7 Innovative Teaching Strategies For History Teachers

Teaching history can be a rewarding and challenging task, as it requires finding ways to make the past come alive for students in the present. Incorporating new and creative teaching strategies can help engage and inspire your students, and can also help them develop a range of skills that will serve them well both in and out of the classroom. Here are five innovative ideas to try to make history engaging and interesting.

1. History Labs: This is a way to make a standard DBQ much more fun, interactive, and worthwhile! Start with a compelling inquiry questions to hook students and then find some conflicting sources that force students to critically examine the evidence, the source, and its reliability. I like to arrange sources around the room at different stations and students can move around the room as they analyze each. The fact that each source has slightly different evidence, a different POV, or tells a different part of the story helps students to develop essential skills while making analyzing sources actually fun. Students can then debate the most reliable and least trustworthy sources and the answer to the inquiry question. Maybe students write an essay or maybe the activity itself is the assessment.
2. Virtual Field Trips: With the help of technology, you can take your students on virtual field trips to historical sites around the world. This can be a great way to bring history to life and give students a more in-depth understanding of the places and events they are learning about. Virtual field trips can help students develop research and analysis skills, as well as cultural awareness and understanding. They can also be a lot of fun for students, as they get to "visit" far-off places and learn about new cultures or battle fields from the Civil or Revolutionary Wars.
3. Simulations: Simulations allow students to experience historical events or situations in a controlled and interactive way. For example, you might set up a simulation of the Constitutional Convention, where students can role-play as the founders and debate the provisions of the Constitution or as merchants on the Silk Road trying to negotiate, trade, and communicate with merchants from 'other cultures'. One of my favorite simulations is on the Black Death as students go on pilgrimages across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East trying to survive! Only problem is, sometimes students want to catch the plague so they can infect others. 🤣 Simulations can help students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as communication and collaboration skills. They can also be a lot of fun for students, as they get to experience history in a more hands-on and interactive way. Just make sure to not choose inappropriate or insensitive topics to simulate- like the slave trade, for instance.
4. Socratic Seminars and Spicy Discussions: These are guided discussions that encourage students to think critically and explore different perspectives on a historical topic. To facilitate a great Socratic seminar in history class, you can provide students with a set of primary or secondary sources related to the topic and then facilitate a discussion based on their analysis of the texts. Just like history labs, the inquiry question is critical. Keep it clear and interesting. Socratic seminars can help students develop critical thinking and analysis skills, as well as communication and collaboration skills. They can also be a lot of fun for students, as they get to engage in deep, meaningful discussions with their peers. I think that sometimes we want our classrooms to look like theme parks full of adventure and high level engagement, and other times, like with seminars, we want them to look like ancient Athens deeply considering idea, contemplating heavy issues, and listening to one another in a serious way. 
5. Student-Led Projects: Giving students the opportunity to design and lead their own history projects can be a powerful way to engage their curiosity and encourage deeper learning. Some ideas for student-led projects might include creating a museum exhibit, producing a podcast or video series, or writing a historical fiction story. Student-led projects can help students develop research and analysis skills, as well as creativity and self-direction. They can also be a lot of fun for students, as they get to explore a topic of interest in depth and share their learning with others. John Spencer taught me about "wonder day projects" where students get one class period every so often to research a topic of their choice (related to your unit) and choose their own way of showing what they learned. Maybe its a mini-blog entry, designing an artifact, or recording a wonder-cast (mini podcast). This is a great way to give students more ownership of their learning and of your classroom. 💪
6. 👀Historical Connections Scavenger Hunts- We need to get students seeing why history matters and how the world that they live in was shaped by history. We are often asked, 'why should I care about history?' by our students, and historical connections scavenger hunts is a fun way to get students to see why history matters! This is a really fun activity for history class too. Either all together as a class or if you can, in smaller groups, students go around campus looking for things that connect or are legacies of the content you are studying in class. Maybe a vending machine connects to trading markets on the Silk Road, a made in China tag on a shirt connects to goods being made in China at the time, or for the Progressive Era they take pictures of the fire extinguishers for government regulations or an open park campus as a legacy the Conservation movement. Students can make mini-presentations to explain the connections or legacies they noticed. What a great activity to get students to see why history matters!
7. 🕵🏽‍♀️History Decisions Activities: Thrust students into the driver seat of history and make them solve real historical crises! Get ready for next level engagement with these activities. In history decisions activities, students take on roles of a historical figure and have to problem solve their way through a real historical dilemma before presenting their solutions and action plan to the class. Maybe they are President Washington trying to solve the Whiskey Rebellion or they are Gandhi trying to gain independence for India without using violence, either way, get ready for students to start wrestling with history like you've never seen before! I have many pre-made presidential decisions activities here you can check out!

Overall, these innovative teaching strategies for history class can help make history come alive for your students and foster a more engaging and meaningful learning experience. They can also help students develop a range of skills that will serve them well both in and out of the classroom. So why not give them a try and see how they can transform your history classroom? And if you are interesting in learning many more strategies you can explore more course for history teachers and sign up for my newsletter for weekly teaching tips and more engagement strategies.