The Dead Page- Part 1: Connecting Students to History

The last several years I taught school. I had my kids do current events at the start of every class. These tasks kept them busy while I was taking attendance and doing various administrative work. This was a great way to maintain classroom discipline while I was otherwise involved.

There would be several questions on the board when they walked in and they would have to look items up in their textbook that had something to do with the story. I'd also include the obituaries of people I felt had had an impact on the world, and especially their lives.

After having the kids answer the questions, we would enter them into folders which also had maps where they would locate the site. We'd have several obituaries a week and the kids got to calling this "The Dead Page."

The kids also had a "This Day in History" page to fill out, where I would pick two or three events from that particular day, and we would discuss it. This way,I "connected" the kids to history.

I still read the obituaries both in the paper and online and I find a lot of fascinating stories. From time to time, I will include some on the Down Da Road I Go blog.

--RoadPage