INFO FOR TEACHERS

Turn your classroom into a town hall

Do you want your students to see history from different perspectives?

Do you want to spark a debate that leads students to think critically and collaboratively?

VOXPOP's media-rich lessons provide historical roles and structured debates, turning the classroom into a lively town hall.

How does VOXPOP work?

VOXPOP's software is easy to use both in person and in remote classrooms.

A teacher uses a laptop or desktop computer to guide students through the role-play, playing videos on a Smartboard or projector, asking questions, leading discussion and calling votes.

Each student in the class uses any web-enabled device to view their profile, get more information and cast votes.

Each role-play includes:

A class screen that delivers historical context, tracks voting and guides play.
Facilitator controls that help the teacher guide the session.
Player screens that provide students with a bio, key info, and buttons to cast votes.

How long does a role-play take?

In person, you can run a role-play in a one-hour class period, or split over two 40-minute periods. If you're running VOXPOP remotely, we recommend budgeting a little more time because students have to be sorted into breakout rooms.

What does a VOXPOP role-play look like?

As students log in, the VOXPOP software divides them into several groups (e.g. Bankers, Farmers, Regulators and Traders in the Shays Rebellion role-play).

Students use their laptops or tablets to view their unique bios, details about their groups, and the information they need at each stage of the role-play.

Each individual role-play is divided into several phases:

Welcome - A short video provides historical background on the topic. Student read their profiles and introduce themselves.
Values - Students meet in assigned groups to discuss their values. Then they share their perspective with the town hall.
Issues - Videos provide more detail on three main issues causing the crisis.
Compromise - Committees pick proposals to send to a town hall vote.
Vote - Groups present their proposals. The class debates, and then votes on each proposal.
Discussion - The teacher leads a facilitated discussion about the different viewpoints and how the crisis relates to contemporary issues.
What Happened - A final video provides an overview of what really happened.