Teaching the French Revolution in Emoji

Napoleon's invasion of Russia in Emoji

Confession: Yes, my sophomores are using emojis in the classroom. Last week, I put up a study guide with the events of the French Revolution, and I had them respond to the terms with emoticons.

Naturally, students were excited about this assignment, but not as excited as I was! This exercise forced students to develop critical thinking skills and exercise creativity. Inevitably, they had to think outside the box and make some tough choices about how to portray a topic with a limited vocabulary in a way their classmates would understand. The assignment required students to think critically about the event, but also how people would perceive the symbols they provided in order to explain it.

When students shared their artwork, other students were able to see how classmates tackled the same challenge in different ways. Students used space differently to portray their event, and sometimes even used different symbols to portray the same things. 

It is my hope that this greatly stimulated the creative region of the brain, while at the same time helping students to contend with the more a traditional approach of memorizing events in order to apply them come test time

It was a new and intriguing way to have students teach each other the syllabus in 10th grade history. For some, I’m sure these visuals helped them recall information. For others, they just found it a fun homework assignment that invigorated their approach to a tough topic--the French Revolution.

Here are some of the different ways my students chose to portray these events:

The Coronation of Napoleon (1804)

 

The Women's March on Versailles (1789)