Category Archives: Experiencing History – Project Based Learning

A Bit of Mad Libs, A little practicality and a little fun

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Every semester it is one of my favorite assignments.  In asking students to start to recognize the vocabulary that can help them place a Vita (translation: Life–as in an early form of biography that often focused less on accuracy and more on example or political commentary) in the appropriate era, I have them select an era and then draw up a list of words, Mad Libs style, that would be appropriate for a Vita from that era.

Below, are examples from this semester with my commentary:


The virile man was cunning.  He conquered other nations. 

He always ­delegated to Jupiter in the morning earning

the admiration of Alexander.  When combat happened

in the noon he was the first to struck his Caesar.

This group included key figures/deities that would indicate a Roman text, as well as focusing on the admirable traits of a Roman leader: virile, cunning, conquering, striking–in other words, strong, clever, and militant.


The literate man was educated.  He copied other nations. 

He always ­converting to Charles in the morning earning

the admiration of Missi.  When the crowned emperor happened

in the death of Charlemagne he was the first to defend his Carolingians.

This group selected the Carolingian era, for which they read an excerpt of Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne.  This is rather different from the Late Antique-era Vitae which focused more on holy men and women with a special emphasis on martyrdom, conversions and miracles, or withdrawal from the world.  The Carolingian Vita–and especially Einhard’s–is deliberately copying the Roman tradition of Vitae.  This group, however, chose to focus on the particular marks of Charlmagne’s reign: education and literacy, copying of texts (though in the Mad Libs, this meaning was changed considerably), conversion and defense of the Church and empire.  It also included important Carolingian features and events, such as the Missi who were the messengers of the king, distributing his capitularies (laws) and charters, and the crowning of Charlemagne as the new emperor by the pope.


The hearty of service man was master of good will.  He overpowered other nations. 

He always ­surpassed to Caesar in the morning earning

the admiration of soldiers.  When assault happened

in the nighttime he was the first to die his orator.

Here, again, is a Roman example.  This one also focuses on virtues of a leader including a permissible goodness, strong military career–including the admiration of soldiers–and a touch of the Hellenistic or possibly a nod to the typical career-building of the Roman elite (or both) in identifying him also as an orator.

Late Antique

The blessed man was arrogant.  He granted other nations. 

He always ­relinquished to Jesus in the morning earning

the admiration of martyrs.  When persecution happened

in the Easter he was the first to overthrow his bishop.

This one is a little confused merging historical interests of the Late Antique writers, such as Gregory of Tours, and the holy-man/martyr-Vita.  If one discounts the use of “arrogant” and “overthrow” in this sample, one can see the clear use of Late Antique preoccupations in their Vitae: blessed men (and occasionally women), relinquishing worldly possessions and goals, devotion to Jesus, willing martyrs in the face of persecution, the importance of Easter, and the significance of stable church offices, such as the bishops, in the face of great change and threat of violence in a post-Roman Empire world.  Historians of the era, on the other hand, often discussed the violence of the newly arrived peoples–particularly that of fratricide among Frankish princes in order to secure a larger cut of the kingdoms they inherited.  This may explain the incongruous additions of “arrogant” and “overthrow”–unless their Vita was a conversion story, of course.


The strong man was controlling.  He reinstated other nations.

He always ­sent to the Merovingians in the morning earning

the admiration of missis.  When the Battle of Tours happened

in the Treaty of Verdun he was the first to convert his Carolingians.

And, finally, another Carolingian mock Vita.  This group focused less on Charlemagne’s renovatio (the word the Carolingians used to describe their own program–what many scholars today call the Carolingian Renaissance) and more on the type of leader Charlemagne was: strong and controlling, trying to convert the Saxons.  They still include the renovatio in the verb “reinstated” as many Roman and Church traditions, in addition to the education programs, were attempted.  This group references the Carolingians fellow-Frankish dynastic predecessors: the Merovingians, including (I think) their glorious campaign by Charlemagne’s grandfather, Charles “the Hammer” Martel, the Battle of Tours (they mean Poitiers, though, unless this is just a convenient place name to describe a battle which could have taken place) which drove the Muslim advance out of Gaul (modern day France) and back into Spain.  They leap forward then to the later Treaty of Verdun signed to attempt an amicable division of territory between Charlemagne’s grandchildren–it would not last.

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Filed under Experiences, Experiencing History - Project Based Learning, Fiction, H stands for Humor

Lecturing and passive learning








Create a Natural Critical Learning Environment (99)




  • What’s the next question?
  • What can we ask now?
  • What major conclusions did you draw?
  • What questions remain in your mind?


Start with Students rather than Discipline (110)



Help Students Learn Outside of Class (114)



Engage Students in Disciplinary Thinking  (114)



Create Diverse Learning Experiences (116)



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Coca Cola bottles explain archaeology

Think over your own lifetime and select a product that has been around at least as long as you.  How has that product’s marketing and appearance changed over time?  Can you recall when it shifted its appearance?  (Many folks will, for example, recall when Pepsi changed its look in very recent history, perhaps to capitalize on Mr. Obama’s campaign iconography coming off his first inauguration or perhaps as a simple coincidence.)  Branding and rebranding may teach us something about how archaeologists date their finds in the field.

S-S 1900-1905 comparison

Straight-Sided (S-S) Coca Cola bottles from c. 1905-1910
Source: “Antique Coke Bottles” –

Dr. Lawrence E. Stager is a Harvard professor and a Biblical archaeologist.  I recently viewed his discussions about archaeology and Biblical archaeology specifically in Biblical Archaeology: From the Ground DOWN for my History 101 unit on the ancient Hebrews (a favorite lesson of mine that not only builds nicely on our previous weeks’ discussions about Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Hittites, and archaeology as a source of knowledge, but also stimulates great discussion and debate about texts and oral history).  In it, he at one point is explaining the concept of pottery typologies that are used to date the differing strata of the tells they dig in the Near East (a tell is a mound or hill that has developed because succeeding levels of a city were built upon each other following natural or man-made destruction, reconstructions, redevelopment, etc.) wherein each of the strata represents a (roughly) different time, epoch or event layer of the city’s or neighborhood’s history.

S-S Arrow logo bottles manufactured primarily in  TN and KY from 1912-1916Source: "Antique Coke Bottles" -

S-S Arrow logo bottles manufactured primarily in TN and KY from 1912-16 (L), and exclusively in Jackson, TN from 1912-14 (R)
Source: “Antique Coke Bottles” –

Stager explains that pottery types (hence the term typology) went through phases of popularity that give scholars confidence in dating the individual sherds that are left behind.  One of the best sources for archaeologists seeking the lost material culture at dig site is the midden or garbage dump.  Here, the various broken tools, accessories, and other materials can be found in one place.  Stager explained that broken sherds can provide enough material evidence to suggest the time period when the pottery was in fashion: particularly the handles and lips of pottery pieces if those are available, but also the designs used to decorate pots which can nail down both culture and time.

The "new" Hobbleskirt design, this one being a rare example from 1915, featuring blue glass on top and green glass on the bottom

The “new” Hobbleskirt design, this one being a rare example from 1915, featuring blue glass on top and green glass on the bottom.
Source: “Antique Coke Bottles” –

To explain this process he brought up the design of the Coca Cola bottle in his own lifetime, during which he drank from glass bottles with the brand appearing on the side of the bottle in raised glass, the glass bottle with a painted or printed label on top of the glass surface, and finally the plastic bottle.  These different motifs are traceable to the exact years in which they were manufactured.

"Dec. 25 1923" (called the "Christmas Cokes") were produced from 1928 to 1938.  You can identify them from later reproductions by looking at the base--Can you spot the reproduction in the shot?

“Dec. 25 1923” (called the “Christmas Cokes”) were produced from 1928 to 1938. You can identify them from later reproductions by looking at the base–Can you spot the reproduction in the shot?
Source: “Antique Coke Bottles” –

When Coca Cola was originally produced it was at the soda fountain in the latter years of the 19th century and served in glasses (and the original recipe included cocaine–hence its value as a medicinal product, if a highly addictive one).  Eventually, to protect the brand against pretenders, the Coca Cola company adopted the contoured bottle between 1905-1908, and that it attempts to maintain even in today’s plastic bottles, also know as the “hobbleskirt” design.


Coca Cola bottles manufactured in New York in the 1940s
Source: eBay sale

In the early days, branding was more fluid and it is more challenging to date some of these early bottles without some reference–many collectors’ sites exist to aid this process of differentiation; if it is of interest to you, see links below this post.  The bottle variations from the early part of the 20th century not only fluctuate greatly over a comparatively small snap shot of time, they deviate from each other regionally, as well.  Savvy collectors have also learned how to identify fakes made by irradiating clear glass bottles in an attempt to create the classic amber–deep purple Coca Cola bottles, for example, are fakes of this type.  While they are not typically digging these specimens up, they are employing the same basic approach the archaeologists have developed for cultures that predate patents and trademark laws!

More Information:

The Dating Game: Tracking the Hobble-skirt Coca Cola Bottle (.pdf)

Antique Coke Bottle – This site also shares related links, though some are dead.

Coca Cola History – Site produced by The Coca Cola Company

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Filed under Experiencing History - Project Based Learning, Historian's Journal

Trojans in my head? Something like that

There is a song on the radio that has been bothering me.  Not exactly like an ear worm, but sort of similar.  It is the Atlas Genius song “Trojans.”  The lyrics are provided, below, and in the video, above.


Take it off
Take it in
Take off all the thoughts of what we’ve been
Take a look
Take a picture you could never recreate
Write a song
make a note
for the lump that sits inside your throat
Change the locks, change the scene
Change it all but can’t change what we’ve been
Your trojan’s in my head
It’s ok if it’s gone
The thoughts that you had that it was the one
And oh what is left?
For all those times is that what you get?
Oh regardless
The walls get painted anyway
Oh you’re guarding
The gates, but it all got away
Your trojan’s in my head
Take it off
Take it in
Take off all the thoughts of what we’ve been
Take a look
Take a picture you could never recreate
Write a song
make a note
for the lump that sits inside your throat
Change the locks, change the scene
Change it all but can’t change what we’ve been
    Am I the only one who thinks the lads at Atlas Genius may have meant, “Your Achaean’s in my head,” or “Your Greek warrior,” or “Your Trojan horse”?  Perhaps my thinking is too cerebral for the song, and the guys from Atlas Genius are simply referencing condoms or computer viruses, but I feel there is a simple mistake being made, here, incorrectly identifying the soldiers inside the Trojan Horse as Trojans and not Achaeans invading Troy.
     Songs are in comparison to poetry often more abstract as they are complemented by the music the artists write and even the voice and emotions of the singer to help convey their meaning.  Having acknowledged that, I can’t help but wonder if they simply got the famous story of the Achaean (Greek) military deceit wrong.
     On the other hand, it is possible that the singer represents the Greek side and is deliberately revising the story to to turn it on its head and explain the relationship with his partner.  That would be a pretty interesting twist to the story.  And, perhaps I would do wrong to sell them short on literary knowledge–their EP was titled Through the Glass…  Or, the song could really be referencing the computer virus, which through shortened parlance has come to misrepresent the mythological tradition, itself.
    Whatever the band intended, I find myself wondering whether they are unintentionally corrupting the story for a generation (or two) that is more or less completely unfamiliar with Homer, Euripides and Virgil whose epics and plays have preserved the story for us, today (and, no, Hollywood reproductions do not count as familiarity).  For my own personal interpretation (and enjoyment) I choose to think of it as an interesting recasting wherein partner is Troy turning the traditional interpretation on its head.  I find it most interesting that way.
    For more about the band:
   And, for more of their music:


Filed under Historian's Journal, Music

A great semester! New approaches prove successful.


As the semester winds down and I am grading the finals, it has been exceptionally rewarding to see how much improvement my students made this go-around in my 101 course.  Teaching roughly 7000 years of history is no joke!  For a community college’s introduction to history course, I try to emphasize a general knowledge of the eras that produced the modern western civilization we live in today and the skills of the historian.

It had been immediately evident in the finals I have graded so far that the improvement in working the historian’s craft was considerable–not only in reading and rating the reliability of primary sources, but also in constructing a logical argument for one’s interpretation of the sources.  Reading and writing skills have improved as they have learned how to approach the material.

This semester I worked towards this goal in a couple of new ways:

  • The midterm was broken into three parts and the first two of these parts were collaborative–and the grades were curved.  The midterm asked them to replicate as much of the reading and writing skills as we had covered in class up to that point while also testing their knowledge of the readings and eras up to that point.  (The greater emphasis on analysis followed their own collective attempts at first on the midterm.)
  • I provided extra credit assignments (two) that specifically emphasized these skills after the midterm–groups that struggled the most on the midterm could thus practice the skills further in the following weeks and earn extra credit for the additional practice.
  • I modeled, with the class’s help, the prioritization of reliable sources when conflicting accounts exist and constructing a basic outline for a history paper.  (Extra credit assignments built directly on these in-class/homework exercises.)

These activities seemed to really help students grow in their understanding of the material.  One could tank on the midterm, but still work towards a successful grade in the class if one was willing to put the work into the class and the projects with the extra credit options.  It was important for me to give students the opportunity to collaboratively see how far they had come on their own and take some risks, but I did not want to punish them if they hadn’t come as far by week six as I hoped they would by finals week.  (I should point out that our institution has a really early midterm.)

The major drawback was that some students were too greatly discouraged and did not see how they could climb out of the hole–none of these ever approached me about their grades or situation before quitting, though.  Students who flat out failed the midterm recovered to earn grades in the 80-90% range.  So, it was definitely possible to make the turn around–most of these did come and speak to me or e-mail me about their grades.  I did not give anyone a free pass–each student earned their grades–though, I was far more lenient in grading the finals where grammar and syntax was concerned.  (This was, in part, because of the high number of ESL students in my evening course who do not have easy access to tutoring resources on campus; and, in part, it was due to the fact that I am not handing back the finals for students to see their mistakes.  Besides, at this point I was far more concerned with their historical understanding and was gratified to observe considerable improvement in organizing their essays and in writing even if they still have work to do in that area.)

Students who were sharper on the first day of class further honed their skills and understood far more about the historical process.  Students who were green gained new understanding and experiences, growing in the class.  It was an awesome semester and the students were a lot of fun to teach–I never dreaded going to class.  Semesters like this remind me why I love teaching so much–even if I only adjunct for a couple of courses a year.


Filed under Experiences, Experiencing History - Project Based Learning, Historian's Journal

A festive lesson plan (via Mental Floss)

antiques,Christmas,gifts,iCLIPART,illustrations,Kris Kringle,nostalgic,presents,quaint,retros,Santa Claus,seasonal,seasons,sentimental,toys,trees,vintages,yuletides

9 Holiday Characters From Around the World – Mental Floss is a quick review of the various other Christmas characters in the western world.  I teach Western Civilization and am well aware of the connectedness of European and American culture.  Given that fact, the variety of the theme is remarkable.

Sadly, Mental Floss is not in the habit of citing their sources on these lists.  Still, universities in this country teach about these cultures in their foreign language departments and may well provide some additional information.  I think it is worth it–this is a nifty cultural lesson.  It relates back to an old theme shared by Sam Weinburg and this blog, among many others, about the challenges of grappling with the familiar and the unfamiliar.

Below, I describe a lesson plan emphasizing these things.  It is written for a classroom, but easily adapted into a homeschooling lesson plan.

Suggested lesson plan (outline):

Introduction:  Have each student describe their family’s Christmas traditions (note, these do not need to be religious traditions, obviously, if you feel more comfortable you can phrase it based on what students’ families do on their winter breaks)–do this by having each free write for five minutes or break the class into small groups and have each share with his or her group, then have someone from each group describe someone else’s family tradition. (It is worth keeping in mind that a student may not have a family tradition for the Christmas holidays because of religion, personal tragedy, or different cultural background.  This does not mean you shouldn’t do the exercise!  This is as important and valuable a learning experience as the others!!!  The greater diversity in your classroom the greater the opportunity students will have to learn from each other!  Also, remember that Santa Claus is almost entirely secular in the U.S.)

Activity 1:  Assign the reading from Mental Floss, provided in the link above.  Ask students to each read the whole article, or break it down so that each student reads one of the descriptions, or make small groups in which they each group reads three of the character descriptions.

Activity 2:  If you haven’t already, break the students into small groups.  These can be the same as the previous activity or entirely new groups.  Unless they all read the same thing, have each student describe what they read.  Then have each group answer these questions (adjust as needed for age or experience):

  1. Which continents do these traditions come from?
  2. What religions celebrate Christmas?
  3. Is there a connection between the answer of question 1 and the answer of question 2?
  4. What do these characters have in common (how they look, how they act, time of year in which they appear)?
  5. How are these characters different  (how they look, how they act, time of year in which they appear)?

Reflection:  For either a brief reflective essay or a brief reflective discussion ask students to answer the following: Why do you think we have so many different traditions for the same holiday?

Santa on the sleigh

From here a homework assignment could be made for further research into the different cultures and the character featured–and other cultural Christmas characters could be added, perhaps even as the result of the student discussion of Christmas (or winter break) traditions.  Ideally, this results in a feast with information about the cultures represented and their winter holiday traditions, such as games, music and songs, etc.  One might also just as easily make the next assignment about the class’s research of itself by having each student share more about their own family traditions and history.

American culture came out of European culture and for all of their similarities this reading helps illustrate the limits of the cultural similitude while nonetheless emphasizing the cohesion in comparison with the rest of the world.  This is an important point to learn from the exercise though it will probably resonate more with older students who have had more history exposure or to a particularly diverse class that is roundly international.  The follow-up exercise options described immediately above will be more appropriate depending on the class age and level of exposure, so adjust accordingly.

This lesson plan is designed to work on the following skills:

  • reading
  • writing
  • oral and aural communication: speaking and listening
  • historical thinking: making connections based on history knowledge
  • cognitive thinking: drawing conclusions based on provided information, cause and effect

If you try this or variant of it, or if you have your own already existent lesson plan, please, share your experiences, below.

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  5. CCC/WPA project workers




