Friday, November 13, 2009

Publius

Many thanks to Alexander Russo for sharing this video of the best rap about Alexander Hamilton ever performed. I showed it to my early American history students today and they LOVED it.

The course only went up to the earliest colonies and the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705. But since today was the last day of the course, I offered the video as an example of the kind of project students could do if they are interested in pursuing the subject further.

I started out with a "Do Now:" Who is on the $10 bill? One student knew it was our buddy. We talked about why he was important enough to earn the spot. Next, since the students had mastered studying history through artifacts, I showed them a photo of the pistols used in the duel that killed Hamilton.

"Wait - he was shot?" "With his own gun?"



When we finally watched the video, the students were more attentive than I had seen them all term. They were shushing each other to hear every word.

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