Making history: Jefferson seventh graders create game to test knowledge

MONROE — Learning ancient Hebrew history turned into a game for Jennifer Young’s seventh grade social studies classes at Jefferson Middle School.

Approximately 100 students designed their own game board in an effort to learn vocabulary words and test their knowledge.

With a format similar to the racing board game “Candy Land,” published by Milton Bradley in 1948, students used markers and colored pencils to create an educational path which included 20 vocabulary words, eight random draw slots and three symbols. It’s a teaching technique she has used with other classes.

Young has taught seventh grade social studies for 13 years and has almost 20 years' experience in special education. In addition to academic tests, she uses a lot of hands-on learning activities.

“I try to be project based because some kids are artistically talented and they will flourish in those projects,” Jennifer Young said. “If I gave them a straight out test, they may not always do well.”

In seventh grade social studies, students learn about ancient civilizations and the five major world religions in ancient civilization in the eastern hemisphere, so the vocabulary portion included words like monotheism, Saul, Israel, Nebuchadnezzar, patriarch, Torah and Romans.

They worked on the definitions together so that they were consistent.

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For the ancient Hebrew history game, the students decided where they would place the vocabulary words and draw slots. When the games were finished, Young selected the top 20 for her students to play.

“Any time you land on a draw slot, you have to draw a vocabulary card,” Young said. “When you get the definition, you have to figure out what the answer is and then you go to that place on the board.”

The classes played round robin style like a tournament, where each participant plays against the other participants in the event.

Wanted posters will be the next project when classes start studying ancient Egypt.

“They’re like the wild west posters,” Young said. “Egypt is polytheistic so they have lots of gods and they’re very interesting. One way to gear their interest is to pick a god, research it and make a wanted poster about what they are known for and what they look like.”

This section also includes a traditional test with the unit in addition to the project.

Young realizes her students learn differently and many of them do well with visual aids and hands-on activities. There has to be an element of fun.

“The students that traditionally don’t do well with pure academics sometimes thrive on these projects. It gives them another avenue to show me what they know,” Young said. “If I can’t get them to have fun in class, I can’t get them to learn.”

— Contact reporter Lisa Vidaurri-Bowling at lvidaurribowling@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Jefferson Middle School seventh graders create game to test history knowledge