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Students Play the Notables:
Testing a Simulation Exercise

Patricia Alvarez
Kapiolani Community College

BIOGRAPHY has a proven track record of exciting interest in historical events. Barbara Tuchman used it extensively in her best-selling histories, considering it a "vehicle to carry the larger subject," something that "encompasses the universal in a particular ... representative."1 Others favor biography because it "humanizes history," "personalizes events," and "demonstrates that the individual does matter."2 Using the format of a press conference, the "History Alive! Program" of the Teachers' Curriculum Institute in California focuses on the lives of "notables" involved in pivotal historical events. In this program, students working in groups face the challenge of personifying an historical figure. The format enticed me by its embrace of the biographical method. The program attempts to deal with "the complexities" of important yet difficult issues by means of "affective learning" whereby students come to "truly appreciate how history affects their own lives."3 1
      The Institute has been developing strategies and materials such as History Alive! for K-12 social studies classes since 1989. The theoretical basis for its approach lies in Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences, Elizabeth Cohen's work on cooperative learning, and Jerome Bruner's spiral curriculum.4 Dedicated to moving teachers away from a static didacticism towards dynamic critical thinking activities, the Institute aims to engage students from a variety of backgrounds and with differing strengths. The wide adoption of its materials and professional development programs5 suggests that it has discovered an effective balance between relevance and content. Simulations, after all, are purported to have "great educational potential."6 2
      With a potentially dry unit on the United States Constitution scheduled soon for my history and government class, I decided to test these assumptions with a History Alive! lesson plan entitled "The Rise of Democracy."7 Later, my students would role-play Civil War and the Vietnam War "press conferences" as well. Participants who would enact these press conferences were my students in two 11th grade sections of a Honolulu charter school in the academic year 2003–2004.8 The classes represented the perfect laboratory for cooperative learning, with students ranging from low to very high ability and drawn from the spectrum of socioeconomic classes and ethnic groups. 3
      Written for a class of up to thirty-six students, the "Democracy" simulation requires nine student groups, each with an actor, a historian, an investigative reporter, and a public relations (PR) agent. The instructions specify in great detail the tasks to be performed by each role-player. For example, the actor plays the historical figure, fields questions from reporters, and cuts out a mask to wear; the historian leads the discussion on the biographical briefing and does extra research to find materials on the historic figure; the PR agent introduces the figure and assists him/her in answering questions during the conference as well as designing a name plate with symbols to represent the figure's ideas; and the investigative reporter prepares and asks probing questions along with preparing the actor for questions he will be asked.9 I followed my own instincts rather than the Institute's carefully laid-out steps,10 creating groups randomly from seating arrangements and allowing groups to make their own role assignments. I also downplayed the requirement for props and costumes, which seemed likely to deflect student interest from content to form.11 4
   

Exercise 1: U.S. Constitution Press Conference

 
      For my small sections of twenty-five students, the PR agent doubled as historian, and one group made do without its own reporter. Aided by the PR/historian, the student playing the role of a historic figure prepared responses for prescribed questions. These were designed to discover his/her concept of an ideal form of government along with how this form of government was justified. Next, the questioners would ask whether the people could be trusted to govern. On the first day of the planned simulations, we reviewed a timeline and definitions of autocracy and democracy. Each group was assigned a historical figure and received copies of his/her two-page biographical profile. Filled with personal details about the figure's family life, education, and career, the profiles enticed students into a feast of opinions on these issues. 5
      The nine figures in the Democracy exercise came out of classical and European history, and included Plato, King Louis XIV, and Thomas Hobbes. These three were deleted in order to make room for James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton, who represented the main political theories set forward in 1787 in Philadelphia. For homework, my students read the biographical profiles and answered factual questions posed about the information therein. During the next days, members of each group reviewed their responses together, prepared a mask and presented their figure.12 The press conference supposedly took place on the final day of the constitutional convention and culminated with the actors arranged in front of the class, simulating the actual spectrum of political beliefs of the time 6
      Capping off the cooperative learning exercises of History Alive! is a "debriefing" during which the teacher asks probing questions to facilitate the search "for deeper meaning and historical accuracy."13 Reviewing the press conference in the time that remained, members of my class offered competent and yet conventional assessments of the arguments supporting the different types of government. As homework, they then each wrote a paragraph assessing the place of the United States Constitution in the spectrum from autocracy to democracy. Most of them found, as was intended, that the figure of Madison, speaking for representative democracy, best symbolized the compromises made in the Constitution between proponents of limited monarchy (Hamilton and John Locke) and those of democracy (Jefferson and Mary Wollstonecraft). While some wondered why democracy fared as poorly as monarchy, the materials provided few clues to answer this important question. 7
      During the press conference, students were to take notes based on the positions put forward by the actors, but it was apparent that most of the investigative reporters did not have enough imagination or information, outside the handouts for the exercise, to ask probing questions. Nor did the actors or their PR/historians, with a few exceptions, have enough background to contribute colorful replies. Without incentives or time to do extra research, no one did any. My attempt to assume the role of an Oprah Winfrey and heat up the discussion, as the History Alive! material suggested I should, came to naught. I quickly concluded that, for the exercise to be both enjoyable and informative, students needed greater command of the subject matter and the exercise needed more context than that provided in the materials. 8
   

Exercise 2: 1850 Press Conference

 
      Materials for the second press conference, set in 1850, pitted abolition against slavery, women's liberation against traditional values, the tariffs against free trade, and nationalism against state rights—all topics encountered in the textbook14 during the weeks before the exercise. Although rights of women and African-Americans are easy to teach because of their relevance up to the present, economic and political matters are more abstract and potentially tedious. However, the press conference format seemed an appropriate vehicle for getting to the meat of the issues of that time without sacrificing student interest. 9
      Attempting to satisfy diversity, capture the range of opinion at the time, and yet minimize the job of composing eight adequate biographies in a short period of time, I chose the following characters: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Lucretia Mott, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, William Lloyd Garrison, and Harriet Tubman.15 The availability of on-line biographies that went into detail about both personal lives and political activities guided my selection. My choice of characters for 1850 was constrained because the life span of each had to make it possible for them to have met. To sharpen students' understanding of potential positions, I modified a rating sheet, developed elsewhere,16 on which students could plot the relevance of each issue for their figure. 10
      In addition to fielding more issues, my handling of this press conference added the elements of time and motive for students to do actual research. One class period was dedicated to an Internet search about the figures and their attendant motives. Following the 1850 Press Conference, students again wrote a paragraph about the spectrum from autocracy to democracy, this time answering the question of where Abraham Lincoln stood on the spectrum, taking into account his views about abolition and women's rights. I found that simulations of this sort are a realistic approach to academic material as claimed.17 My students were allowed to discover that Lincoln privileged slaves over women, advocating with Lucretia Mott, "One war at a time." 11
      In the week following this press conference, students wrote an expository essay about the impact of the Civil War, exploring whether it resolved issues relevant to their figure. To my satisfaction, the textbook lessons and this exercise, taken together, produced a set of essays that dealt insightfully with the war and its effects. Also, I was satisfied because in the press conference, an increased number of actors and public relations advisors handled the issues they were required to discuss competently. Yet in playing Oprah Winfrey, I was only able to make a few of the actors squirm, and most of the reporters had difficulty asking anything other than perfunctory questions. 12
      Surveys taken directly after each exercise (See Tables 1 and 2) reveal that, on a scale of 5 to 1,18 students found the Constitution simulation fairly easy (a mean of 2.88), somewhat enjoyable (2.96), and reasonably instructive (3.52). Despite its greater complexity, students still found the 1850 simulation to be similarly easy (2.94), enjoyable (2.92), and instructive (3.51). The press conference format proved the ability of biography and role-playing to enhance student learning. However much it lacks in rigor, the program of the Teachers' Curriculum Institute offers a plausible solution to studies in the 1980s showing that "students were not learning much history and enjoying the subject even less."19 In a classroom without sophisticated technological aids, this low technology activity presents an attractive means of generating student interest. 13

Table 1
Exercise 1: Student Responses for Constitution Press Conference

Activity a) Difficulty b) Enjoyment c) Learning
  Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev.
Timeline 3.0 .6 2.9 1.0 3.4 .9
Biography briefing 2.7 .6 3.2 1.1 3.8 .9
Summary of fig. 2.7 .6 3.0 1.0 3.4 .9
Taking notes 2.9 .8 3.0 1.0 3.4 1.0
Writing paragraph 3.1 .6 2.9 1.0 3.6 1.0
Average 2.88 .65 2.96 1.01 3.52 .94

 

Table 2
Exercise 2: Student Responses for 1850 Press Conference

Activity a) Difficulty b) Enjoyment c) Learning
  Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev.
Biography briefing 2.6 .6 3.0 1.0 3.8 1.0
Rating sheet 2.8 .7 2.8 0.8 3.3 1.1
Computer search 2.9 .7 3.1 1.2 3.3 1.1
Mask, placard 2.8 .7 3.2 1.0 3.4 1.0
Press conference 2.9 .7 3.1 1.1 3.7 1.1
Writing paragraph 3.2 .8 2.6 1.0 3.4 1.0
Writing essay 3.4 .7 2.7 1.1 3.8 1.0
Average 2.94 .68 2.92 1.02 3.51 1.04

 
      Of the several activities in each exercise, the biographical briefing stood out both times. It was considered, on average, the least difficult (2.7 and 2.6 respectively) and the one from which students learned the most (3.8 for both). It was at or near the top in terms of enjoyment (3.2 and 3.0). The predictability or reliability of these figures was tested by computing their standard deviation, a measurement of the distance that lies between students' answers and the mean. The wider the range of these values, the higher the standard deviation will be. When scores vary greatly, their average may be suspect. The standard deviations of difficulty for the biographical briefings were the lowest in the exercises (0.6 for both), giving great confidence in these figures.20 14
   

Exercise 3: Vietnam Press Conference

 
      Even before analyzing this data, I had detected enough enthusiasm to try the press conference format one more time. With the United States at war in Iraq, it was easy to capitalize on news accounts and incorporate themes from United States foreign policy into my lessons, while American involvement in Vietnam represented a perfect case study. To acquire suitable background, students read the textbook's chapters on the Spanish American War, the world wars, and the Cold War along with the domestic and strategic aspects of the Vietnam War. The press conference took place over six days, from April 30 to May 7, 2004. 15
      Although this was a United States history class, the eight historical figures, with the exception of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, were all leaders of foreign nations, the better to impart the variety of perspectives that underlie multiculturalism. The figures all represented countries with an interest in the outcome of the war, with a good dollop of gender equity supplied by the use of two high-profile wives who served as stand-ins for their husbands. The non-American participants were Ho Chi Minh, Nguyen Cao Ky, Leonid Brezhnev, Imelda Marcos, Norodom Sihanouk, Jiang Qing (Madame Mao), and Indira Gandhi. Their biographies are summarized in Appendix I. 16
      The hypothetical meeting of this group in 1966 represents a time when all the figures were, in fact, actors on the world scene. Most of them and their policies were new to my students, who had to be coached on pronunciation of the more difficult names. My version of plausible pronunciation appears after the name of each figure in the Summary (Appendix I). We had filled out an outline map during an earlier lesson that provided a visual image of the contours of Southeast Asian nations that had been equally foreign to my charges hitherto. 17
      While the names and nations were novel, the issues for the press conference were economic and political questions that had confronted students in earlier lessons. This, along with the familiar format, helped reduce the dearth of prior knowledge. The not insignificant issues were capitalism v. socialism, autocracy v. democracy, colonialism v. autarchy, and pro- and anti-American foreign policy. Speaking broadly, three of the figures (Secretary McNamara, Prime Minister Nguyen of South Vietnam, and Mrs. Marcos of the Philippines) were pro-United States, three were hostile (Ho of North Vietnam, Madame Mao of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman Brezhnev of the Soviet Union). Two (Prime Minister Gandhi of India and Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia) struggled to remain neutral. 18
      The major steps of the exercise were the following:
1) Reading the Biographical briefing– 2 pages without questions
2) Analyzing the historical figure using a rating sheet on national issues
3) Conducting a computer search for explanations of those positions andmore background information on the figure
4) Formulating questions for the reporters to ask
5) Writing up a Works Cited of sources for the information accessed inthe search
6) Preparing for the Press Conference by making a mask and placardand reading the summaries of other figures
7) Participating and taking notes during the Press Conference
8) Writing a paragraph on U.S. foreign policy
 19
      As with the earlier exercises, students began with the biographical briefings of their figures. This time, instead of answering questions, they moved immediately to filling out a rating sheet (Appendix II) that evaluated where their figure stood on the issues, especially with regard to American policy in Vietnam. The rating sheet streamlined the spectrum and reduced the ten positions to four categories. This required students literally to put their figures in a box; nuances would have to come later. Next, in groups, students conducted Internet searches to find out more about their figures and to facilitate their writing a few sentences explaining one of the stated positions. While engaged in this research, many groups came across photos and sketches of their figures that they downloaded and used as masks. 20
      To strengthen the reporters' interrogation techniques and the discussions at the conference itself, I asked all group members to help write questions. They were to formulate both hardballs, for opponents of their own views or for supporters who seemed less than stalwart, and softballs, for figures on the same side of the political spectrum who could help to propagate their views. Using the Summary of historical figures and extra copies of the extended biographies available on the teacher's desk, students struggled to place other figures than their own to the political right or left. Nuances reared their heads as it became clear that positions were dictated by personal convictions and geopolitical constraints as much as by Cold War calculations. 21
      As before, students made placards and masks and completed a "Taking Notes" worksheet (Appendix III) during this activity. Following the Vietnam Press Conference, they wrote a paragraph assessing the place of the United States on the spectrum from imperialism (through interventionism and nationalism) to autarchy. They found the actions of the United States, its altruistic rhetoric notwithstanding, to be interventionist, dictated by its own self-interest no less than that of any other nation. The students thus gained a crucial insight into American foreign policy while acquiring a realistic understanding of why other nations behaved as they did. 22
      At the time we embarked on this exercise, the classrooms in our school were newly equipped with computers and Internet access for every student. Due to time constraints, however, the computer search I requested was brief and merely asked for secondary sources. Instructors with more time can easily add a primary document search. One archival treasure trove, whether for a world or American history class, is the Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library.21 Its multitude of documents detail the reaction of the president, his officials, and his advisors to every leader featured in the Press Conference. While admittedly deriving from only one side in the war, these sources nevertheless provide helpful insight into the political and economic constraints under which these leaders labored. 23
      In the heterogeneous classrooms of our school, with their fair share of average and below-average students, any new type of exercise must be approached with care. A portion of my class still had difficulty understanding the difference between a primary and a secondary source, not to mention why one might be preferred over the other, although early in the academic year we had completed an exercise in distinguishing between the two types. Included here is an online Archival Search (Appendix IV) which calls for students to choose a document, summarize its content, and then evaluate its data. For weak students, or even strong ones who are perfectionists, the lack of uniformity in archival documents creates confusion: one is a letter, one a diary entry, another contains notes from a meeting. Leaving nothing to chance, the exercise includes a worksheet on which students can record their findings (Appendix V) combined with a Rating sheet activity, to address the difficulty students experience with that part of the press conference. An archival search lengthens the lesson by another three days. 24
      Only the Vietnam Press Conference, in my estimation, began to approach the type of student interest and learning that the Teachers' Curriculum Institute promised. I finally heard, from an average student, a zinger about Prime Minister Gandhi's 1966 visit to the United States: "Indira, did LBJ sweet talk you into toning down your criticism?" While the Vietnam Press Conference involved personages almost totally unfamiliar to the students and questions were not as robust or pointed as they could have been (students missed the chance to chide Imelda Marcos about her shoes!), more of the reporters displayed confidence in questioning the actors and more of the actors genuinely adopted the personae of their figures. No Oprah Winfrey caricature was needed on my part. 25
      According to History Alive! materials, the key to successful group-work is devising multiple-ability tasks so students with different learning styles can interact on a level playing field.22 Its activities aim to neutralize what its authors see as the greatest obstacle to effective cooperative learning, namely "unequal status interaction" or the status differences that allow gifted or popular students to take over group activities and shut out their less assertive peers, resulting in misbehavior by the latter and proportionately less learning.23 The press conference format amply fulfills the claims of its authors to engage the multiple intelligences of students. Its cooperative aspect clearly challenged the interpersonal skills of all students and their ability to work with each other. Actors had to have great intrapersonal and kinesthetic skills, and the masks and placards challenged those with visual abilities. Those with linguistic and logical ability used their evaluative skills to analyze the biographies.24 26
      The added components in my revised exercises have the potential to accentuate the differences between fast and slow learners that cooperative learning is meant to eliminate. Still, in my classroom, this did not occur. Enrolled as they were in a small laboratory school, my students have engaged in countless cooperative learning activities. Overlapping roles went on rather naturally among them, firm friends that they were. It is not possible from the student surveys to identify which students said they did not learn anything, but in these guided activities I observed fewer instances than in more free-form ones where linguistically-gifted students dominated to the detriment of weaker ones. However, the unequal demand of the various tasks allowed some students to be free riders. 27
      Cooperative activities are not only time-consuming but also fairly difficult to assess in terms of individual student contributions. While History Alive! provides a very detailed "Brag Sheet" for group-work,25 I devised my own tool. Much of the press conference grade consisted of assignment completion, yet groups did earn varied points for certain tasks: on the rating sheet, with its statement of reasons why figures took their positions; questions written for the reporters; the citations in an accompanying Works Cited. For individuals, I kept a record indicating who asked good questions, who answered well, who was or was not on task. In addition, each student wrote an essay and fielded items on the next unit exam relating to the terms and figures in the exercise. 28
      Table 3 contains the findings of a survey that recorded student impressions of the difficulty of the exercise, and the enjoyment and learning derived from it. 29

Table 3
Exercise 3: Student Responses for Vietnam Press Conference

Activity a) Difficulty b) Enjoyment c) Learning
  Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev.
Bio briefing 2.8 0.9 3.3 0.9 4.2 0.7
Rating sheet 3.3 0.6 2.9 0.9 3.6 0.9
Computer search 3.0 0.7 3.7 1.1 4.1 0.9
Writing questions 3.4 0.9 3.0 1.0 3.6 0.9
Works Cited 2.9 1.0 2.3 1.1 2.6 1.1
Mask and placard26 2.7 1.3 3.9 1.8 3.1 1.6
Taking notes 3.3 0.8 3.1 1.1 3.9 1.0
Writing paragraph 3.1 0.6 2.9 1.1 3.3 1.0
Averages 3.06 0.9 3.14 1.1 3.55 1.0

 
      Overall, students found the Vietnam exercise moderately difficult (3.06), as indeed it was, and yet rather enjoyable (3.14) and yielding a fair amount of learning (3.55). Although the foreign notables were entirely new to them, a considerable amount of the material in the biographical briefings consisted of economic and political issues with which they were already familiar. Despite the fact that students found the Vietnam Press Conference slightly more difficult than the earlier two (3.06 compared to 2.88 and 2.94), these tables indicate that the Vietnam exercise was slightly more enjoyable (3.14 versus 2.96 and 2.92) and slightly more instructive (3.55 versus 3.52 and 3.51). 30
      For the Vietnam Press Conference, as with the earlier ones, the answers with the highest level of confidence were those assessing the difficulty of the activities.27 The activities students found most difficult were Writing questions to ask at the press conference (3.4), Analyzing the figures using a rating sheet (3.3), and Participating and taking notes at the press conference (3.3). The standard deviation for Analyzing the figures (0.6) was one of the two lowest for any of the means, giving us confidence in that figure. 31
      Biography continued to demonstrate its utility as a fulcrum for issues where interest might be low or absent. If we disregard the findings for Making the mask and placard, which all had high standard deviations, the easiest activity in the exercise was the Biographical briefing (2.8). Although they had never before heard of Prince Sihanouk or Madame Mao, students reported that the Biographical briefings were not very difficult (2.8), they experienced moderate enjoyment in reading them (3.3), and they learned a lot (4.2). Students reported learning more from reading the briefings (4.2) than from any of the other activities. 32
      I wondered whether moderate enjoyment (3.14) accurately represented true student opinion about the press conferences. Since the standard deviations in the student surveys were somewhat unreliable, I decided to test my findings with yet another student survey. Taken at the end of the 2003–2004 school year, this one asked questions about seventeen different social studies activities (Table 4). The data derived from this survey cast a more favorable light on the question of student enjoyment of the press conferences. Arrayed against the alternatives, students agreed that the simulations were among the more agreeable activities. Collaborating with partners on a press conference ranked fourth among seventeen activities with an enjoyment mean of 3.8, outranked only by two popular field trips (4.4 and 4.1) and Taking a position in a group that challenges the position of another group (3.9). After eliminating those with high standard deviations,28 the press conference format might fairly be considered as runner up for Best Activity of the Year. Moreover, the end-of-year assessment confirms that students found the press conferences only moderately difficult (3.2) and a good source of learning (3.9). 33

Table 4
End-of-Year Student Survey of Social Studies Classroom Activities. 2003–2004

Activities a) Difficulty b) Enjoyment c) Learning
  Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev.
Writing paragraph of assessment 3.1 0.6 3.2 1.0 3.6 0.8
Writing essay from prime/2ndry sources 3.5 0.7 3.0 1.1 4.1 1.0
Coloring/labeling Map 2.4 0.8 3.5 1.1 3.5 1.0
Watching/analyzing films 2.8 0.7 3.5 1.1 3.5 1.0
Doing research with chosen partner 3.1 0.6 3.8 1.1 4.0 1.0
Doing research with assigned partner 3.2 0.8 3.4 1.0 3.8 0.9
Taking a position challenging others 3.2 0.6 3.9 0.9 3.9 0.8
Taking field trip to Capital 2.6 1.0 4.4 1.3 4.5 1.2
Taking field trip to Judiciary Hist Cntr 2.6 1.1 4.1 1.3 4.0 1.3
Preparing poster or Cartoon 2.9 0.6 3.5 1.1 3.5 0.8
Reading, writing definitions/Ids 2.9 0.7 2.8 1.0 3.8 0.7
Analyzing cartoons, photos, artwork 3.0 0.7 3.5 1.0 3.5 1.1
Analyzing graphs/charts 2.8 0.7 3.1 0.9 3.3 0.9
Finding/reporting newspaper article 2.9 0.5 3.2 1.0 3.7 0.9
Collaborating on press conferences 3.1 0.8 3.8 0.8 3.9 0.9
Taking tests on course material 3.3 0.6 2.8 1.0 3.6 0.9
Giving in-class oral Presentation 3.3 0.7 3.3 1.0 3.3 0.9

 
      In other words, the survey shows that students enjoyed (3.8) the press conferences almost as much as they learned from them (3.9). While considered at the time of the initial surveys to be only moderately enjoyable, these exercises were among the favorites of students when seen in retrospect and arrayed against other social studies activities. Despite the possibility that the survey merely registers a negative assessment of the other activities, the positive correlation between the factors of enjoyment and learning reflects something we instinctively sense, that having a little fun in the classroom can transform the most dreary topic. Simulations generate platforms of receptivity on which later lessons can build.29 Those described here can be an effective means of introducing students to important yet dry subjects. Whether dealing with a paucity of knowledge about Asia or America's own history, the revised press conference offers a useful vehicle for engaging students. Teachers are sure to enjoy them as well. It is not every day they can pretend to be Oprah Winfrey or truly step back and allow students to do their own learning. 34


Notes

1.  Barbara Tuchman, "Biography as a Prism of History," in Biography as High Adventure: Life Writers Speak on Their Art, ed. Stephen Oates (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986), 99 and 94.

2.  Stephen Oates, "Prologue," in Biography as High Adventure: Life Writers Speak on Their Art, ed. Stephen Oates (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986), xi and ix.

3.  Teachers' Curriculum Institute, History Alive! Engaging All Learners in the Diverse Classroom, (Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994), 90 and 3.

4.  Teachers' Curriculum Institute, History Alive!, v.

5.  The History Alive! Program states that 1,000 school districts and 10,000 schools are using its materials. Teachers' Curriculum Institute, "The TCI Approach" accessed at <http://www.historyalive.com/Administrator/approach.asp>; Tim Kane, "New Curriculum Makes History Come to Life," Chicago Tribune Online Edition, August 7, 2003, accessed at <http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/index.html?ts=1103065661>. It is "known for its engaging group activities," according to librarian Roz Van Auker, "Education: Materials of Interest to Secondary Social Studies Teachers," Sacramento: California State University, July 2002, accessed at <http://library.csus.edu/guides/rogenmoserd/edu/secondarysocialstudies.htm>.

6.  Ambrose A. Clegg, "Games and Simulations in Social Studies Education, Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching and Learning, ed. J.P. Shaver (New York: Macmillan, 1991), 528.

7.  "Section 1: The Rise of Democracy," in High School Modern World Development Team's Western Europe in the Modern World (Mountain View, CA: Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 1994). In the Institute's current edition, "The Rise of Democracy" appears in History Alive! The Ancient World.

8.  The Education Laboratory School in Honolulu, Hawaii, operated by the Curriculum Research & Development Group of the College of Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

9.  "Section 1," in Western Europe in the Modern World, 3.

10.  Their caveats include preparing students to work together, designing high-level group-work tasks, dividing the class into heterogeneous groups, giving each student a role, and allowing groups to resolve their own problems. Teachers Curriculum Institute, History Alive!, 73.

11.  The result was that only one student came dressed for her part.

12.  The role of the historical mask is "to bring authenticity to a panel discussion." Teachers Curriculum Institute, History Alive!, 90.

13.  Teachers Curriculum Institute, History Alive!, 85.

14.  Gerald A. J. Danzer, J. Jorge Klor de Alva, Larry S. Krieger, Louis E. Wilson, Nancy Woloch, The Americans (Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2003).

15.  The History Alive! material features a similar lineup and suggests that creating the biographies is a "fairly simple task" that will "not take an exorbitant amount of time." I can testify that this is the most difficult part of creating the lesson. The available encyclopedia biographies are uneven, treating Lincoln at great length and Lucretia Mott or Harriet Tubman hardly at all, not just with respect to the interesting details of their personal stories but with regard to their positions on issues as well. Teachers Curriculum Institute, History Alive!, 78.

16.  Eileen H. Tamura, Linda K. Minton, Noren W. Lush, and Francis K. C. Tsui, China: Understanding Its Past (Honolulu: Curriculum Research & Development Group and University of Hawaii Press, 1998), 158–160. The rating form provided a spectrum from 1 to 10, from weak to very strong support for a position.

17.  Clegg, "Games," 524.

18.  The scale used for each item ranged from 5 to 1, from Too Difficult to Too Easy, from Enjoyed a lot to Disliked, and from Learned a lot to Learned Nothing.

19.  Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross E. Dunn, History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ix.

20.  We can be less sure about those for enjoyment and learning, whose standard deviations ranged from 0.9 to 1.1. I am indebted to Prof. Paul Brandon, of the University of Hawaii's Curriculum Research & Development Group, who computed these means and standard deviations for me, and to Rosemarie Ramos for putting the data into tabular form. My thanks also go to my husband Jose B.C. Alvarez and my daughter Margarita Bourgeois, who provided addition help with the computations and explanations.

21.  U.S. Department of State, "Johnson Adminstration," accessed at <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/johnsonlb/>.

22.  The varying abilities are linguistic (read, write, present orally), logical (how to organize), visual (how to analyze pictures, draw visual representation), musical (interpret, derive meaning), kinesthetic (use body to explain ideas), intrapersonal (empathy with plight, self-confidence to present), interpersonal (ability to work with others in group). Teachers Curriculum Institute, History Alive!, 76.

23.  Teachers Curriculum Institute, History Alive!, 71–76.

24.  The only skills not addressed by the activity were musical ones.

25.  Teachers Curriculum Institute, History Alive!, 87.

26.  The high standard deviations may derive from the fact that 8 out of 49 students did not rank this activity.

27.  The standard deviations in this exercise were not uniformly low and ranged from 0.6 to 1.3.

28.  Namely, those for Field trips, which were 1.3 in each case, and those for Taking a position (0.9) and Collaborating (0.8).

29.  Sarane S. Boocock and E. O. Schild, Simulation Games in Learning (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1968), 265.



Appendix I: Vietnam Press Conference Figures

Summary of Historical Figures

     Brezhnev, Leonid – (Lay' Oh Nid Brezsh' Nef) premier or first secretary of the Communist Party in the U.S.S.R. from 1964 to 1982. Supporter of national liberation movements in the Third World, he led his country during the high point of his nation's international influence. Domestic problems prevented him from capitalizing on that influence.

     Gandhi, Indira –(In Deer' Ah Gahn' Dee) daughter of the first prime minister of an independent India, becoming Prime Minister in her own right in 1966. She was vocal in her criticism of American interference in Asia and wavered between neutrality and alliance with America's opponents in the Cold War. Her own guards assassinated her in 1984.

     Ho Chi Minh – (Ho Chee Min) founder of the Vietminh forces that gained independence from France and victory over the U.S. in the Vietnam War. He served both as premier and president of North Vietnam. By the time of his death in 1969, he had become more symbol than active leader in the national struggle for unify.

     Jiang Qing – (Gee Ahn' Jing) one-time actress and wife of Chinese Premier Mao Zedong. She emerged in 1966 as China's most powerful woman. As a leader of the Cultural Revolution, she helped to focus the nation's attention inside the nation rather than on the American menace to the southern border. She died in prison in 1991.

     Marcos, Imelda – (E Mel' Dah Mar' Kos) talented beauty queen who rose to prominence and caught the eye of Ferdinand Marcos. In 1965, her husband won election to the presidency of the Philippines, a former colony of the U.S. with which it remained allied. The couple used its position to garner personal wealth and power.

     McNamara, Robert –(Mac' Nah Mare' Rah) U.S. Secretary of Defense, 1961–1968. As much as any American president, he came to symbolize the nation's failure in Vietnam. He lent his genius to the great build-up of American troops, but found himself out of office when his enthusiasm flagged in the face of widespread opposition to the war.

     Nguyen Cao Ky –(Win Cow Key) former Vietnam Air Force officer whose successful coup made him Premier of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1967. Fervent anti-communist who collaborated with two American presidents in their attempts to defeat the Viet Cong guerrillas in his country. He fled to U.S. in 1975, as Saigon fell.

     Sihanouk, Norodom – (No' Ro Dome See' Ah Nook) prince, king, prime minister, head of state of Cambodia. Over the course of a lifetime, he dedicated himself to securing independence from old colonizers and autonomy from newly powerful neighbors. His efforts to stay out of the war in neighboring Vietnam did not prevent invasion and personal loss.



Appendix II: Vietnam Press Conference Rating Sheet
Rating Sheet for ______________________________ of _________________
Name Nation

Place a check in the box under the description that best fits the figure named. If more than one answer applies, add a beginning and ending date.

Economic System

Pure capitalism Mixed capitalism Socialism Communism
No restrictions on capital or business operations; low taxes, privatized economy, anarchy Government regulation of business on behalf of labor and consumers Government ownership of major businesses, nationalized economy, high taxes Government control of all production and distribution
       

Political System

Autocracy/Personalism Representative democracy/republic Democracy / direct democracy People's republic
Absolute monarchy, one-man rule; government by one or several military officers (junta); no separate judicial, legislative functions Constitutional framework for law-making. People elect representatives/two parties, separation of powers, weak president Constitutional frame-work for law-making. People vote directly for laws; multiple parties / parliament, strong president or prime minister One party system of elected party representatives; Collective leadership, party leaders choose prime minister and president
       

Foreign Policy Objective

Imperialism Interventionism Self-determination (nationalism) Autonomy
Exercises economic, political or military control over weaker lands, including "autonomous" ones Foreign investment/economic and military aid used to influence other nations indirectly Free trade, alliances among multi-ethnic, pluralistic nations (defined by geo-political boundaries) Local economic/ political autonomy (nation defined by ethnic or religious identity)
       

Cold War Alignment

Pro–U.S. Neutral, but accepts U.S. aid Neutral, but accepts Soviet/Chinese aid Pro-Communist
       



Appendix III: Vietnam Press Conference Note-Taking

Taking Notes on Historical Figures

Ask questions and fill in the blanks, using the answers that the various figures provide. Be sure to ask and get a "rationale" for those positions.

Historical figure, dates, symbol Economic System Political System Foreign Policy Objectives Cold War stance, with respect to Vietnam War
Brezhnev, Leonid        
Gandhi, Indira        
Ho Chi Minh        
Jiang Ching        
Marcos, Imelda        
McNamara, Robert        
Nguyen Cao Ky        
Sihanouk, Norodom        



Appendix IV: Vietnam Press Conference Online Search

Online Archival Search

Objective: To familiarize students with how to fill in the Rating Sheet and how to add information from a website containing archival documents.
Materials: Press Conference materials (Rating Sheet, Archives Worksheet), individual student computers
Procedure:
Day 1: Fill out Rating Sheet using sample online biography.

1. Hand out blank rating sheets. Discuss its categories. "As a class, we will read together the biography of someone not in the Summary of Historical Figures (Park Chung Hee of South Korea). Fill in the rating sheet using the following path:

2. UH home page, libraries, Manoa, Electronic Resources. Write in Encyclopedia Britannica. Go to Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Write in 'Park Chung Hee.' Then go to //countries1.tripod.com/cSouthKorea35.htm. Read the first paragraph and fill in as many of the categories as you can."

3. Discuss findings for Park Chung Hee and how to complete rating sheet using information from that site.

4. Hand out biographical briefings to each group. For homework, students should read their biographical profile and fill in the rating sheet for their historical figure.

Day 2. Conduct guided research in Johnson Library website to locate and extract information from documents relating to sample (Park Chung Hee).

1. Hand out Archives Worksheet. "As a class, we'll go to www/state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/johnsonlb/. Choose Volume XXIX Korea. Choose Document Volume 60–71 (1965). Locate #60. Read it to yourself." Ask students for worksheet answers, verifying that they understand how to read the document and complete a worksheet entry. Scroll down through #61 and #62, again getting worksheet answers orally. Teacher notes, "Words typed in blue are not part of the primary source per se but rather are commentary, added by the Johnson Library, to help situate the document." Stop at #63. "Fill out worksheet for paragraph 1."

2. Teacher leads discussion of what students wrote. The students, working individually, fill out form for next 4 paragraphs of #63.

3. 'Write a summary of what you learned, in reading all 5 paragraphs, about South Korea's domestic political or economic situation and/or its relationship to the U.S., especially anything related to Vietnam War."

Day 3. Use archival material at Johnson Library to augment understanding of historical figures.

1. "Go to the Johnson Library website we used yesterday. Working as a group, find the geographical area (China, South Asia) that belongs to your historical figure. Find documents pertaining to your historical figure for the year 1965 or 1966. Assign one document or part of a document to each member of the group. Each student, using a blank piece of paper, should take notes on the document, using the categories on the Archives Worksheet. Discuss your findings together. Each member of the group writes a summary of what the group learned. Choose the best summary to submit. Make any changes to your Rating sheet to account for the new information."

2. Ask individual groups to report what information they learned and how that adds to the biographical profile of their historical figure.



Appendix V: Vietnam Press Conference Archives Worksheet

Vietnam Press Conference

Archives Worksheet Name ____________________________

Fill out this worksheet after reading the paragraphs of a given document. If you have to start on a second document, note down for it all the information you provided for the first document.

No. _______ Title ________________________________________________
Date _____________________
Subject ___________________

Paragraph 1
Summarize the content of the paragraph in 1 sentence. _______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 2
Summarize the content of the paragraph in 1 sentence. _______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 3
Summarize the content of the paragraph in 1 sentence. _______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 4
Summarize the content of the paragraph in 1 sentence. _______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 5
Summarize the content of the paragraph in 1 sentence. _______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

On another sheet of paper, write a paragraph, with a generalizing topic sentence and at least 3 pieces of evidence and one direct quote from the documents. Conclude your paragraph by explaining the importance of what the document revealed about the nation or the policy of your historical figure.

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