An Active Learning Project on The American Revolution

 

                   Zumpano, Nicole. "Who's Who in the American Revolution." Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet, 26 May 2015, https://zumpanotechlab.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-american-revolutionits-like-we-were.html. Accessed 25 May 2024. 

For my Padlet, I chose to write about Ms. Malhiot's primary class's project on  The American Revolution.  This assignment qualifies as active learning as the students used PicCollage and Audioboom to demonstrate their knowledge of key elements of the war, employing knowledge of key facts and creating original projects that could be displayed and presented. One can see from the visual features that inquiry and creativity were involved throughout the whole lesson. Nicole Zumpano's blog post, The American Revolution...It's Like We Were There! features visual highlights from the students' projects, which include a "Who's Who" wall of famous figures (with photos of students embedded) and posters of some of these individuals, which include an image of the person and dialogue between the student (whose photo is inserted into an image) and the famous figure. An example includes a poster of Patrick Henry; on the bottom left is a student (whose face has been embedded into colonial attire) with a dialogue bubble above him that reads, "Hm, It's a risky decision but I get your point!" To the right of him is another student, who is also in colonial attire, with a dialogue bubble that reads, "I say we have war on Great Britain. Give me liberty or give me death." Another poster features Samuel Adams with a dialogue bubble that reads, "I want independence!" A student is beside him with a thought bubble above her that reads, "I'm with you buddy." Both collages are featured below.

Zumpano, Nicole. "Collage of Patrick Henry." Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet, 26 May 2024, https://zumpanotechlab.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-american-revolutionits-like-we-were.html. Accessed 28 May 2024.

Zumpano, Nicole. "Collage of Samuel Adams." Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet, 26 May 2024, https://zumpanotechlab.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-american-revolutionits-like-we-were.html. Accessed 28 May 2024. 

Other highlights include student created collages of the Declaration of Independence, The United States Constitution, and The Battle of Saratoga. All collages have students' photos and dialogue embedded. They truly were original representations and the complete sample can be found on Zumpano's blog. Links to listen to student recordings were also included under each event; however, unfortunately they were no longer available to listen to via Audioboom.

Screenshot from my Padlet titled, "The American Revolution - Active Learning Style!" Image Source: Property of Author

To better acquaint myself with active learning before viewing the blog post on the American Revolution, I read about examples of this learning pedagogy. One website I found particularly informative was a module on active learning featured by Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

The module sections are featured in the image below. 

"Active Learning." Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, https://onq.queensu.ca/shared/TLHEM/active/index.html.

Accessed 26 May 2024.

When I clicked on the section titled, "What is Active Learning?" I received the following definition: "Active Learning is an approach to instruction that involves actively engaging students through discussions, problem solving, case studies, role plays, and other methods." I felt this was a sound definition and I definitely felt that the American Revolution project fit this mold. The students created visual collages with audio features of key events of the war that were original and thorough; significant events and people were represented in creative ways and students seemed to know age appropriate facts. 

The next module section I explored was "Examples of Active Learning Activities." In this module, I found options to choose activities for a large group, small group, or individual. Based on my most current experience as a classroom co-teacher, I chose the large group activities. Below is a screenshot of some of the exercises that were listed. 

"Examples of Active Learning Activities." Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, https://onq.queensu.ca/shared/TLHEM/active/12_exmples_of_active_learning_activities.html. Accessed 26 May 2024.

The only activity from this list I can say that I've used with my students is Think-Pair-Share. This activity simple asks each student to reflect on a question or prompt and then pair up with another student to discuss their ideas. Once the pair has conversed about their ideas, they share their response with the class. This activity can be done with students pairing up once or having pairs of students pair with other pairs and so on. The "so on" or having multiple pairs pair with other pairs leads to the snowball activity that is also listed. I like this activity because it encourages every student to not only pair with one other student but for pairs to interact so that a teacher may have up to a group of several students share responses with each other (just by interacting with other pairs) who may not have otherwise interacted.

To learn how to make these projects tangible, I explored the a blog by technotes titled, "80 Graphic Organizer Templates for Active Learning." I was delighted to find a link to a menu of eight categories of graphic organizers (each with 10 different designs to choose from) and an array of exit tickets.  All items are designed and editable in Canva with options to download them into PNG or JPG files and place them into tools such as Seesaw, Kami, or. Lumio. Having convenient aesthetic tools like these makes the activities more enjoyable and provides teachers with physical evidence of student work. 

With the right ideas, planning, leading, and organizing, teachers can implement active learning effectively and enjoyably for all ages and class sizes. Having printable, aesthetic materials just makes this method more viable and engaging! 🍎