Meeting Mrs. Roosevelt: Living History Presentation

This is a picture of Ms. Dodd portraying Eleanor Roosevelt.

Today, in preparation for students' upcoming biography project, we had a visit from Mrs. Roosevelt, as portrayed by Elena Dodd. Despite the fact that it was a Friday afternoon at end of May and the day after students' double play performance, the children were quite attentive and asked many wonderful questions.

Ms. Dodd, not only portrayed Eleanor, but she spoke a bit about what it's like to present a living history performance including costume preparation and the need to study, study, study. As Mrs. Roosevelt, she gave the students and teachers plenty to think about. I was most interested in the fact that she worked as part of a United Nations delegation to write The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that Ms. Dodd believes every child should read and study. I look forward to studying this document myself in the near future.

I think adding a living history performance to the biography project provides good modeling for the project, and I'm sure it will positive affect students' research and presentation. Thanks to the elementary schools' PTO for supporting this terrific event.

Note:
Here's a film clip of one of Ms. Dodd's performances.