Thoughts on teaching & educational technology

Okay, thus far I’ve focused on inquiry-based learning, a little edtech, and a lesson — all pretty serious, sober stuff. And this lesson is no different, although it may seem otherwise.

Let me be direct: I think Iron Maiden is one of the best bands out there, and probably the best heavy metal band, period. And metal is great stuff — and far more cerebral than you might think (go here to see how!).

Anyway, that said, this is a lesson I used two years ago for a freshman World History class. Since the course was of the survey sort, we had too little time to do too much, and I needed to blaze through Alexander so I could get to Rome — bt I wanted to do something that would pique the kids’ interest, and maybe push them out of their comfort zones a bit. Enter Iron Maiden’s great historical tune, ‘Alexander the Great,’ off their 1986 album ‘Somewhere in Time.’ If you read the lyrics you’ll see that they tell the story of his life — or at least sketch out the high points (minus Oliver Stone’s take on the poor guy). I had my students write L1 and L2 questions for each line of the song (see my LoQ post for information about that if you’re scratching you head right now), then guided them to the ABC-CLIO Ancient History database to hunt for answers. The questions varied depending on the student, but there were some that were universal (what 9th-grader knows about the Scythians?), but there was variety among the students, based on prior knowledge & extent of vocabulary knowledge.

As a final product I had the kids create a glossary of terms and concepts, based on the answers to their LoQs from the lyrics, and put together a visual (either on paper or digitally — all the students have laptops at Empire) showing Alexander’s travels & exploits. On the day it was due I played the song for them in class, and given the interest among the current crop of students in classic metal (their parents’ music), it went over famously.

See? Historical inquiry, laptops, and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal can produce great learning outcomes — that’s what I call synergy.

jdg

ps: Maiden has a slew of historically–oriented songs, ranging from ancient mythology to WW2. And you can stream parts of the songs directly from their website..but if you want the full experience, you need to buy the CDs.