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Radio Talk Show with Famous Historical Figures

8th Grade Social Studies on January 17, 2019

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In Social Studies this week we have been working diligently, in spite of weather changing up our schedule, to wrap up Chapter 7. The 8th graders have been working on individual research projects on historical figures from the chapter including four United States presidents. Thursday, we did a unique activity. I chose students who had done their project over either Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams to take part in a panel. The way we set this up was to pretend that these 4 students were acting out their figure. The rest of the class drafted questions to ask these figures about three important events from the chapter: the XYZ affair, the National Bank, and the Alien and Sedition Acts.  Through the activity, I acted as a "phone operator" and answered the "calls" of students in the class to ask questions. Every member of the panel had to contribute at least one statement on each question. Every "caller" had to ask at least one question aloud, but they also had to create a list of questions for each subject. 
The kids did a great job playing along and were really excited to ask the panel questions. This helped them to review the main events and people from the chapter in a fun and interactive way.