NHD History Celebrations

What an exciting week! The entire 8th Grade presented their NHD projects over the course of two days (my classes on Tuesday, Mr. Leone's classes on Wednesday). Close to 300 Student Historians culminated their semester-long project presenting Websites, Documentaries, Papers, Exhibits, and Dramatic Performances centered around this year's Theme: Conflict and Compromise in History. 


One huge change this year to make the projects more interactive centered around creating Weebly QR Codes. Making and printing close to 60 QR Codes was time-consuming but such a great addition to the events. The 6th and 7th Graders that came in to see and write about the projects were able to not just view them, they were now able to easily read the code on their own iPads and interact with the sites themselves! One of my tech-savvy students created a QR Code for his Documentary, Documentary QR Codes will be an addition to our District event and next year's school Celebrations.


One team decided to focus on the Vietnam War because one of the girls had a Grandfather that served there and her Grandma that was a nurse during the war. The team interviewed the Grandfather and I suggested she invite them to come in and see her presentation. What a powerful family history moment for them to experience together!


I think my favorite project category has to be the Dramatic Performance. I have had 3 performances over the past two years (one last year, two this year) and I believe the reason they're my favorite is because of the risk involved in performing in front of peers at this age and the personal stories that come from these actresses. Each stated they've viewed the project as a positive challenge to overcome and they've done it, with great success.  I get a bit emotional watching them shine, seeing how they weave primary source documents into their dialogue, defending their thesis and keeping their theme in the forefront. It's a site to behold. The performances this year were about Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, along with a poignant monologue on the Emancipation Proclamation. Bravo to these young Historians!

The events were special for me this year for one more reason--my son, Joey (in the blue dress shirt), completed an NHD project. It's been really nice working with him when we combined classes. I am not his History teacher but was still able to guide and shape his work and it's something I won't forget. In a cool twist of fate, his 6th Grade sister just happened to be in the Media Center during his presentation and was able to view his completed project!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Name That Executive Role!

Image
Students today learned about the many roles of the head of the Executive Branch, the President of the United States. I found several images of former Presidents in these roles--can you guess which is which? Post your answers below or email them to me. Choices: Commander-In-Chief Chief Executive Political Party Head Chief Diplomat 1.  President Eisenhower 2. President George HW Bush (on the right side of the picture) 3. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt  4. President Reagan meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (this one's a bit of a giveaway!)
Read more

Historical Perspective and Peel the Fruit Thinking Routine

Image
Practicing historical perspective is an essential social studies skill. Historical perspective is being able to step into a historic situation and examine the motivations, biases, and beliefs of a person or group of people. Students have to revert to the beliefs of a group of people even if those beliefs completely contradict the views we have today. They must weigh decisions based on the situation of the time, not necessarily how situations are viewed today. The C3 Framework for Social Studies states that "Historical understanding requires recognizing this multiplicity of points of view in the past, which makes it important to seek out a range of sources on any historical question rather than simply use those that are easiest to find. It also requires recognizing that perspectives change over time, so that historical understanding requires developing a sense of empathy with people in the past whose perspectives might be very different from those of today." http://www.so...
Read more

Industrial Revolution Haiku

Students have been learning about the Industrial Revolution in the mid1800s and how it changed life in New England. Today students processed their learning by creating haiku poems on the subject. They were challenged to think about and evaluate this topic within the structure of a haiku, a 3 line poem with 17 total syllables--5 in the 1st and 3rd lines and 7 in the second line. The poems have been impressive and some will be posted here soon.
Read more