Thirteen students participate in our afterschool program - the History Arts Group. Fourth and fifth graders have a lot of fun, but they also dig a little deeper into primary source documents provided by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Hamilton Education Program.
The group chose to investigate the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown - the battle that signified the beginning of the end for the American Revolution. Two documents were provided - one from George Washington to Cornwallis and another from Henry Knox to his wife Lucy. The task for the group was to identify key words from these two texts and rewrite them both in the authors' words and in the students' own words.
Adding some creativity, they then teamed up to write scripts for very short scripted conversations in modern, and sometimes humorous, skits. Some even wanted to include a song in their scene. This is a continuing project, but no matter how good (or not) the skits end up, we've just enjoyed spending time with each other and learning just a little bit more about our nation's history.
Adding some creativity, they then teamed up to write scripts for very short scripted conversations in modern, and sometimes humorous, skits. Some even wanted to include a song in their scene. This is a continuing project, but no matter how good (or not) the skits end up, we've just enjoyed spending time with each other and learning just a little bit more about our nation's history.
