Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995                   TAG: 9510270140
SECTION: BOOK                    PAGE: F6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY AMY CROUSE-POWERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HISTORY REWRITE BY TEENS

Teacher Martin McKibbin wanted to provide his McDonogh School students with more than lectures on American history. He wanted them to participate in learning and even writing history. But writing history requires mounds of research.

But then he stumbled on a way to make it possible. Invoking the words of Robert Frost, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -/ I took the one less traveled by,/ And that has made all the difference," McKibbin gave his students the background they needed on such historical events as the Louisiana Purchase, the battle of Shiloh and Pearl Harbor, and let them ruminate, in writing, over the possible variations that might have occurred.

The ingenious teaching strategy has led to a fascinating anthology of student writing.

For six years, students collaborated on the project, participating as writers, editors and illustrators. They explored events from the American Revolution right up through the Reagan years. They pondered such questions as "What if Ronald Reagan had been a better actor?"

Among other things, his students learned something about writing, argumentation strategies, research, history, publishing and meeting deadlines. In testament of McKibbin's methods, one of his students wrote, "The idea for this book was not conceived in an attempt simply to teach historical facts in a more interesting manner. The project took hold and grew because we, the students, found a new way to identify with the past."

Amy Crouse-Powers lives in Christiansburg.