Top 10 Easy and Creative Ways to Teach History

Students may find history difficult, or maybe boring, but that doesn't have to be the case because, with the right approach, it can be both engaging and fun! 

In this article, I'll share 10 of my favorite easy and creative ways to teach history to your students, regardless of grade level!

In no particular order, here they are!

#1. Role-Playing Activities

One of my personal favorites, role-playing is an excellent way for students to learn about history. Acting out historical events such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutional Convention, an important U.S. Supreme Court Trial, or any number of other historical events is an EXCELLENT way to bring history alive! Students put themselves in the shoes of historical figures and render their learnings of historical context as it pertains to the event they’re role-playing which then provides students with a unique way of gaining a better understanding of historical events and issues. This creative and easy way of teaching history is also a surefire way of helping your students retain their learnings for years to come as well!

#2. Incorporate Technology into the Classroom

Putting technology to use in the classroom is another simple and effective way to teach history. By using digital resources such as videos (hallelujah for YouTube!), interactive maps, and online simulations are a few great ways to bring history to life for your students. For example, taking your students on a virtual tour of ancient Rome or making use of an online simulation to help them understand how the industrial revolution changed the world!

#3. Create Projects and Presentations

Immersive projects and presentations are some of the best methods for engaging your students in history! Create and assign your students projects that reflect the interests of your students, such as a historical fiction story, a video about a historical figure, or a diorama of an ancient civilization. These are just a few ways you can turn history class into your student’s favorite class! By simply weaving into a project the interests of your students, you’ll be enabling them to investigate history in a way that is meaningful to them and encourages them to take ownership of their learning.

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#4. Utilize Primary Sources

I know, I know, you already do this. BUT, how do you utilize primary sources in your classroom? That, is the question! It goes without saying that students can learn a lot about history by using primary sources (not to mention it’s an integral part of history and social studies teaching standards, whether you’re following Common Core, the TEKS, or otherwise). Make excellent use primary sources (view them as an opportunity to help convey to students the importance of a particular historical event or figure!) by engaging your students with questions that challenge their critical thinking skills and abilities about important primary sources such as historical documents and artifacts from the study period you’re teaching about. By teaching students how to properly and thoroughly analyze primary sources, you’re helping them build and grow a crucial skillset that’ll benefit them for the rest of their lives! And, I mean, after all, isn’t that what teaching is all about?!?

#5. Field Trips!

An excellent way for students to learn about history is with field trips! Some of my most memorable experiences as a student growing are the field trips we went on. I’m sure it’s the same for you! There’s a variety of ways for social studies and history teachers to take their students on a field trip. From visiting local historical sites with your students, such as monuments or possibly battlefields, to museums. Going on a field trip provides students with an opportunity to witness history firsthand and garner a better understanding and comprehension of historical events and issues.

#6. Games!

Who doesn’t love a good game?! Make history class more enjoyable and engaging for your students by inviting some fun competition into the classroom! Review and test your students’ knowledge of historical facts with popular games like Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit, or have students play historical games like Settlers of Catan or Risk to where they can learn about strategy and decision-making.

#7. Collaborative Learning

As they say, “the proof is in the pudding”, and study after study have shown the clear benefits of how working in groups helps to promote learning. By making use of group projects, your students can collaborate and help one another while also being presented with leadership opportunities within their respective group and learning how to work with other in a cooperative manner to achieve a common goal (not to mention learning from one another!).

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#8. Make use of Recent Events

I cannot emphasize this enough: when historical events are linked to current events, students gain a better understanding of the significance and relevance of what they are learning. Bring in current news items and topics to your classroom by intertwining them into your classroom discussions! This’ll really help students correlate what has happened in the past, to whatever it is that might be happening in the news today, and potentially in the future. Another great way of making use of current/recent events is by encouraging students to conduct current-events research and to discuss it in the context of historical events and themes.

#9. Share a story!

Love a great story? Of course you do, who doesn’t! An underrated and under-used effective historical teaching tool is storytelling. Telling stories can help students understand historical events and characters and can easily be accomplished through the use of storytelling circles, in which students share stories about historical events or figures, or through the use of historical fiction.

#10. Make YOUR Mark on History!

Encourage students to conduct research on their own family history or the history of your local community. This exercise can help students understand how history has impacted their lives as well as the lives of those around them. It’s not uncommon for students to discover how important historical events such as the Great Depression, WWII, Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, etc, has impacted the town, village, or city they live in.

To summarize, history can be a difficult subject for students to study, but with the right approach, it can spark students' interest, learning, and comprehension of the subject. Role-playing, technology, projects and presentations, primary sources, field trips, games and activities, collaborative learning, current events, storytelling, and making history personal are all methods that history teachers can use to help their students learn all about history and develop a love and appreciation for this important subject. Hopefully, this article has given you some new ideas for your classroom!

I've used my years of experience in the classroom, my background as an administrator, and my nerdy love of all things history-related to curate and offer high-quality, easy-to-use, affordable and PROVEN curriculum bundles which I'm so thrilled and proud to share with other teachers here at Lesson Plan Guru.

Have a look at them HERE!

Thanks for reading,

Jillian (a.k.a. the "Lesson Plan Guru")