Anthony Casey

This is a 40 minute activity where students engage in collective bargaining with their peers. Students negotiate a contract, and then the teacher can spend as much, or as little, time debriefing the activity. Teacher may have a class discussion, or fish bowl depending on time allotment. Activity itself gets students talking with one another, teacher facilitates the negotiation process.

In this play students will take on the role of King Phillip II of Spain, Louis XIV of France, Peter the Great, Queen Elizabeth, and others. Concepts of Divine Right and absolutism are reinforced in a creative way. Students will be challenged to contemplate why absolutism is like a house of cards. It provides an excellent transition to revolutions in England and France.

This play will have students imagine that it is July of 1914, and all the major nations meet at a Dinner Party in Sarajevo. Each nation showing off to one another, old tensions coming alive, and an isolated United States growing stronger by the second. The play cements the long term causes of World War I using the acronym, MAIN. It helps students to identify who the Central, and Allied Powers are, and establishes each nations strengths and weaknesses before the war took place. It functions as a

This Readers Theater play summarizes the plot of George Orwell's Animal Farm. This is an awesome way to frontload the book for cross-curricular work with the English department. Second, it allows you to reinforce the Russian Revolution through a reader's theater activity. The questions at the end of the play are differentiated and are aimed at having students compare Animal Farm to the Russian Revolution. Lastly, if your English department does not read Animal Farm- this is a great way to introd

This Reader's Theater activity can get sixteen of your students involved in the Constitutional convention. Students will take on the roles of individual states as well as key framers of the Constitution. Concepts of federalism, the Presidential compromise, the 3/5th's compromise, and the Great compromise are all debated in the play. It also helps to reinforce the key weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. The questions at the end of the play help to serve as a review of the U.S. Constituti

In this Reader's Theater activity, students imagine what it would be like if all the great Captain's of Industry, or Robber Barons, met to discuss the social, political, and economic problems of their day. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and J.P Morgan come to debate the meaning of laissez faire capitalism, Social Darwinism, and the role of unions in the workforce. The play helps students to see the human stories behind the wealthiest who made the Gilded Ag

In this reader's theater activity students are placed in the Byzantine Empire during the Nika Revolt. During the revolt the two Demes of Constantinople nearly toppled the Autocratic rule of Justinian. However, Justinian's wife Theodora delivered a powerful speech in which she was able to sway her husband to stay in the city and defeat the rebel Demes. This play has all the essential characters and focuses in on one of the lost female heroes in history: Theodora. I hope your students have as much

This resource is a play that uses allegory to teach students the concept of imperialism. It uses the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but has been modified so that students can see how Goldilocks becomes an imperialist country, and the Three Bears lose their home! It has humor, and has questions at the end for students to respond to. It is a fun story to teach!!!

A readers theater activity to review Ancient River Valley civilizations. Students will take the role of Emperor Shang, the leader of the mysterious Ancient Indus, Emperor Khufu, King Hammurabi, and Sargon. The play is an excellent way to review key aspects of each civilization before a test. There are questions on the last page to hold students accountable and assess their understanding of the play. There are 11 different roles which help to increase student participation. My students really enj

This is a readers theater activity that is meant to review the key ideas of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, John Marshall, and Andrew Jackson. This activity is a great "set-up" for a unit on Andrew Jackson to introduce his personality, character, and famous dispute with John Marshall. This play mixes in political history with social disagreements between the important individuals of the Early Republic. It also provides a great launching point to d

This resource is an allegory designed to challenge students to think about the American Revolution from the British perspective. The story traces the life of 44-year-old Ace Amir who freeloads off his parents. After his father George helps him defeat a bully named Crafen (France), George asks for Ace to contribute more. Pretty soon Ace is dumping tea in his parent's pool and demanding independence. I hope that you may use this allegory to make your students laugh while also stretching them to th

This Reading activity is meant to provide the scaffolding necessary for students to have a deep discussion on Genghis Khan and the Mongols. I went through and quoted from Dan Carlin's famous history podcast: Wrath of the Khans. Dan asks very difficult questions for a modern audience to grapple with, including a lack of empathy that we modern people have for ancient history. This can be done as a read-A-Loud and then students can write their answers down before discussion- or vice versa. It could