Historical Re-enactment: An Innovative Teaching Strategy

Many students may find it too mechanical to stay for hours inside the classroom listening to their teachers and facing their books. Although this is the traditional teaching style in classrooms, it is understandable that boredom and restlessness really set in after hours of being confined the four walls of a classroom.

Because of this sad truth, staff at Vista Middle School in Red Bluff, California decided to make learning extra-interesting. Seven years ago, they decided to make the students not only learn, but relive an important era by experiencing American history.

Every spring, Red Bluff Elementary Education Association members at the site hold a two-day Civil Way re-enactment activity. Some teachers and staff provide an interesting touch of nostalgia as they come dressed in period costumes.

Complete with a Southern accent a teacher mans a stations and would talk about courtship and dance cards during the civil war.

A math teacher contributes by teaching dances, donned in her pretty petticoat, while her husband, a fellow math educator, talks about the civil war while strumming a guitar.

On their part, science teachers discuss the trajectory of cannon balls. They explain how injured soldiers were treated back then, and what gunpowder was made of.

A history teacher shares the art of waving signal flags, and describes POW camps. He talks about his ancestor's experiences when he was incarcerated as a Union soldier.

PE teachers lend a hand by teaching about battle strategies and marching procedures. To have a good feel of it, students are assigned to serve as corporals, sergeants, drummers or flag bearers. Students experience being involved in the war by receiving "enlistment papers" which designates them to certain home states and military units.

Even the way baseball was played during this ear is being shown to students. To make it more interesting, the cafeteria serves chili and corn bread.

Students get a blast by going from one station to another. They rotate and listen to teachers and try to "experience" various things that happened during this era. They also get to view artifacts.

On the final day of the two-day event, students join members of the re-enactment of the American Civil War in a local park. They can observe battlefield scenes and learn what happens in the "Confederate and Union Camps".

The teachers add that this activity takes place two days before STAR testing begins. They note that their scores are not affected at all, and consider this as a fun and creative learning activity for the students.

Source: California Educator