Establish a classroom atmosphere that celebrates the sharing of learning. Have opportunity for students to practice new learnings. Make student learning available to the larger community, i.e. books students write are shared with other classes, students report in school paper, student work is displayed at school, etc.

Group magazines will be published and placed in the school library.

Objective: To have students publish and celebrate an Enlightenment Day in class.

Activity: Group magazines will be published and placed in the school library. The modern characters ill participate in a meeting of the minds discussion on worldview. Each group member will participate in this conversation. If you have never run a meeting of the minds you are in for a treat.
The key to a successful meeting is the ability of each group to have internalized both the information about the Enlightenment and the ideas of a modern character. The role of the teacher in this meeting is that of facilitator.
You need to get it going by asking each character to introduce him/herself to the rest of the group. That introduction should include some information about his/her role in society and important contributions. Students should be in character that day and feel free to question each other.
If they ask no questions you’ll need to facilitate – ask about a current issue and how each of the guests might view it. Ask them to suggest reasons that their worldview is different, or superior to either the Enlightenment worldview or the current worldview as they understand it.
Note: It is easy in a group meeting of the minds for one person to dominate each group’s response. This can be avoided by having a prop of some type which gets passed along to another group member after someone has contributed. In that way, the most talkative students get one chance and then have to listen until the prop gets back to them.
It would be appropriate to have some classical music played in the background and have each group bring in some food for the celebration.

Assessment: Creativity and accuracy of magazine submissions. Ability to discuss modern issues from perspective of group’s modern character.