History Comes Alive!

How fun and interesting subjects are taught through English at ACE

Cecil Wampler, ACE Teacher

I presented my Young Learners (YL) class with the challenge of becoming ‘experts’ on a famous figure from history.  The idea was inspired by the characters from our reading of A Night at the Museum in which the people and animals in the museum came alive at night.

The result was a classroom filled with posters detailing information about historical figures. Attila the Hun was on the wall beside Cleopatra and George Washington while Amelia Earhart shared a corner spot with Billy the Kid and Nero, the Roman emperor!

The students were asked to provide a brief history of their historical figure along with fun facts that would make them relatable to kids. The students were also asked to make the poster three- dimensional and as interactive as possible. This included items hanging off the posters, windows and envelopes that had to be opened to reveal answers.

After about a week, the students could see that their posters had been read and the ‘secret’ areas of their posters had been checked out by other students. Other teachers also brought in their students to see the posters. It was a fun and exciting term for the YL14 class. 

ACE’s Young Learners’ and YL Plus programs offer students the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and understanding of themselves and the world by linking their English language learning to broader educational goals with direct connections to other school subjects such as history, geography, science and social science.