History at Home

We all know how important it is to have students learn history in the classroom, but what about after school is over? How much do students retain from their day in history class? That's why I think it's important for both students and teachers to come to an agreement that some extra-curricular opportunities should be given. You heard me right; extra credit is a prime motivator for students to actually do things in classes, especially history. However, you shouldn't go overboard on it; just enough that it can help out a student that's struggling with normal classwork and push up a percentile. As I've discussed in other posts on HF, there's many mediums out there that can help students learn about history without being bored out of their minds in the slightest. Here's a few options available to teachers when having the students study history at home.

1. Netflix (or DVDs in general)

As a website, Netflix has become the king of media. It's provided hours upon hours of shows and movies to millions and millions of people, some who're binging, and some who're "chilling". It's also a great source for historical movies and shows, including the ones I used in the post "Hollywood History". Teachers can take advantage of this easy location for historical media and have their students use their favorite website for class. My APUS teacher, Mr. Benedict, gives us the option of watching period-specific movies/shows based on the unit we're in, like "Lincoln" for the Civil War era and "John Adams" for the Revolutionary Era. Many students who otherwise wouldn't have done a normal project pounced on the opportunity to earn 20 points extra credit (the catch was that they had to write a paper about how it was accurate, and if they were wrong Benedict would take off 20 points form normal grades). It's just a thing where humans want to have something "special"; if they feel like they've done something over what normal requirements request, it's kind of a pride thing. If students don't have Netflix, just tell them to get a DVD/Blu-Ray of the medium if they really want the EC.

2. Books

Yes, I know that no one likes to read. Yes, I get that no one would read a book based on historical happenings if they had their own choice. But you underestimate a student who needs extra credit to get their grades up in a class. I've seen people who struggled to get through "The Cat in the Hat" try to read "The Scarlet Letter" all because it would boost their grade by 30 points. As long as you're not a dick about it and assign hard books to the students, like the aforementioned "Scarlet", you'll definitely have kids learning history at home. I suggest books like "Red Badge of Courage" or even "All Quiet on the Western Front"; don't make the assignment anything more than how it relates to the unit you're studying and how the student learned from the book. If you have evidence that the student was learning at home, you should be able to give them EC. They did read, after all.

3. Video Games

This one's a little trickier to explain. I don't mean games like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty (though they did used to make WWII games), I mean games like Assassin's Creed. If you're still not convinced, the people who work on AC have degrees in history from American to European; they also try to make each game as accurate as they can while having their own plot going on. If you remove the game's plot, you can actually learn a lot about people and events from certain eras in history (like the main generals in the Seven Years' War-yes, this is a main part of ACIII). No student would ever hesitate to get EC by playing games. However, to prove that they actually learned something, have them take a test involving names, locations, and events from the games, and how the student feels the game reflected its subject material. It's all in the textbook, but now you get to live it!

If you offer these 3 things as extra credit in your history class, your student's will be learning and enjoying history at home, sometimes without even realizing it. If you have any other suggestions for extra credit, comment it below!

-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep