Classes They Remember

David Sherrin is an English and Social Studies teacher at Harvest Collegiate High School in New York City, where he is also the Social Studies Department Chair and the Master Teacher. At the 2014 NCSS Annual Conference, he was the recipient of the 2014 Robert H. Jackson Center National Award for Teaching Justice. He is also the author of Judging for Themselves: Using Mock Trials to Bring Social Studies and English to Life.

• Companion WebsiteMeet the AuthorAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Playing with Our MindsPart 1: A Role-Play How-to-Guide1. Common Questions about Role-Playing2. Creating Role-Plays3. Executing Role-PlaysPart 2: Examples of Historical Role-Plays4. The Aztec-Spanish Encounter 5. Germany between the Wars Part 3: Examples of Literature Role-Plays6. Fences, The Pearl, and MoreConclusion

"Sherrin animates history and English by having students stitch together textual evidence to understand the human-ness of people in the past and characters in our literature. By placing students in the center of complex choices, Sherrin is able to tease out the larger questions of the Humanities, including "Why do people do what they do?" Readers will glean important how-to advice on using role-play to build curiosity spaces in the classroom—an important step in practicing perspective-taking and civic agency!" --Kathy Swan, Professor, University ofKentucky and lead writer of the C3 Framework for Social Studies"Living history is the best way to remember it. Re-enacting powerful novels and epoch-making events wherein you must play roles as actors on the stage of history is next best. This is what David Sherrin does with his classes, helping students dig deeply into the consequences of human motivation in literature and life. These history makers will, truly, remember his masterly direction of their role-plays for a lifetime." --John Barell, Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Teaching at Montclair State University, and author of Moving from What to What If: Teaching Critical Thinking with Authentic Inquiry and Assessments