Maywood Middle School students take ‘learning by doing’ to heart
July 1, 2010
By Tim Pfarr
School hosts 14th annual massive capture-the-flag contests in spirit of the Civil War
Intermittent heavy rain made the field slick, sending students slipping, sliding and occasionally falling. By Tim Pfarr
Students who go through eighth grade at Maywood Middle School are in for a treat at the end of the school year. Every spring, the school’s eighth-grade humanities teachers band together to hold colossal capture-the-flag competitions to cap off their classes’ studies of the Civil War.
The students in each class are divided into teams for the duration of the six-week Civil War unit, one representing the Union Army of the North and another representing the Confederate Army of the South.
Twice as many students are assigned to the North team than the South, and this is done to represent the North’s more extensive resources. However, each class has a spy from the South embedded in the North to sabotage the Union Army by purposely answering questions wrong and turning in homework before class so they appear unprepared.
Each student assumes the role of a soldier for the duration of the study, and he or she is given information about his or her soldier’s background and education.
Every day, points are awarded for good behavior and correctly answering questions in class, and points are subtracted for bad behavior. The team with the most points at the end of the unit wins. However, most of the points are awarded in the capture-the-flag competitions.
In the competitions, the Northern teams from the morning humanities classes band together to take on the Southern teams from the morning classes, and the teams from the afternoon classes do the same. There are about 150 students in each competition.
“There’s so much camaraderie and it kind of keeps the eighth grade together,” humanities teacher Meggan Atkins said.
The 2010 competitions took place June 2 in the midst of intermittent torrential downpours and gusts of wind that sent rain sideways. Students slid on the muddy grass, occasionally taking spills when they worked up a little too much speed.
“I think the weather made it more intense,” student Luke Crain said. “It made it hard to see where you were going.”
Flags were hidden under orange cones at both ends of the field. One flag was worth 500 points and the other was worth 300. The South prevailed in both matches this year, winning 800-300 in the morning and 800-500 in the afternoon.
In cases when the South wins in the simulation, the classes discuss what may have happened had the South actually won the war. The students are asked to speculate as to how much longer slavery would have lasted, as well as what the South would have needed to do to make up for its own lack of technology and resources.
Humanities teacher Randee Kissinger said involving the students throughout the unit increases engagement and participation. Also, being on the winning side of the capture-the-flag match gives a little added pride.
“It’s kind of like bragging rights in a way,” Kissinger said about winning the match.
Humanities teacher Dawn Robinson said the match forces students to work constructively together, and that it brings students together who don’t normally socialize with one another.
Prior to the match, the students write letters home to their fictional families, describing battles and life at war, using actual letters from the era as examples. Students also read Julius Lester’s novel, “To be a Slave.”
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