Fellowship Program Initiated To Encourage Games in Civics Instruction
The Woodrow
Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has initiated
a program to help middle and high school American history teachers
incorporate
games, play and digital tools into their classrooms.
In a partnership with the Institute
of Play, the foundation
has created the Woodrow
Wilson HistoryQuest Fellowship that will allow teachers
who are nominated and accepted for fellowships to attend an
eight-day
intensive summer workshop, followed by a 10-month program of
professional
development.
The foundation's goal is to make classroom social
studies and
civics instruction more innovative, interactive and accessible to
students.
"Today's students, second-generation digital natives,
have
been immersed in interactive technology for much of their lives," said
Woodrow
Wilson Foundation Executive Vice President and COO Stephanie J. Hull.
"Games
can make a significant difference in the way they grasp complex topics
like
history. They give teachers a new way to approach classroom objectives."
The fellowships will be offered at no cost to
teachers or
their districts and the first workshop, planned for teachers in New
Jersey, is
planned for this summer.
During the summer workshop and the follow-up program,
teachers
will:
- Experience the playing, modification and design of
games that
are mapped to content standards;
- Experiment with games in the classroom setting;
- Experiment with off-the-shelf commercial games in the
classroom;
- Learn how to create assessment tools that incorporate
the use
of games in the classroom;
- Integrate games into a larger curriculum; and
- Learn how to design games themselves as part of
inquiry-based
learning.
"This program isn't just about learning how to use
and make
games," said Institute of Play Professional Development Director Rebecca
Rufo-Tepper, "but also about how using games can help teachers to
reimagine
their practice."
Hull added that the HistoryQuest Fellowship is part
of the
foundation's long-term goal of improving teacher preparation.
For more information or to nominate a teacher for a
fellowship, go to woodrow.org.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.