Cool Projects
Three Family Engagement Assignments
Project #1:
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Throughout the course, the students will be engaging their families in major student projects. They will hopefully help bring the content they're learning home, thereby engaging their families with history! The best part of these assignments is there is no real additional technology needed; they just need a family member! The three projects are detailed here:
The first project will be an oral history project. So much of history comes from storytelling, songs and other oral forms of communication. The French Revolution is one of the most important moments in modern times. It engaged people of all classes to stand up for a new France, or fight for the old France. It encouraged French people to think about the idea of citizenship. Students will tell a family member about the French Revolution's early years; the political upheaval, the creation of a democracy, civil war, war with England, tyranny, the creation of an emperor and an empire, and the beginning of women's rights. They will read a few excerpts from Sieyes' What is the Third Estate? and de Gouges' Declaration of the Rights of Women. Then, the most important part of the project begins.....
The student will ask the family member (of any age) to describe a time in history that they were alive for that ties in with any of these themes from the French Revolution, and their thoughts on what it was like to live during this time of upheaval. Topics can include, but are not limited to: the women's rights debates of the 1970s, Roe v. Wade, the War on Terror, the Arab Spring, the immigration debate, creation of democracies across the world, the toppling of autocratic dictators, race riots (LA, Ferguson, Baltimore, etc,), the new right religious debate, the war over gay rights, changing values, class struggles, and the idea of citizenship (what makes a citizen in this country). The student will ask pertinent questions to be given later, and then write up a summary of what their family member has said, making ties to the French Revolution and ideologies during the 1790s and today. Have fun, there are no right or wrong answers, and this project allows the student to engage material and make connections with the past and present day. |
Project #2:
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The second project involves a child, ranging in age from 8-13, but exceptions can be made. Hopefully this child is a family member, but if not a close friend or neighbor will do! The student will construct a 15 minute lesson to be given to that child, detailing their favorite person, idea, or time period from the first half of the course.
So much of learning is also about teaching, and younger children tend to look up to older family members. The students can use, but are not limited to: powerpoints, drawings, books (including their textbooks), poster board, laptops, etc. Students can convey the information in any way they want, including showing paintings of the decade, making a comic book for a younger friend, playing music of the time and music now, drawing a timeline, recreating a battle with GI Joes or Barbies, staging a play. Make sure that the information is age appropriate, please. What that means is know your audience. Explaining the Battle of Hastings might be cool for an 8 year old (if you are using GI Joes), but talking about the French Revolution's battle with class politics probably isn't going to fly. The last part of the assignment is to then ask the child what they remember; teaching and learning is about listening and presenting the material in a way the student can understand. A handout will be given later in the semester, but typical questions will include: why do you think your student chose this topic? Was it interesting to learn about? What was the coolest part about the lesson? Did you understand everything? Would it help if your teacher, in your classroom, presented history in this way? Project #3 involves revisionism. So much of what I hear in the classroom are questions like why or what if? What if Thomas More just kept his mouth shut about Henry VIII, would he still be alive? What if Adolf Hitler had gotten into art school, and never became what he devolved into? What if Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., RFK, JFK, Malcolm X, Joan of Arc (some of these are American examples) lived? Would our world be a better place? What if Gavilo Princep never shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie? Would World War still have happened? So many of these questions my students ask, and I sometimes ask myself. Revisionist history is massively popular, not only in historical and academic settings, but in popular culture as well. Books, movies, poems all show revisionist history, and most of them are pretty cool! The assignment is for the student to find his favorite piece of history from this year, and tell their older family member about it. Give about a good 10-15 minute overview of the topic. Then, together with a family member, invent a revisionist ending to the story, a new beginning/chapter. The most important part for the family member is providing perspective. These family members have lived longer than the student, and can help provide context and perspective. If the student chooses to state, for example, that Hitler never lived, the family member can provide context from their lifetime. Something like, well, there might not have been a Holocaust, but there is always tyranny, injustice and racism in the world, right? How would the student change that? The final paper will be composed of both the student's idea and the family member's context. Note: it's important to know you, as a family member, don't have to know everything about history. No one does. But you do know about the world, and you have opinions! That's what I want here; the student should be providing the background detail of the situation, and you comment on it. Give your perspective, the student has to listen to it now for a good grade! |