Student History Fair Preparation

Happy New Year!

This month Student Historians will finish their National History Day projects and present their theses to peers and the school community. 

One aspect of the History Fair is the valuable feedback Historians will receive on their projects. I debated creating a digital feedback program but decided to make paper-and-pencil reflections because it will be easier for the Student Historians to receive feedback. An audience Student Interaction sheet promotes deep exploration of projects during the History Fair and makes these projects interactive for both creator and viewer. Student creators will also realize how their work has impacted others. 

Audience members will complete the following statements:

  • One COMPLIMENT I have about how this project was made is...
  • One QUESTION the information in this project makes me wonder is...
  • One CONNECTION I have with this project and something I know (or learned) in Social Studies is...
These sentence starters ensure the audience will engage with the projects and relate the material they are viewing to something they know. Audience reflection is embedded in the second question, as well. 

I anticipate powerful discussions and analysis during the History Fair.




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