a one act play based on a list of characters supplied by the teacher. Possible focus areas can also be suggested as well as making connections to contemporary history. Examples could include:
- Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Patrick Henry discussing the Occupied Wall Street movement
- Paul Revere and Samuel Adams compare the 1773 Boston Tea Party to the contemporary Tea Party movement
- Abigail Adams, John Adams, and Michelle Obama talk about First Ladies
- First Thanksgiving dinner gossip
- A colonial family is transported to the Superbowl
- Judge Judy presides at the Salem Witch Trials
Each of these examples links past personalities and events with contemporary issues. One immediate outcome is adding a high degree of relevance to historical studies. Additionally, students working in groups benefit from collaborative research and creativity. Students can then present their completed work to the class through presentations.
Creativity and the Study of History
Board games and creative writing are two of many ways students can be challenged to see history more than just outlining text chapters and memorizing facts. Creative history assignments can utilize art, music, student-generated newspapers for different historical eras, and homemade videos. Another creative way to learn history is through classroom simulations.
Individual assignments might include developing a fictional person in the colonial, Victorian, or Depression era and keeping a journal of experiences for the duration of the unit under study. Teaching history with an eye toward student creativity will result in projects long remembered and the permanence of historical concepts based on chronology and facts used to put the projects together.
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