Eric Rothschild

At the beginning of our school year, we had the opportunity to meet a master teacher who specializes in creating simulation games for his history classroom. Eric Rothschild, who is also coauthor of The Chicago Handbook for Teachers, creates role based games for his students where the students do the reasearch and then act out roles in a given setting. The scenario that we discussed in our meeting was about the American Revolution. Students researched certain roles such as Sam Adams, George Washington, Thomas Gage, merchants, and tories. Then in a trial like atmosphere students spoke from their perspectives on a variety of topics. It was interesting to see students learning accurate information from their peers' studied perspectives. It was also interesting to see the student desire to think from the researched point of view and not their own personal point of view. For more on Eric Rothchild's simulation games in history please visit his Emancipation Proclomation Activity web site.