by Mary Mcfarland

Created on: April 11, 2009

A fun, effective practice for teaching the Bay of Pigs invasion to ninth graders includes a two step procedure. The first step in the procedure is setting up the pedagogical framework within which students are expected to learn. This means introducing key concepts of historical relevance about the invasion. The second step in the proceudre is inviting students to explore the conflict through creating and enacting scripts. In step one, the teacher needs to avoid shaping students' perspectives on the Bay of Pigs invasion; therefore, this step must be set up, not by lecturing about key concepts of historical relevance, but by guiding students to explore these concepts on their own. The "guide on the side" approach works better with independent-minded ninth graders than does the "sage on the stage" teaching approach. Thus, students could be given a brief list of concepts that range from the abstract to the concrete. This list could include, as an example, such concepts as nuclear conflict, communist expansion and capitalist aggresion, and presidential power and its limits in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Given this list, students should next be encouraged to expore the Web to gain a sense of the historical and cultural context for these concepts, as well as the unfolding of the actual conflict from various perspectives. Ensure that they track their "evidence" by bookmarking their sites, or using cloud tags, so they can share it with their peers (they, too, must be encouraged to avoid the "sage on the stage" approach as they share evidence). The second step includes asking students to create and enact a script, a highly motivating activitiy that ninth graders enjoy and, therefore, become engaged in carrying out. In creating their scripts, they should be guided to re-create the Bay of Pigs invasion from multiple points of view, and to demonstrate in their scripts-through character development and other techniques-the key concepts they have been asked to explore. For example, one group's script could include a scenario in which the commander and sailors of a U.S. Navy carrier are arguing over their decision to defy President Kennedy's order to move in close to the conflict. The script could showcase the reasoning of the crew, who feared a nuclear war and, therefore, would not move in close. Students could enact their own, or each other's scripts, and then the class could discuss how the historical and cultural influences affected the limits of presidential power. It's also motivating to students when the teacher participates, so joining the group and collaborating as they explore key concepts and create scripts is not only effective pedagogically, but it's also simply fun and motivating for the teacher.

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