Columbus: Guilty or Not Guilty?
By: Angelique Boyd
At YWLCS, you would walk through the halls to get to your next class and see an advertisement. The advertisement was for the Christopher Columbus trial taking place in room 104, performed by the 8th grade. The Christopher Columbus trial is a trial that has witnesses, a jury, a judge, a prosecutor, and defensive attorney just like a real case in court. The students in the 8th grade were learning about Christopher Columbus and this many journey’s. How he found North America, started the slave trade, and how he took the Taino Indians back to Spain. There has been about a lot of controversy about if Columbus should be celebrated for what he done. Yes, he found America, but he did cruel things in the process and that was what the trial was all about. Is he guilty or not guilty? Did he kill tons of Taino Indians to find their gold or was it just a lie? The teacher who came up with this creative idea was Ms. Whitehead, the 8th grade Humanities teacher at Y-DUB and is also the teacher of the month. This is an interview I had with Ms. Whitehead:
Me: What made you come up with this idea?
Ms. Whitehead (MW): Back when I had you all [my class was in her 8th grade class last year] and Ms. Eilers gave me the idea. I tried it last year and it worked very well.
Me: What do you think made it such a success?
MW: I think because the students were really excited and they were good at taking on the roles and during the research.
Me: Would you do anything different next year?
MW: Next year I would probably show video clips of how court rooms are really run so they can know more about it.
Me: Do you think this idea could be used in a different way in other classes?
MW: I’m sure it could be…if anybody could use it to put a historical figure on trial. In math and science it would be really different, they would have to work hard.
Me: Do you think your students learned a lot?
MW: Oh yeah. A lot of them were able to say what Christopher Columbus did without me up there. They could say it firsthand.
Before the trial the students had to look up information on the person playing or if you had to be a prosecutor, judge, defense attorney, or jury member; you had to find info that related to your job or work with people you have to work with or help. I remember when I was doing the trial I was a jury member and my fellow jury members and I had to research terms like secondary murder, attempted robbery, attempted murder, third degree murder, and etc. so we could charge Columbus with these charges. Witnesses in the case were Queen Isabella of Spain, Diego (Columbus’s son), Columbus’s workers on the ship, Toussaint L’ouverture (A Haitian former slave who rebelled against the slave trade), King Ferdinand of Spain, and Taino Indians. I believe the Columbus trial was a brilliant way for kids to learn something, but have fun while doing it. I asked the students in the trial if they wished to have this idea in other classes. Ambria Merril thought it would be a good idea. She said, "Yes because I think it’s a fun way to learn." Jasmine Phillips thought it would be a good idea, "but not on the same person. Maybe like for the man that made up the Klu Klux Klan and you can have somebody be Martin Luther King or something like that." Some students thought it would just be nice to perform the trial in different classes. Students like Ashleigh McCrae and Dymone Hopkins thought that it wouldn’t work, because it won’t work for "Science, math, or etc." To give other teachers this idea Latanya Tiller said, "I would give out flyers and send e-mails. They would consist of what the trial is about, why it would be good for them to do, what they will need and why I think it is a good experience."
The students overall had a fun time, learned things about Columbus, court terms, and about the people they were acting as. I would like to thank Ms. Whitehead for her help and thank the 8th grade class for their responses to make this article.
By: Angelique Boyd
At YWLCS, you would walk through the halls to get to your next class and see an advertisement. The advertisement was for the Christopher Columbus trial taking place in room 104, performed by the 8th grade. The Christopher Columbus trial is a trial that has witnesses, a jury, a judge, a prosecutor, and defensive attorney just like a real case in court. The students in the 8th grade were learning about Christopher Columbus and this many journey’s. How he found North America, started the slave trade, and how he took the Taino Indians back to Spain. There has been about a lot of controversy about if Columbus should be celebrated for what he done. Yes, he found America, but he did cruel things in the process and that was what the trial was all about. Is he guilty or not guilty? Did he kill tons of Taino Indians to find their gold or was it just a lie? The teacher who came up with this creative idea was Ms. Whitehead, the 8th grade Humanities teacher at Y-DUB and is also the teacher of the month. This is an interview I had with Ms. Whitehead:
Me: What made you come up with this idea?
Ms. Whitehead (MW): Back when I had you all [my class was in her 8th grade class last year] and Ms. Eilers gave me the idea. I tried it last year and it worked very well.
Me: What do you think made it such a success?
MW: I think because the students were really excited and they were good at taking on the roles and during the research.
Me: Would you do anything different next year?
MW: Next year I would probably show video clips of how court rooms are really run so they can know more about it.
Me: Do you think this idea could be used in a different way in other classes?
MW: I’m sure it could be…if anybody could use it to put a historical figure on trial. In math and science it would be really different, they would have to work hard.
Me: Do you think your students learned a lot?
MW: Oh yeah. A lot of them were able to say what Christopher Columbus did without me up there. They could say it firsthand.
Before the trial the students had to look up information on the person playing or if you had to be a prosecutor, judge, defense attorney, or jury member; you had to find info that related to your job or work with people you have to work with or help. I remember when I was doing the trial I was a jury member and my fellow jury members and I had to research terms like secondary murder, attempted robbery, attempted murder, third degree murder, and etc. so we could charge Columbus with these charges. Witnesses in the case were Queen Isabella of Spain, Diego (Columbus’s son), Columbus’s workers on the ship, Toussaint L’ouverture (A Haitian former slave who rebelled against the slave trade), King Ferdinand of Spain, and Taino Indians. I believe the Columbus trial was a brilliant way for kids to learn something, but have fun while doing it. I asked the students in the trial if they wished to have this idea in other classes. Ambria Merril thought it would be a good idea. She said, "Yes because I think it’s a fun way to learn." Jasmine Phillips thought it would be a good idea, "but not on the same person. Maybe like for the man that made up the Klu Klux Klan and you can have somebody be Martin Luther King or something like that." Some students thought it would just be nice to perform the trial in different classes. Students like Ashleigh McCrae and Dymone Hopkins thought that it wouldn’t work, because it won’t work for "Science, math, or etc." To give other teachers this idea Latanya Tiller said, "I would give out flyers and send e-mails. They would consist of what the trial is about, why it would be good for them to do, what they will need and why I think it is a good experience."
The students overall had a fun time, learned things about Columbus, court terms, and about the people they were acting as. I would like to thank Ms. Whitehead for her help and thank the 8th grade class for their responses to make this article.
1 comment:
I wish we had done something like that during when we i was in 8th grade.
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