To begin, have the class as a whole choose an era in history they've studied during the first half of the year. When everyone comes to one era, let's say the Civil War, have them choose a Christmas carol and re-word it to fit in that era. Basically, instead of singing about Christmas trees and Santa Claus, they should be singing about Antietam and Robert Lee (or other historical events). The assignment should be as follows: the students must find ONE event in the era, re-word it to the tune of a Christmas carol, and turn it in. Simple, right? Let's just say this assignment will show how many students were paying attention during the year. Even though this assignment seems easy enough, there will always be the students who just don't understand what they're doing; in this case, you may want to help them by having the project be open to all eras of history so people aren't quite as limited, but only if a lot of people are struggling.
I strongly recommend having the students use the Internet to research for their carol, but if you want to be a Grinch you can have them limited to only the provided textbooks. No offence, but it can be a little hard trying to remember everything from the first half of classes. Sometimes textbooks just can't compare to their online equivalents.
Now, for actually creating the carol, I have a perfect template. I made the following carol for an APUS class. It was really fun trying to come up with the words and have them be as accurate to the actual event as possible. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: The Battle of Gettysburg (sung to Jingle Bells)
The Union came from North,
the Rebels from the South.
The former wanted equal rights,
the latter said, "Get out."
In 1863
they battled with their all.
And when the Union won this fight
the South was sure to fall.
[Chorus]
Oh, Gettysburg, Gettysburg,
George Meade had a plan.
His Army of the Potomac
drove back Lee's rebel clan!
Gettysburg, Gettysburg,
the North took a mighty reach!
The casualties were so damn high
that Lincoln made a speech!
John Buford was attacked,
Lee's men began in haste.
If he wanted Britain's help
there was no time to waste.
The Rebels charged some hills,
they forced the Union back,
and on the third day of the fight
they launched their Grand Attack!
[Chorus]
At Cemetery Ridge,
George Pickett led his Charge.
But when the Union fired back
the Rebel dead was large!
Lee's army made retreat,
to Virginia they all fled.
The Union got to celebrate
and count up all the dead!
[Chorus]
Just like that, you have your own Historical Carol! All in all, this took me about two days of researching to create. I just searched "Battle of Gettysburg" and took the Big Names (like Lee, George Meade, Pickett's Charge, Cemetery Ridge, and the Gettysburg Address) and built the lyrics around them. In fact, the hardest part for me was just trying to find words that rhymed with each other (I have never used the word 'haste' before now). Have your students do a similar researching plan and I guarantee that they'll all have good carols! You can either collect the carols for grade or have it be all worth extra credit (some will do it for the latter, and like it; all will have to for the former, but may not like it). Singing it in front of the class can also be extra credit, as a parting gift for Winter Break! Make sure to have a fun holiday season, and leave some feedback on this Lesson Idea!
-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep
No comments:
Post a Comment