Reacting to the Past Game Session: The Trial of Anne Hutchinson: Liberty, Law, and Intolerance in Puritan New England

In this three-hour session, Thomas Chase Hagood and Naomi Norman will serve as game masters as we play a micro-version of one of the foundational Reacting to the Past games, The Trial of Anne Hutchinson: Liberty, Law, and Intolerance in Puritan New England. This session will provide both beginners and veteran players the opportunity to play a game with a particular focus on identifying the historical thinking and skills that students learn in game play and will balance game play with time for discussion about how the individual elements of the game teach historical thinking. The AHA Tuning Project discipline core competencies and outcomes will be used to guide the discussion. In addition, this session will allow participants to consider strategies for effectively implementing RTTP games at their university. Reacting to the Past (RTTP) is an award winning pedagogy that involves playing role-immersion games.  Originally conceptualized by Barnard College’s Mark C. Carnes, author of Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College (2014), the Reacting initiative is administered and sustained by the Reacting Consortium, which provides training and resources for faculty interested in using the games in college classrooms.