Episode Details
Back to EpisodesFrom Research to Exhibit: Letting Students Tell the Story of History
Description
In this episode, I share a powerful classroom project in which my middle school students created a museum-style exhibit exploring slavery in the President’s House in Philadelphia, the home of George Washington during the early years of the United States. Through research, art, writing, and hands-on building, students investigated the lives of the people enslaved there.
Rather than writing traditional reports, students designed exhibits: research panels, artifacts, models, and visual displays that explored the contradictions between the ideals of liberty in the founding era and the reality of slavery within the president’s household.
In this episode, I explain why projects like this matter, how students approached the work of interpreting history, and how teachers can create opportunities for students to think like historians and share their work with an authentic audience. When students are trusted to wrestle with complicated history, they often rise to the challenge in extraordinary ways.
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