History on Stage

History on Stage started as an idea to combine American history events with fairy tales. This pairing had an easy connection: how much perspective matters in a story, whether the story is of a true event or a folktale handed down generation to generation. Students studied fairy tales that they were told growing up or had watched in movies, then read novels that told the story from a new perspective, specifically from the perspective of the villain.  As they read, they researched American history, from the Declaration of Independence to the Articles of Confederation to the Great Compromise.  Students then created presentations to teach younger students about the American history events and what the different perspectives were of each issue.

To exhibit what was learned, students wrote and performed puppet shows, interviews, excerpts from musicals and plays, newscasts, rap battles, or song parodies and performed to local 5th-grade classrooms.

Literature: Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events or character types from myths, traditional stories or religious works including describing how the material is rendered new.

Social Studies: Explain the challenges faced by the new nation and analyze the development of the constitution as a new plan for governing. Explain and analyze the challenges the new government faced and the role of political and social leaders in meeting these challenges.