Theater Across The Curriculum

In The History Classroom

Abstract

Engaging students in the study of history is a challenge for all of us who teach history survey courses to non-majors. As a relatively recent Ph.D. and college professor, I am still honing my teaching style and discovering what works for me in the classroom and what does not. After one particularly brutal quarter in which I assaulted my students with exam after exam, I realized that I hated exams. I hated writing them, I hated grading them, I hated teaching to them, I hated being asked, "Will this be on the exam?" At the same time, I wanted my students to do the reading, come to class, learn something, and enjoy history. I devoured pedagogical literature, searched the Internet for teaching suggestions, and scanned back issues of The History Teacher, The OAH Magazine of History, and Teaching History in my quest for a solution to the problem of getting students to do the work without exams.