Role Playing
Teachers: Your students will surely
anticipate your visit to Pittsboro's One Room school as a
"fun" day and probably not even think about the
educational implications. Students will actually be a part
of a history lesson. Hopefully, it will be an experience
they will never forget, so please try to make your day at
Pittsboro as authentic as possible. The students will
portray pupils from a century ago while you take the part of the
oldest student in the classroom.
You will need to prepare your students in advance for this step
back into history. They need time to think about what it
means to "role play", and may even need some
opportunities to practice doing this. The schoolmaster or
schoolmarm you have on the day of your visit may refer to
"getting into character" or "stepping out of
character", so you will probably want to think about the
following areas:
1. You and your students will be
going back in time to a specific date, 1892. Review the
period from 1870 to 1920. Discuss everyday life during the
Victorian era. Talk about life without electricity, running
water, indoor plumbing, cars or television.
2. Plan to dress the part.
Discuss appropriate clothing and share photographs and drawings of
Victorian dress.
3. Lunches will be something
students will enjoy preparing before their visit also.
Discuss the possible menu items and how their lunch should be
packed. Students may want to bring small blankets or rugs
for eating lunches outdoors if weather permits. The drink
for the day will be water from the water bucket. Be sure to
talk about this with students and explain why they can't bring
sodas or bottled drinks. Students will make their own paper
drinking cup.
4. Talk to your students about
reading groups. Explain how there were lots of different
ages of children in a one-room school and therefore it was
absolutely necessary for a teacher to work with small groups while
other students worked at their seats. Students will be
divided into reading groups according to the level of the book at
their desk. Students in the one-room school would have been
in grades one through eight, aged five to twenty years old.
Often it took several years to complete a "level".
Students worked at their own pace. Older students might have
tutored younger students in reading and math.
5. Students are given
names of actual students who attended the one-room school in 1911.
The wooden nametags are on the desks. Boys are seated on the
left. Girls are seated on the right.
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Additional Research
Links:
Reservations: Doris
Martin, Call 317-892-4107, Fax 317-892-4524, bentleym@tds.net, or mail to 4783
Brookridge, Pittsboro, Indiana 46167
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