Historical Content

In our DigiCiv class, we tend to focus on the Digital aspect of our class - reading the blogs, writing the blogs, using this class as an exuse to play on the internet with all the cool new tools instead of our other school work - I think we've all thoroughly enjoyed it!

However, Dr. Burton reminds us that we need to address the historical content as well!  Though it is certainly not tedium, it IS familiar.  So how can we play with the historical content appropriately enough to show mastery?


Here are a few ideas:

 

Crossword puzzles:  Take the required info from a test or study sheet & create puzzles to solve.  Even if you solve your own puzzles, it will still help!  I found a puzzle maker program years ago & use it regularly to create crossword puzzles about everything!

Make a game:  One of our family HomeSchool favorite ways to study a variety of subjects was to make a personalized Trivial Pursuit game!  It's really easy - you just have to start at the first day, or it becomes overwhelming!  First, go to a yard sale, or a thrift store, and buy a used game of Trivial Pursuit.  Toss out the question cards - as they are truly trivial & you probably don't care - and begin to make your own.  Assign a topic or course to each color, then using 3x5 cards - make a dot on the side, then write a question & its answer.  Every day, make a few cards.  Within a month or so, you have enough cards to play the game!

Are you playing with someone who has different classes than you?  No problem!  They have their own question cards, and you have yours - both individualized for each person.  This game can be played with all sorts of people, ages, topics, etc!  You never have to worry about wasting time, because your cards are just for you!

Change the way you are learning something - make it fun - or better yet, funny!!  A silly poem, story, picture, image or joke that can help you remember something works wonders!  For example, when learning the mathematics concept of the circumfrence or area of a circle, I always assign the kids to read a silly book "Sir Circumfrence and the First Round Table" (plus all the series, as the topics come up!)

OK, so these are lots of fun for little kids, but we are in college - we don't have time to read kids' stories (theoretically - I recommend it anyway - kids stories are great stuff!)  How can we prepare for our classes at college?!

In her book, "And What About College", author Cafi Cohen tells her secret to passing college courses when she had a busy life - she would read the assignments as they were given, highlighting as she went, then would review only the highlighted parts of what she needed to study - every day, only once, without diving deep into the material again.  By the time test time came around, she knew it well.

So, did you learn about any Historical Content of our DigiCiv class today?  What did you learn??!!