A great way to get students to be able to empathize with different groups of people in social studies or history is to get them to role play as different figures.  While I like to get students to write letters by taking on the role of the person who is central to the historical narrative being studied, it also helps to have the teacher take on the role of a historical person to model such perspective-taking and in order to engage the learners.  Perhaps, once the students hear what the person’s opinions or beliefs or ideas are through role-playing exercise put on by the teacher, students will feel more interested in the idea of rehashing those ideas in another format.  This will allow students to take on the perspective of the historical figure in question which is one of Peter Seixas’ six concepts of historical understanding.

During the course of my practicum I took on the role of different people in a few cases.  In one such case, I took on the role of a crusader who wanted to lead a Crusade against the Muslims in Anatolia.  My portrayal of the crusader certainly got the attention of the students and they were able to follow along the idea that I was dead set on retaking Anatolia for Christendom.  I’m glad that I did this engaging role-play as it served to get people’s attention and reinforced the belief in the classroom that I enjoyed what I was doing and genuinely wanted to be the students’ teacher.  Moreover, this activity gave students an idea on how to take on the perspective of a belligerent, arrogant knight.