One of the great mysteries of teaching a class like history, is how to get your students involved and interested in the material. Although the trend is towards “group work” which, in all honesty, tends to lead to “group-think”, there are other ways to get your students out of their chairs, and yourself away from that golden podium. Here’s a few tips I like to use:
- GET ON YOUR FEET. Make them sing and dance. Whatever age you teach, students love to come out of their shell when there is music in the classroom. Make them sing the rap cabinet battle in Hamilton when discussing the Federalist period, the lyrics to Oklahoma when you’re teaching about the expansion of the west, or Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds when teaching about the suburbs. Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is a big hit for the Cold War. Finally, you can even show your students how to Charleston in the 20’s , Conga through the 80’s ask them to teach YOU how to”Dougie” for a modern twist. Always have maracas, drums, and shakers on hand for them to really get into it.
- BAKE! I’ve already spilled the beans on the idea in my blog post on My Great Cookie Challenge and updated it with a special holiday version called The GREAT “HOLIDAY” Baking Challenge! I had students from other grades and other classes come find me after this lesson to tell me how they wished their teachers did this in their classes. TRY it, it’s a HUGE success in the classroom! Bake, Bake, Bake!
- Make students SELL you items from the industrial revolution in a game of SHARK TANK. Pick three “Robber Baron investors” to imitate Carnegie, Vanderbilt and Rockefeller. Ask them to sell you investment ideas like the Erie Canal, the railroad, the telephone. Teach them how to make a three minute pitch and calculate how much they need for their investment. Check out my other teaching marketing ideas here.
- SPEED NETWORK. Along with the marketing idea of Shark Tank, students should know how to “sell themselves”. Teach them how to make business cards and resumes of historical figures and do a speed round of networking. This will set them up for when its time to interview for college and other jobs! They should come dressed up as their character and stay in the character the entire period. Students LOVED this when I had them sit with figures from the Progressive Era and Gilded Age. Think Teddy Roosevelt sitting across from and chatting it up with John Muir or Jacob Riis. What kind of conversations would they they be having? Wrap it up by having students pick their favorite “date” for a follow up study session or a follow up lesson the next day of Spill the Tea!
- SCARE EM- when teaching the “Red Scare”. Have students wear red. Tell students you have randomly selected a few students to be the “reds” in the room (but don’t actually pick anyone)! Tell them you’re taking names – and make a list on the board of who they accuse and why. At the end, ask the “red” to stand up. When no one does – they get they idea, that’s how heightened accusations were during the era of McCarthyism.
- Perfect Pop Up Cards – A Valentine’s Day BONUS! Whatever unit you are working on during Valentine’s Day have your students create historical pop up Valentine’s Day cards. The task is to create a positive valentine or negative (vinegar) valentine for a historical figure on a poster or piece of paper. Students should include a picture either drawn or printed and the historical figure should be easily identifiable from the valentine. Hang up in your classroom to spread the love!
Example: To: Andrew Carnegie who loves steel, wealth and philanthropy. “You’ve STOLEN my Heart” this Valentine’s Day.
These are some of my favorites. How do you unravel histories mystery of getting your students intrigued in your classroom?
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Speed Networking in the Social Studies Classroom nofiredrills.com/blog
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Reblogged this on and commented:
Relating to my last post, I appreciated a little insight into some creative ideas to make the history classroom a little more interesting!
Hi There! Thank you for stopping by my blog. I am so glad you found some creative ideas on my site to implement next year on your first teaching endeavor! Please keep popping in for more tips!
[…] Many of my readers have been asking me for extended tips on implementing Shark Tank in your classroom (since reading my post on History’s Great Mystery (How can I make my classroom more interactive?!) […]
[…] to move around. I design my classroom to be interactive – don’t forget about the singing, dancing, seminars, shark tanks, baking etc. I want students on their feet at least once a day during […]
[…] History’s Great Mystery (How can I make my classroom more interactive?!) […]
Great tips for getting students up and about. I especially love the Shark Tank one. I have to try that out!
[…] So that you can get them into groups for The GREAT “HOLIDAY” Baking Challenge!, Shark Tank, Speed Networking, Spill the Tea and Socratic […]
Do you have a post where you give more specifics about how you structure your speed networking activity? I teach English as a foreign language, and I’ve been really successful with a speed dating activity as general speaking practice, but I’m interested in how to modify it to make it more content-based.
Hi Hope! I just posted an entry on how I like to structure my speed networking activity here: https://nofiredrills.com/2016/09/23/speed-networking-in-the-classroom/.
Essentially I use it to encourage my students to practice networking and interviewing skills. I have them create business cards and resumes for the historical character and then practice handshaking, smiling and questioning as they move around the room. I have done this in a history classroom so in terms of content, I broke it down in the post by era. Let me know if you need any more tips on how to implement this activity!
Thank you! I can’t wait to try it out.
[…] method, but TRUST ME, this one is A HUGE hit! I’m writing an extension to my post on History’s Great Mystery (How can I make my classroom more interactive?!) and Why I put the SOCIAL back into SOCIAL STUDIES! so you can try out this awesome technique in […]
Reblogged this on So, You Think You Can Teach ESL?.
[…] AND LIN!) They were hooked, they wanted more Hamilton. (Even though they were in for a round of Oklahoma the next month as we discussed the west). As the years went on I joshed to my students, “Oh, […]
I loved these ideas and plan to.adapt them to my geography class!
Thanks Amy! We are so thrilled to hear your praise. Check back in and let us know how it goes! 🙂
[…] They all left the class asking when is the next time we can do this again? One more way to put the SOCIAL back into SOCIAL STUDIES! and to Make your classroom more interactive! […]
[…] I asked my students to create pick a valentine (a historical figure) and create a love profile. They had to write a haiku to their Valentine and draw (or print) a photo […]
[…] Conventions, Socratic Seminars, debates, mannequin challenges. You have spilled the tea, sang and danced, made pop up cards, painted murals, speed networked, sold an invention in the shark tank, crafted […]