Speakeasy Simulation: Bringing the 1920s to Life

On Halloween, I turned my classroom into a 1920s speakeasy to teach my students about Prohibition. I made sure students had a secret password the day before and as they entered my class, I asked them for it. It was fun to see students saying, "Joe sent me" and wondering why. I greeted them at the door, dressed as a flapper and asking for the password. As they entered my classroom, Charleston music was playing (courtesy of Pandora radio). I had a sign in front that said, "Welcome to the Haunted Speakeasy." On one table in the back were small cups of apple juice and Halloween candy. The room was decorated with pumpkins and orange lights. On the tables were black table cloths made out of butcher paper. And on the wall in the back were pictures from the 1920s.The first activity was for students to assume the roles of 17 different individuals associated with Prohibition. Their task was to circulate around the room and meet as many people as they could, each time finding out more and more about Prohibition. 
I also gave students bonus participation points for dressing in period attire. Here are some of them: 
I had one of the most enjoyable days of teaching in a long time and I heard my students talking about how much fun it had been. Even many of my most reluctant participants were up and talking to others and getting into the lesson. My brain is already spinning with ideas. Maybe a 1950s sock hop or a Vietnam War Sit In?

A Shift in Teaching

I am seriously behind in my blogging and part of the reason for that is a whole new approach to teaching US History that my team has chosen to undertake this year. Since we teach in California, we have been given a year of reprieve from our state testing and are looking ahead to common core and the future. Out went the traditional multiple choice tests and in came essays and unit long focus questions. We have added all kinds of primary sources and are now looking towards projects.

I am quite thrilled that we don't have to teach the minutia anymore and can focus on big questions and big ideas. The first unit was all designed to trace the state's rights vs. federal authority conflict that dates to the founding of our country, and is incredibly relevant today in light of the fight over Obamacare. We suddenly found ourselves teaching content not normally taught in a college prep US history course, and throwing out some things we always had taught because they were probably on the test. How liberating it is to no longer teach to a test!

One other thing I find myself doing is making visual representations for my students of what we are covering. It is on the wall of my classroom and I create it as we go along in the content. This second unit was focused on problems and responses at the turn of the century. Here is the visual I created.

As we approach the 1920s, I am excited to be able to allow the students time to investigate a topic of their interest and to choose a method for showing their learning. I am going to model it after History Day, only on a smaller scale. Sure there is a risk that my students won't know how to respond to this structure and will fall behind and get discouraged. After all most of their education thus far has been so structured and geared towards testing. But as I learned on one of my Twitter chats, FAIL = First Attempt, I'm Learning! So if I fail, well at least I will have learned something.

Teaching Vocabulary with the Frayer Model

One of the strategies that I learned about through my Teaching American History grant was the Frayer Model. It is a method for teaching students vocabulary. Students start with the definition and then discuss characteristics of that word. Next we discussed examples and non-examples. It might be best to start off a class with a word that is easy for them, but not necessarily related to history. Examples might be: shopping, war, education, and the Internet.

I have now used it twice. The first time was on Monday for helping students understand the word "emancipation" prior to our study of the Emancipation Proclamation. Here is one of the class's results:

The second time I used it was as part of an intervention for students were struggling to understand the concepts of state's rights and federal authority. I walked them through state's rights on one side of the paper and then federal authority on the other side. It worked so well that I am going to use it again and again when we come across important terms that students need to know like tyranny. I think it also would be very helpful to English Language Learners.