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Essential question
How do Broadway musicals based on historical events and figures like "Hamilton" help to bring history to life for students?About 20,000 public high school students from low-income neighborhoods across New York City will get the chance to see “Hamilton,” the hit Broadway hip-hop musical, this spring. “Hamilton” stars mostly a black and Latino cast and is based on the personal and political life of Alexander Hamilton and some of the other Founding Fathers. Students will see the show as part of a new classroom curriculum designed to encourage creativity and foster a deeper interest in history. Although “Hamilton” is sold out through January 2017 with tickets costing hundreds of dollars, its producers, including writer and leading man Lin-Manuel Miranda and the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, decided to underwrite the costs and make tickets affordable to the students. As part of the curriculum and before seeing the show, students delve into reading primary source documents and practice rapping “Hamilton” lyrics. “Anything with a hip-hop flavor to it, it’s definitely more interesting than opening a dusty history book and trying to fish out old information,” said Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy student Danny Ingrassia. Ingrassia and his classmates got to perform their song and meet members of the cast as part of the very first student audience.
Key terms
curriculum
— the subjects comprising a course of study in a school or college
integrate
— bring (people or groups with particular characteristics or needs) into equal participation in or membership of a social group or institution
Warm up questions ( before watching the video)
- What do you know about Alexander Hamilton?
- Do you think learning about history from textbooks is the most effective way? Why or why not?
- What other ways can you think of to engage students in what they’re learning, besides reading about it?
Critical thinking questions ( after watching the video)
- Would you like to participate in a curriculum built around a Broadway show like “Hamilton?”
- Why did the creators of “Hamilton” feel it was important to make it possible for public school students to see the show?
- What is it about “Hamilton” that makes it resonate so strongly with people?
