Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Smith:
Diana, this week, we’ve talked about various aspects of making history meaningful for the particular needs of a given student. But it seems like that student’s efforts to internalize the information is pretty important—how would you encourage that?

Diana Waring:
You know, I believe that real learning changes us. That means it has to go deeper than just the short term memory banks and further than a mere repetition of facts. If we encourage our students to personally interact with what they are studying in history, they’ll eventually take ownership of what they’ve learned and be able to utilize the information in numerous ways.

One idea for how to encourage this kind of deep learning is by having them ask “what if?” questions and consider the implications. What if Napoleon had not lost the Battle of Waterloo, which the Duke of Wellington described as a “near-run thing”? How many of us would be speaking French today? Another idea is to have students create something with the material they’ve been studying. Write songs, paint scenes, choreograph a dance, do a puppet show.

The deeper a student ponders what they’ve learned in order to create something new, the greater will be their understanding.

Mike:
Diana, thanks for sharing this practical help for teaching history! It was great to have you on the program this week! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.