The best high school history lessons engage student attention all by themselves. The story of a 23 year-old Orson Welles using the new technology of radio to prank thousands of people before Halloween in 1938 is just such a story. High school students immersed in social media will naturally want to know more about what he did. The narrative drives the lesson all by itself.
The best high school history lessons are also relevant, they draw connections between the past and present. Radio was an innovative technology that disrupted how people understood events of their time, not unlike how communication technologies and social media are disruptive today.

And, when it is near Halloween – the best history lessons give students evidence of the past that clearly leads to one conclusion, only to learn at the close of the evidence that they have been pranked themselves and the opposite may be true.
I think high school history lessons with a scripted narrative and instructional arc combine the best of story-telling with an exploration of the past that exercises historical thinking skills relevant to understanding the world today. Of course, no plan survives implementation with real students as it is written, but they’ll remember this one.
If you do try it, let me know how it goes.
Files