What Does it Mean to “Have Died of Dysentery”?: Teaching the American Antebellum Period through Games in a New Jersey High School

December 1, 2021

As part of my Master's in Teaching from the Universidad Alcalá de Henares, I designed the following curriculum. It poses a unique way to teach the Antebellum Period by using games to supplement more traditional learning methods. You can read the abstract below, or use the PDF reader to view or download the complete file. The PDF is also available at this link.

Author's Note: Several years have passed since I wrote this curriculum, and some of the links found in the appendices may have unfortunately stopped working. The Google Drive links to my class materials definitely no longer work, as I had to archive the files to save space. If you are interested in any of the materials listed in the PDF below, please contact me at cjloos724@gmail.com, and I'd be happy to send you a copy.

Abstract:
This curriculum aims to implement the most recent literature regarding game-based learning in a new content area. Specifically, it proposes a curriculum covering the American Antebellum Period (approximately 1800–1860) for a 11th or 12th-grade New Jersey high school history class. It includes six units on various themes related to the time period and to the work of a historian more generally. Namely, students first learn how to analyze primary sources, the historian’s most essential tool. They will then pass through thematic units on Westward Expansion, Native Americans, Slavery, and the years leading to the Civil War, with a sixth, final, unit offering time for conclusions and student creative projects.
Each of these units, and the curriculum generally, utilizes game-based learning at its core. While the first half of each unit is spent discussing that unit’s theme and analyzing related primary sources, following this, students will play games on that topic, such as The Oregon Trail for the unit on Westward Expansion. Undergirding each of these units is an emphasis on discussion, reflection, and self- and peer-evaluation to analyze the ways in which we consume media and tell history. This analytical focus culminates in the concluding unit, in which students will create their own games. Thus, by the end of this curriculum, students will have the skills necessary to enter into higher education or the workforce as historically literate citizen-scholars.

Keywords: New Jersey high schools, history education, American Antebellum Period, game-based learning, project-based learning, games in education