2006-07-19 17:33:01 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Teaching
I'm a HS history teacher, some of the things I've done...
watch Forest Gump and pause it about every 10 min. to do a related historical reading
pass out the lyrics to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire", play it and have the students sing...give an assignment of researching and reporting on 10 things from the song.
There's a song from the movie "Born Yesterday" about the Constitutional Amendments. I make them sing that too.
For the Wild West chapter, i have students create their own board games on pieces of cardboard. They have to draw cards and correctly answer the questions to move forward...this is a test review activity.
2006-07-19 17:44:16 · answer #1 · answered by goatluvver 2 · 4⤊ 1⤋
my hs history class was fun because the teacher played "jeopardy" with us the end of every unit.
He'd divide the class into two teams. The two lead students were drawn out of a hat. The lead students got to pick their team mates.
We sat on opposite sides of the classroom and he'd ask us questions about the chapters, his lessons, reading assignments, etc. We went in order. If the student who's turn it was to go got it wrong, it was asked of the student on the other side of the room. If that student got it wrong, he threw it out for anyone on either team for half a point.
The last person picked for each team was given three points for any of their correct answers.
At the end of the class (sometimes it took two classes to get thru), the team with the most points all got As on their test and the team that didn't win had to take the test.
That was over twenty years ago and from that one class I began to really get into history.
Because we wanted to get out of the test you know all of the students in there took good notes and did the assigned readings so the games at the end of the unit were really good.
Of course you can call it something else like
"Who wants to win a Million points" or something more modern.
2006-07-19 17:43:09 · answer #2 · answered by neona807 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First ask the student(s) about their interests. Second ask them how they think they learn best (visual, auditory, kinestetic). Now research their interests tie into/compare it to the events/periods you want to teach. Present it to them the way it works for them.
Get them involved, give them choices. Make them dance or jump around at the beginning of class for a minute or two and about once every half hour after.Surprise them, mix it up. Leave them wanting more. Let them know you care in ways that make sense to them. Be real with them.
2006-07-19 17:44:36 · answer #3 · answered by JFC I No 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Play dress-up, both you and your students, dressing up and acting out aspects of whatever you are studying. Even if the outfits are simple representations, "being" a part of history makes more of an impact than being an impartial observer.
2006-07-19 19:12:31 · answer #4 · answered by Christie K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do as much drawing as you can to engage the students with the material. They hate to read. They hate to write. But they'll draw, and you can use that to explore historical themes.
2006-07-19 18:45:08 · answer #5 · answered by sfox1_72 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Establish continuity from one event to another and relate each thing to something before and something after.
The worse thing you can do is introduce one thing, dwell on it, move on to something different and abandon everything that has already been learned.
2006-07-19 17:37:38 · answer #6 · answered by Walter 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋