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, it’s fun to prank students ourselves. This lesson gives students evidence that clearly leads to the conclusion that Orson Welles sparked a nationwide panic, only to learn at the end of the lesson that they have been pranked themselves. Recent scholarship shows that many of the stories of panic came from newspapers trying to discredit the new technology of radio.
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
- Google Slides Presentation
- Student Note Sheet – Evidence Recording Sheet
- Evidence for Analysis in slides
- Evidence for Analysis in Document Format