ROLE PLAY+PDF: A People’s History of the Abolition Movement

[Ryan Goble]

I dunno if peeps here are down with Rethinking Schools Magazine but it is one of my favs for its social justice slant. They did an AWESOME write up of this role play activity around the Abolition Movement. I think it is awesome because there is an excellent narrative and then a 7-page PDF with the tools this teacher used to create the illusive 'flexible structure' that creates engaging differentiated instruction aka "curriculum that pops."

 

Massachusetts Historical Society
Broadside by the Worcester County South
Division Anti-Slavery Society.
 

Here is the narrative/article:
‘If There Is No Struggle . . .’ • Teaching a People’s History of th...
By Bill Bigelow
Students “become” members of an abolitionist organization and grapple with the strategic dilemmas faced by one of the most significant U.S. social movements.

Here is the PDF with all the scenarios and roles.

The last Paragraph that is why I really loved the article and author - all teaching should have these type of goals.

"There were important facts that I wanted students to know and historical figures I wanted to introduce. But my main teaching aim was to show students that the movement for racial justice wasn’t simply a matter of one thing happening after another—it wasn’t the smooth unfolding of History leading to Freedom. I wanted students to see that history is a series of choice-points and there is nothing inevitable about the direction of society, that where things move depends on how we analyze the world and how we act on that analysis. People like them—not only famous leaders—make history."

Even if you can't use for the Civil War it is an incredible model for carefully scaffolded differentiated historical role play.