The Vintage Mencken | Activities :&: Classroom Projects

Fun Classroom Activities

The 20 enjoyable, interactive classroom activities that are included will help your students understand the text in amusing ways. Fun Classroom Activities include group projects, games, critical thinking activities, brainstorming sessions, writing poems, drawing or sketching, and more that will allow your students to interact with each other, be creative, and ultimately grasp key concepts from the text by "doing" rather than simply studying.

1. Baltimore of the 1880s

Construct a map of Baltimore as it was in Mencken's childhood, in the 1880s. The map should include landmarks that Mencken mentions in his articles, including Chesapeake Bay.

2. Mencken Today

Speaking as Mencken, students can choose a modern-day topic, event, or news item, and write a Mencken-style essay. Students should be encouraged to "think" like Mencken, and to use some of his rhetorical devices.

3. The Y.M.C.A. Dialogue

In "Adventures of a Y.M.C.A. Lad," Mencken mentions a...
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