Students revolt at Eastbluff

Michael Miller

Last Thursday at Eastbluff Elementary, fifth-graders got to do

everything that’s usually against the rules in the school library --

shout, taunt each other, even fight wars.

Granted, the battles in question were only reenactments of the

American Revolution, and no one actually got to brandish a gun.

Still, the annual Walk Through the Revolution event, presented by

California Weekly Explorer, taught the origins of the United States

in a livelier way than a textbook.

“It’s a good way for them to understand the history and take part

in it -- not just get it out of a book,” said Dan Freese, one of the

three fifth-grade teachers at Eastbluff whose classes undertook the

unit this year.

Over the last three weeks, fifth-graders at Eastbluff have studied

the revolution in an interactive way. Each student was given a

character to study -- from Molly Pitcher to Patrick Henry to obscure

colonial spies -- and had to dress as that person for the Walk

Through the Revolution on Thursday. During the three-hour event in

the library, Explorer presenter Rick De Lung led students in a

game-show format in which they had to answer questions about the

Revolution, define vocabulary words ... and always answer in complete

sentences, under penalty of a squirt of “sentence juice.”

“This is kind of a combination of ‘Jeopardy’ and ‘American Idol,’”

said De Lung. During the event, the kids often “performed” as their

characters, reciting historical speeches in their best colonial -- or

British -- accents.

The event took the form of a competition, as Freese divided the

class into three teams and had them compete for points. Teams won

marks by reciting facts from memory, sitting up straight and putting

enough gusto into their performances. In the end, the Blue Rebels

defeated the White Tories and Red Redcoats for the top spot.

Even faculty members got into the festivities. Librarian Barbara

Dinsdale, who teaches social science to fifth-graders at the school,

dressed up as Rachel Revere, the wife of revolutionary Paul Revere.

“I come from Boston, and she took part in the Boston Tea Party, so

I wanted to be somebody,” Dinsdale said.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.