Do you remember Mr. Lorensax from “Ferris Bueller's Day Off”? Someone? Bueller? With his monotone voice and lack of enthusiasm, he could convince anyone that history is incredibly boring. Unfortunately, this description is not unique and reflects a broader problem with how social studies is perceived.
As a high school history teacher, whenever I meet new adults and we talk about our professions, I often encounter a familiar reaction: “I didn't like the subject in school, but now I find it interesting.” I always wonder why it is like this. I think it might be due to a misconception, often exacerbated by movies, that history must be boring because it's full of dates, people and places that often require rote memorization. However, if taught with the intention to inspire and engage, history is far from boring or monotonous.
While teachers can't always avoid this perception, one thing is clear in my experience: to capture students' attention, we must make the story more engaging.
Start with the leader
I think one of the reasons history teachers lose students' interest is because the details of a lesson can become monotonous. I, too, have been guilty of urging my students to be patient, assuring them that the content is about to get interesting, but first we need to work through these details.
While this approach may work with students who are intrinsically motivated to learn history, it is difficult to approach topics like the Pan-Slavic movement of the mid-19th century with disinterested 14-year-olds. These details may seem distant and abstract, especially if a student does not understand the relevance or importance of the topic to her own life. Students may have difficulty interacting with the material without a clear understanding of the context or without perceiving a reward for their attention.
The key is to start with leadership. Instead of explaining Balkan nationalism, let's start with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which provides an immediate point of interest and relevance for students. This approach is similar to a TV crime show that reveals the body in the first minute and then spends the rest of the show gathering evidence. By starting with a dramatic event that serves as a hook to draw students into the larger historical narrative, teachers can make the details more engaging for students.
This approach also reflects the approach that journalists take. In his book, “Made to stick”, Chip and Dan Heath reveal that journalism students often miss the thread of a story by focusing too much on trying to understand every detail. To counter this, professors emphasize the inverted pyramid style, which prioritizes placing the most crucial information at the beginning of the article, or even in the headline. Taking this approach and starting with the headline: “Austrian heir and wife shot to death after escaping bomb“It's certainly more interesting than building a timeline of information up to the event.
Let students be the researchers
After I begin leading, I like to spend time allowing my students to become researchers. From what I've seen, I think he maintains his interest. A big idea related to World War I is the sinking of the Lusitania, a catalyst for the United States' entry into the war. Torpedoed in May 1915, it caused nearly 1,200 civilian casualties, but the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917. In our discussions, I ask students to explore the two-year gap: What happened during this time? How did public opinion evolve?
A crucial question regarding the sinking of the Lusitania is because. The Lusitania, a passenger ship, was carrying 173 tons of war munitions. According to Germany, it was a warship and a legitimate military target. Once my students discovered a discrepancy in how the ship was classified, I expanded the activity by facilitating a debate, allocating points of view between the Allies and Germany, and debating whether the Lusitania was a military target. Throughout this lesson, my students not only learn the content but also develop critical thinking skills as they analyze evidence, assemble persuasive arguments, and debate respectfully with their peers.
In my experience, allowing students to research historical events can increase their engagement because it appeals to their inherent curiosity. It gives them the opportunity to become active participants and take ownership of their learning. By providing a structured framework for research, an approach often called guided inquiryI guide students through the research process, offering resources, facilitating discussions, and providing support as they build historical context and understanding.
Focus on the stories of individuals
I think another reason students don't engage in learning history is because sometimes we feel like we're too far removed from the people it happened to. We, as teachers, also often fail to appeal to the emotion of events as they happen.
On the contrary, this is another reason we tune into crime TV shows; Beyond the suspense, they attract us for their emotional elements. Characters often discuss investigative strategies and some have personal connections to the victim. These elements, intentionally included by the writers, resonate with my sense of empathy and force me to form an emotional connection with the show.
Adding historical narratives to my lectures is something I always try to do in my classes to expose students to people's experiences and help them foster those emotional connections. Consider this: In 1918, Congress passed the Sedition Act, which prohibited “disloyal speech” about the United States government. Although it is a significant suppression of free speech, at first I tend to ignore the law and tell the story of Eugene Debs. His June 1918 speech resulted in a ten-year prison sentence. Think about it: ten years in prison for a speech; What could the speech have been to justify such a long sentence? Students now question and eagerly await answers. Achieved through direct instruction, presenting big ideas first engages students for later details in many social studies classrooms.
I often weave these historical narratives into content through primary sources. This breaks up my lectures and allows students to get closer to a real person who experienced a historical period. Describing what trench warfare entailed is one thing, but reading the firsthand account of a soldier who survived it (exposed to rats and standing in freezing water among piled up bodies) is another. This story is inherently dramatic and engaging; Teachers simply need to harness these powerful stories.
Make the story personal
I love using primary sources and personal narratives to make history more relevant to my students, but that takes a backseat to tangible pieces of history, like my family's artifacts, like my great-grandfather's school uniform. First World War. The students are intrigued by the weight of the wool fabric, the dent in the helmet and the cut piece of the American flag. I also have my other great-grandfather's World War II diary, which details his time as a prisoner of war in northeastern Germany. When reading his stories, students connect with his story because it feels close to home. The presentation of these artifacts often prompts students to share their own, creating a powerful and emotional experience.
I also invite students to bring their own artifacts for show and tell. When I make connections to my family history, my students feel more comfortable sharing theirs. If you want to see engagement in your classroom, invite students to go home and discuss with their family a link to a historical event, then have them share their stories with the class.
Echoing the Heath brothers, incorporating emotion makes stories more memorable: they consider emotions to be the stories that glue together. This emotional resonance is a hallmark of exceptional historical films. Harnessing emotions not only improves students' attention but also encourages longer-lasting retention of content.
By adopting these engaging methods, the story becomes intrinsically engaging and dramatic in the best way. Infusing these dynamic elements into history classes can cultivate a lasting passion for understanding the past and its profound impact on the present and future.
And hopefully, in the foreseeable future, mentioning that I teach history might elicit a different response and more people will start telling me, “That was my favorite class in school!”
