The Vikings

In Social Studies 8, we are beginning the Early Middle Ages in our timeline. There is a piece of historical fiction in our old Pathways text that I have always liked, but never used for anything other than background. It is called 'The Viking Raid'. It tells the story of an early Viking attack on a monastery off the coast of France around the year 800 C.E. It is based on some existing primary sources, but also does a good job of creating fictionalized characters who participated in the events. These include: a Viking chieftain named Guthrun Bloodaxe, the Viking raiders, a young monk named Pippin, a young thrall (slave) named Gisla who has been stolen away from her family, the aging Charlemagne (king of France), Charlemagne's soldiers, the monks who lose their lives in the attacks, and even the families of the Vikings.

On the day of, I put the big question on the board, 'Who matters most in the story we are about to read?' I wore my crown and let a VIP student wear a Viking helmet, and the two of us stood at the front of the class looking puzzled and pointing at each other. Some students predicted that the monarch would matter most because of their political power or wealth; others guessed that the Viking would matter most due to their skill with weapons and a propensity for violence. As we read the story to find out the answer, I asked students to take note of unfamiliar words (for a word wall activity later), and also to list all the different characters we were introduced to. Once we read the story and did a whiparound of student ideas, it was obvious that many people in the story mattered. I took Michalko's (2001) advice: he recommends that "a multiplicity of perspectives opens awareness and creativity" (p. 42).

As well as 'shifting perspectives' (Michalko, 2001), I wanted to tap into the creative potential of groups (Hennessey & Amabile, 2010). I asked students to group themselves based on the character with which they identified most. As a class, we tried to create some of what Berger & Foster (2020) call 'Beautiful Questions' for identifying with the characters. We added these student-generated questions to the whiteboard: What do I care about? What am I trying to do (goal)? How do I feel about all of this? What do I do next?

Students in their groups read the passage again. Each group was asked to ponder and take note of anything they thought their character felt, thought, wondered, and experienced throughout the events of the story. Students were then individually asked to create an original response showing their character's perspective with regard to all the questions on the board. I asked them to combine their character notes and new thinking, but also to add realistic vocabulary (at least 3-5 new words from the story) and historical events and facts conveyed by the passage (at least 3-5). Students had an entire class period to work (approximately 60 minutes once we had co-created these key criteria) to create their responses.

Here is what happened:

1.       Students were incredibly empathetic towards their characters and generally showed a very mature understanding of a new perspective. (Some students seemed able to do this for multiple characters quite easily.)

2.       Students didn't just imagine the character in the story; many gave their characters a past life or back story and extended their response well into a character's future life. (One student described a Viking haunted by what he had done and living for decades with the brutality of his actions; another talked about survivor's guilt and the need for Medieval therapy sessions.)

3.       Students were very motivated to look up vocabulary definitions and verify historical events. (Almost all students included 5 or more of each of the required elements: new vocabulary and historical detail. I overheard students checking dates and discussing the routes that Vikings commonly sailed to reach Western Europe, as well as the reasons why Vikings attacked European settlements. Students used the content in ways well 'beyond inert facts' (Case, 2008).

4.       The 'little-c' and 'mini-c' creativity of the responses was incredibly varied (Upitis, 2014) – students chose to create posters, personal and want ads, comic strips, journal / diary entries, timelines, scripts, and one student asked if she could do a painting. One thing I observed was that in their creations, several students referred to their characters as 'ghosts' because their stories 'had never been told' until now. This was a connection to a lesson on perspective we had done several weeks ago.

5.       Among members of different groups, there was a great deal of friendly debate (Upitis, 2014). Several times I overheard students listen quite respectfully to a peer comment about another character's perspective; in turn, the student would say something like, "Yes, that's true, but also…" There were many attempts to reach consensus and to 'agree to disagree'.

Overall, I was very pleased with my attempt at choosing the 'shift perspective' thinking strategy for creativity. In general, I believe students were more motivated, used their time more effectively, and engaged in more respectful discussion about their thinking than if we had not utilized this strategy. I will also be very interested to see how they do on their quiz in a week or so!

References

Berger, W. & Foster, E. (2020). Beautiful Questions in the Classroom: Transforming Classrooms Into Cultures of Curiosity and Inquiry. Corwin.

Case, R. (2008). Beyond Inert Facts: Teaching for Understanding in Elementary Social Studies. In R. Case & P. Clark (Eds.) The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Elementary Teachers, (pp. 33-47). Pacific Educational Press. http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/sspp/html/beyondinertfacts/page12.html 

Hennessey, B. & Amabile, T. (2010). Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 569-98

Michalko, M. (2001). Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius. pp. 19-49. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.

Upitus, R. (2014). Creativity: The state of the domain. Toronto, ON: People for Education. https://peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/MWM-creativity.pdf