Any ideas of good Social Studies lessons that could be presented to a group of adults in just 15 minutes. Thanks.
Building off Mopar's idea, and totally off the top of my head here.... I'm thinking of a first day of school type of lesson, kind of an introduction to persective. In history, as in life, it's incredibly easy to play Monday Morning Quarterback-- to second guess historical events knowing what we now know. In real life, of course, the players never have the advantage of knowing ALL the facts, or of knowing how their actions will turn out. So I'm thinking of a discussion or game where each person has part of the story and has to make decisions based on that limited information. The end, of course, is that it turns out to be some historical event, say the Battle of Gettysburg or something. So, for example: You're Isabella and Ferdinand. Do you finance Columbus' journey, being fairly certain that he's going to fall off the edge of the earth you KNOW is flat??? Or you're the Committee to ReElect the President in 1972-- do you risk trying to get into Daniel Elsberg's Psychiatrist's office, knowing the potential payoff in terms of political gain? (Let's just take the ethics out of that situation before we start.) Sorry it's so incomplete an idea-- I love history but I'm good at teaching math.
Thanks. I was going to do a review of the Bill of Rights. I have ten scenarios that I would assign to students (a few each group) example Barack Obama tries to pass a law stating all new US citizens have to be Catholic. They have to say if it could happen and why/why not? That would be No, 1st amendment freedom of religion.
If I were going to do it, I would not make it President Obama. It's changing a neutral lesson into one that involves party lines. I would make him (or her) President Smith in 2020. I would also pull organized religion out of it. I would make it that all new Citizens have to be practioners of his/her new religion, X. The idea, though, is not to have an incredible quiz-- it's to show that you're an incredible teacher. What can you do to infuse The Bill of Rights with excitement??? Can you give the historical background of each, showing why it was so very important to the Founding Fathers to include each of those rights?? And maybe tie each into something that relates in a real way to today's high school kids?
