TITLE: LIVING HISTORY
AUTHOR: FRED W. MILLER, Denver Academy, Denver, Colorado
GRADE LEVEL: appropriate for all grade levels
(social studies)
OVERVIEW: So often students are turned off by history
classes because they view the past as irrelevant to their
lives. This is a dynamite unit designed to bring history
alive. This activity gets all students involved and the
finished product can be shared with the whole school.
OBJECTIVE(s): Students will be able to:
1. Identify major events of the 1960's and 1970's.
2. Gain an understanding of human artifacts, and how
those artifacts define a generation.
3. Contrast the artifacts of different generations.
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1. Students brainstorm the major events of the 60's and
70's.
2. Students write an essay dated Nov, 22, 1963. Encourage
them to describe their feelings of what life is like,
get them to become imaginative. Share these with the
class and contrast them with first-hand accounts.
3. Model interviewing skills and assign them the task of
interviewing someone from an older generation,
(parent). Brainstorm a list of interview questions.
Some obvious questions might be:
a. Where were you when you found out Kennedy was
shot?
b. What were your feelings when America landed a
man on the moon?
c. Were you ever afraid of nuclear war?
d. How did you spend your Friday and Saturday
nights?
e. What movies, music, and TV did you like?
You will be surprised by some of the answers.
4. Share the interviews. (You can require a typed
synopsis to create a "packet of interviews", and you
will find this to be a good resource for guest
speakers.)
5. Have students define "artifact" and begin putting
together a mini-museum. Students are to bring in
artifacts. (I usually start it off with a few old
albums, mad magazines, newspapers, peace symbols, etc.
You will be surprised at what the students will get,
lava lamps, black lights posters, and I even had one
bring in original photos taken over Cuba during the
missile crisis.)
6. Set up the "museum" in the hallway, and assign students
times to monitor it. They can give "tours" and answer
questions. (It's great to have some old rock and roll
playing softly, and you can pass out the interview
packets.)
7. Make the students responsible for the unit test. Have
everyone write three multiple choice questions and an
essay question. Pick the best questions for the unit
test. Make sure you have them compare an "old artifact"
with a modern one.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: You will be surprised by the
enthusiasm the students will have for this unit. Every year
I have dozens of parents tell me that this has opened up
communication between them and their child. The child is
using them as a resource for school. This is a fun way to
bring Living History into the classroom, and you will be
surprised by the questions the students will ask. You may
want to end this unit by having the students do a role play
in the future, and they come across our modern artifacts.
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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org