How to use Exploring Yerevan eBook in Your Classrooms
Armenia is celebrating the 2800th anniversary of the capital city of Yerevan. This might be a good time to talk to your students about the city's history, architecture and culture.
The eBook entitled Exploring Yerevan: A Look into the City's Past and Present might be the handiest piece on Yerevan for a digitally enhanced and interactive session with your class.
Here are a few tips how you could use the eBook based on your class level and class interests:
Tip 1: Make quizzes
Assign students to read a chapter or sections from chapters that you think are important to know about Yerevan and make a quiz based on the content of the covered material. You can use online quiz creators for the purpose. Here are some links to free quiz makers:
Tip 2: "Yerevan through Music"
For a musically enhanced class, ask your students to listen to Yerevan's anthem, and search for songs dedicated to Yerevan. Assign them to select a song they like the most, record it and play it to the class. This can be done in groups, pairs or individually.
Tip 3: "Yerevan in Poster"
Ask your students to make posters on Yerevan that will include recognizable buildings, parks, theaters, museums, parks, churches, etc. This would be a great activity in groups/teams. You can assign each group to work thematically, e.g. Religious Yerevan to include churches and places of worship, Cultural Yerevan to include museums, etc., or around a heading "Yerevan as I See it" to allow them think broadly and creatively. You can consider using the online tools for poster making. Here are a few links:
Tip 4: "Be my Guide in Yerevan"
The eBook, as you explore it, is constructed around tours. Yerevan is divided to three parts, and the eBook virtually guides the reader around the city. Assign your students to "become" a guide of a part of the city and give history of monuments and surroundings.
Tip 5: Comparative Projects
Assign your students to create comparative projects that involve Yerevan. Give your students the freedom to decide on the format of presentation: slides, online tools, narrative reports, etc. Some sample themes could be:
1. Use the timeline of Armenia's capital cities available in the ebook, select several, and create a comparative project on them locating each city in its historical context;
2. "Yerevan: Old and New." Based on the historical chapter of the ebook, put together a comparative project that reflects the transformations Yerevan has undergone through ages. Possible comparisons could be: Pre-Soviet Yerevan vs. Early Soviet Yerevan; Soviet Yerevan vs. Post-Soviet Yerevan, etc.
3. Comparing Yerevan to other cities. The students can be asked to select another capital city (e.g. the capital city of their home-country) and compare it to Yerevan. Students will be invited to think historically, e.g. Yerevan vs. another ancient capital; Yerevan vs. another Soviet capital; Yerevan vs. another post-soviet capital, etc.