ROLE-PLAY SIMULATIONS
We've found that creating and adapting simulations for students has been an easy ticket to engagement. When students' identities are engaged and at play, learning sticks. Here are four of our most popular role-play simulations:
We've found that creating and adapting simulations for students has been an easy ticket to engagement. When students' identities are engaged and at play, learning sticks. Here are four of our most popular role-play simulations:
| Seal Games (Social Studies 8) After viewing and discussing the classic NFB Documentary "People of the Seal,", the students try their hand at some of the games and activities practiced by the Netsilik Inuit in the film. Surprisingly, a recurring favourite is the Seal Hunt, where volunteers stand at an "ice hole" and wait for a seal to emerge - a recreation of a scene from the documentary. It is a test of patience, not much to do but stand and wait. The rules are simple: keep eyes on target, don't move, don't speak. The current record for Ian Leitch's classes is 3 hours 15 minutes.  Photo: Ian Leitch 2018 | A New Home in Upper Canada (Social Studies 9)  Photo Glen Thielmann 2018 This was adapted from a similar game that was featured in a now-forgotten 1980s textbook. Students are given role cards of characters from the 1820s in Upper Canada who are attempting to settle on newly granted land concessions. They negotiate for their building, sustenance, and social/religious needs, map and document their experience, and produce letters back home describing their journey and pioneer experience. It always amazes us that with little direction, students will dive into the role-paly and carry this on over multiple classes. It also produces rich discussion and writing about settler culture and issues in colonialism. |
Battle for Quebec (Social Studies 9)
This activity starts off as a role card game where students take characters and military equipment based on historical events surrounding the Battle of Quebec in 1759. Their resources are then deployed in a Risk-like dice-based board game. Who will prevail? Britain or France?
Glen co-designed this project with students from his Social Studies class. It was their idea to transition from the card-based role-play (seen on the left) to the map-based board game (seen being played on the right). Photo/video Glen Thielmann 2018.
This activity starts off as a role card game where students take characters and military equipment based on historical events surrounding the Battle of Quebec in 1759. Their resources are then deployed in a Risk-like dice-based board game. Who will prevail? Britain or France?
Glen co-designed this project with students from his Social Studies class. It was their idea to transition from the card-based role-play (seen on the left) to the map-based board game (seen being played on the right). Photo/video Glen Thielmann 2018.
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Soviet Survivor (World History 12)
This simulation, created by Joe Pereira, accompanies a unit on the Soviet Union in History 12. It provides a tangible connection between the students and the people who took part in or fell victim to the horrific regimes of this time period. Part one involves students taking on historical characters (cards) and following their progress through the Soviet era. Part two involves creation of a fictitious character that uses dice-rolls to navigate and survive various historical events that come up in class (e.g. purges) - mix of strategy and chance. Part three involves a creative response project that chronicles the fate of their fictitious character. The game portion of this simulation is played as a wrap-up to each lesson in the unit, and is one of the many reasons there is a waiting list to get in to Joe's History class. Photos Joe Pereira, Glen Thielmann.
This simulation, created by Joe Pereira, accompanies a unit on the Soviet Union in History 12. It provides a tangible connection between the students and the people who took part in or fell victim to the horrific regimes of this time period. Part one involves students taking on historical characters (cards) and following their progress through the Soviet era. Part two involves creation of a fictitious character that uses dice-rolls to navigate and survive various historical events that come up in class (e.g. purges) - mix of strategy and chance. Part three involves a creative response project that chronicles the fate of their fictitious character. The game portion of this simulation is played as a wrap-up to each lesson in the unit, and is one of the many reasons there is a waiting list to get in to Joe's History class. Photos Joe Pereira, Glen Thielmann.
MANIPULATIVE SETS
Over the last four years the TTSP team has been creating kits of primary and secondary sources and objects to be used as "manipulative sets" in the Humanities. Manipulatives are common and effective in Mathematics (e.g. Cuisenaire Rods), and collections of sources are readily available online or from suppliers like TC2 -- but what could we use for hands-on constructivist learning and meaningful assessment?. We set out to design resources that students could use to break down problems related to people, places, and events in order to make their own decisions and judgments about how others have arrived at historical and geographic accounts. The kits come with teacher guides and suggested activities -- there are many ways to use manipulatives. The most common use is to use the sources to work through the historical and geographic thinking concepts known as the "competencies" in the redesigned Social Studies curriculum. We are also starting to use these sources, and the problems they suggest, with Building Thinking Classroom strategies as researched and developed by Peter Liljedahl.
Over the last four years the TTSP team has been creating kits of primary and secondary sources and objects to be used as "manipulative sets" in the Humanities. Manipulatives are common and effective in Mathematics (e.g. Cuisenaire Rods), and collections of sources are readily available online or from suppliers like TC2 -- but what could we use for hands-on constructivist learning and meaningful assessment?. We set out to design resources that students could use to break down problems related to people, places, and events in order to make their own decisions and judgments about how others have arrived at historical and geographic accounts. The kits come with teacher guides and suggested activities -- there are many ways to use manipulatives. The most common use is to use the sources to work through the historical and geographic thinking concepts known as the "competencies" in the redesigned Social Studies curriculum. We are also starting to use these sources, and the problems they suggest, with Building Thinking Classroom strategies as researched and developed by Peter Liljedahl.
| Industrial Revolution Source Box (Social Studies 9). Assessment cycle based on Play-Debrief-Replay  Japanese Internment in BC (Social Studies 10)  | Where We Live: The Geologic Story - Prince George Edition (Social Studies 10, Geography 12)  The 1858 Fraser Canyon War (Social Studies 9)  |
Testimony on the value of manipulatives activities for students from a UNBC Teacher Candidate
| During our UNBC class on Curriculum and Instruction in the Humanities with Glen Thielmann, I was challenged to create manipulative assignments that would both engage and inspire students in my class. Throughout the process, I had to keep the learners in my classroom thinking critically about historical and geographic themes. Each manipulatives assignment was based upon a wide variety of topics, ranging from ancient pottery techniques to the Battle of the Atlantic. The reception to these tasks was always positive, as students enjoyed working with their hands, being able to step beyond the traditional roles of the classroom into tasks that they found more kinaesthetically rewarding. The ability to create such assignments is of the utmost importance to the teaching profession, as it gives teachers the opportunity to spread more joy to the students that are sharing their space. The joy in learning that I witnessed with my students was thrilling, as it allowed me to enjoy a classroom full of engaged and happy students who were actively thinking about the Social Studies curriculum in a new way. |  Trina's latest use of manipulatives is a box of Metis-themed puppets and props that she and her students are using to share stories and explore topics that require one level of removal. |
Additionally, the ideas that we as a class explored on the topic of group-based activities for students that involved movement throughout a space were a serious benefit to the teacher candidates. Once more, when applied to the classroom setting, students loved getting out of their seats and having the ability to think about historical ideas in a different and more tangible way. Over the coming practicum, I would be thrilled to welcome Glen and anyone else from the Pacific Slope group into my classroom to further explore these ideas and try to create an advanced hands-on historically-minded pedagogy for the New BC Curriculum.
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