Education Weekly #17

In the article Primary Sources Enliven Civil War a group of middle school students reenact important civil war battles to gain a better understanding of what the men and boys went through during this time period. At Stonewall Middle School they strive to bring history to life. They have accomplished this by having their students research battles, use personal journal accounts, and then act it out in a real life setting. The students build sets, costumes, and even eat the food from the time period. These students are receiving a deeper understanding of what the civil war was about and why it was important in shaping our world today.

In my literature and theory class that I am taking right now we are working on a class lesson very similar to what the students are doing at Stonewall Middle School. We are exploring a multi-genre project where we take three or more different genres that have one relative concept and make them into a lesson plan. The topic I chose was the civil rights movement. Very similar to the article my students will take into account what it took for a black American to vote, songs from that time period, and expressing themselves and their feelings in a letter to their state congressman. I believe by making students research a topic through multiple points of view they will gain a better understanding of why this moment was important in American history. With this deeper understanding the topic can be related to the students and breed interest out side of the classroom.