by Monica Tunnell

Created on: November 24, 2008

Imagine waking up one day only to realize that you were without all the modern conveniences that are in your life. There is no electricity, no car to go to the store, and for that matter, no store to go to. You have no source of food other than getting it in nature. There are no formal structures for you to buy and move into, you must build your home yourself, with your own hands and without any modern tools. Imagine how your life would be different. This is the mental state that children should be in when we teach them history. To help them understand what was, we must first make them understand where we are. History simply helps us to understand how societies got from then to now. Many schools teach history from a formal text complete with formal tests. This does nothing but bore the students, causing their minds to wander elsewhere throughout the lesson. As teachers, we want our students to learn what we teach. We want to know that we made an impression in their lives. We want the learning to stick. History can be quite sticky if approached correctly. To teach history effectively, we must allow our students to live it. We must show them what it was like to live in the period we are teaching.

Take those text books and make them come alive. Use them for your reference as an outline for what you will be teaching, but do not use them as a primary teaching tool. Gather your notes, study your time period, and act the part. The first day you introduce a time period, dress in full costume for class. If you are teaching the Revolutionary War, come to class dressed as a soldier in full uniform. If you are teaching Egyptian history, come to class dressed as a pharoah or scribe. I assure you, you will have their full attention. Assume the role of your character completely. Have your students ask you questions and answer those questions in character. Get them into the role you are playing. Create what actors refer to as "suspension of disbelief".

If you can, take it a step further than this. Create a life-sized diaroma of the scene in history you want to portray. If you are studying ancient history, create a diaroma of Ancient Egypt or Ancient China. Recreate the cultural and social systems within the society you are attempting to portray. Have your students play the characters within this system. Do this for the duration of your unit. Whatever you are trying to teach will stick. Whether or not your students wanted to learn about this period will become irrelevant. You

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