Spice up those ancient research reports! Get your students to act up!
Instead of having your students write that 5 page research paper on a famous person, teach them to internalize that information. Make sure the students understand research techniques thoroughly. Then, either assign them a topic or have them present you with their own ideas for research. After creating an annotated bibliography of their sources and recording thorough notes, have them create monologues or stories about their person or event. For instance someone may choose the Civil War as a topic for research. One student may present what he has learned as a wounded soldier returning home and sharing his adventures with all who will listen. The same topic may be shared with the class from the perspective of an old woman who remembers what it was like to hear the word freedom for the first time in which it means something. You may choose to divide your students into groups of four or five. They can research their topic together and write a play to perform before the class. Of course they will have needed to study the structure of a play prior to this. The latter works extremely well with middle school students. Be sure to tape the students' performances for later viewing.
