Life of an Artifact

Students will be asked to:

1.    Describe the events a historical object experienced.

2.    Describe the purpose of the object, how it was significant, and how it was used at the time and how the use of the object evolved over time.

3.    Locate and include a picture of the object found either on the internet or take one of an object in a museum, antique store, or in their own home.

4.    Compose a first person narrative as the object.  Include clues for classmates to determine what the object is, but do not specifically reveal what the paper is about.

Summative Assignment

Outcome:  Students will compose a first person descriptive narrative about an object and how it was used in historical events and how the purpose for the object changed over time.

Assignment Description:  Creative writing assignments in history encourage students to more fully immerse themselves in an event or time.  Understanding the role of tools or objects in relation to history is not only interesting but an important part of telling a historic story.   In this assignment, students will describe in detail the “experience” of an object.  The instructor may want to limit the object choices for students to a certain period or event, or the instructor may want to select some famous objects such as the flag raised at Ft. McHenry in 1814 that inspired the Star Spangled Banner or Dizzy Gillespie's B–flat Trumpet.  The Smithsonian Institute is a great resource online to find more inspiring images of objects for this assignment.  You may also want to provide suggestions of objects that aren’t necessarily famous and allow the student to be broader in their research such as a gun carried into a WWI battle.  The student might start with the factory where the guns were created, use in a training camp for soldiers, it’s time on the battlefield, and then now being displayed in a museum.  While a gun may appeal to many students and is an obvious choice, encourage student to think more creatively.  The object could be  an old school desk from Little Rock, Arkansas or a wagon wheel used by a pioneer family traveling west for a new life and now mounted on a wall in a home.  Encourage creativity, imagery, and attention to detail.  Part of the interest in this assignment is for students to not to identify the object directly in their paper, but rather provide clues to what it is so classmates have to really pay attention to the details to figure out each object.

Steps and Instructor Notes:

1.   Collect some images of objects, or in a face-to-face class bring in some unusual objects, used in a certain period.  Students can also search for artifacts in their own home or grandparents home that they could tell the story about.  Students could also take pictures of objects in a museum or antique store. 

2.    Take a picture of the object or even multiple pictures of the object from many angles or in use.

3.    Research the use of the object in history.  Encourage students to collect lots of facts and specific examples and then thread a story together about that object.

4.    Write a 3-5 page creative narrative essay that is grammatically sound in first person as the object.  Do not identify the object in the narrative and do not include an image that might give away what you are.  However, provide at least one image to the instructor.  (The instructor could post all the pictures and let students match stories with images or simply provide images after students have an opportunity to guess.)

 Rubric is based on 100 points total but this assignment would take several days and is very dependent on participation which could be evaluated many different ways:

10 points-Student submitted a creative 3-5 page narrative for classmates to read that is in first person and describes the life of an object.
10 points- Student participated in a discussion about and guessed the object for at least 2 other classmates.
20 points- The description of events and use of the object is historically accurate.
30 points-Student included at least 1 image and was very detailed about the object.
20 points-Overall the student composed a grammatically sound and well-organized document.
10 points-Citation is included in the assignment.

Worst Historical Villain Ever! Multimedia Biography Assignment

As we see in popular culture and movies, people are fascinated by the lives of the “bad guys.” Our students get excited when they learn about Billy the Kid or Al Capone, so let them explore the lives and history surrounding some of history’s worst villains. In the last assignment students read a biography and composed an essay on what they learned. However, there are many ways to demonstrate learning and in this modern age, students are familiar with flip camera’s, multimedia editing tools on their home computers, and are inspired by TV and the internet to create more dynamic and engaging content than just an essay. In this assignment, individual students will create their own biographical history clip about their favorite "worst" villain and the class will compile these into a "show" about the worst villains in history.

Title: Worst Historical Villain Ever! Assignment
Objective/s: Learner will create a video/audio clip about their favorite historical “bad guy.”
Assignment type: Summative
Assignment Details:
1. Student will select a historical bad guy. The instructor may want to provide a list and include some details that might entice students to choose individuals appropriate to the course or time period you are teaching. No two students should do the same person as the projects will be compiled later into a cohesive class project.
2. Using library and web resources, students will collect biographical information and open source images or even news footage about their "bad guy".
3. The learner will compose a well organized, grammatically sound one page summary based on their research about the individual’s life.
4. The learner will develop a slide show, video, or other multimedia piece that is approximately 5 minutes long and illustrates the villain’s life and why he or she was a “bad guy.”
5. Discuss as a class some qualifiers on what makes the “bad guy” the worst. Is it their ruthlessness? The number of people impacted by their actions? Is it the kind or number of crimes committed?
6. Class will watch/listen to each clip and vote for the “worst” historical villan. Then the class will use the rankings by the votes and compile the clips in order from least to most voted for villain to create a cohesive class project. Schools, students, and instructors may have various tools at their disposal for students to use to create this multimedia project. The instructor may want to take class volunteers to lead the technical aspects of this project and/or make necessary tools available. (A face to face classroom might just have the instructor video a live presentation, but I encourage all instructors to think more creatively and not underestimate students.) Encourage creativity and teamwork among the class. Consider breaking the class into production groups. (Production groups will be discussed in the next blog post.)

This rubric focuses on phase one of this project which is the individual student creating a multimedia project for their research on a historical villain. We will discuss the class project in the upcoming blog:

Composed a one page summary of biographical information about the villain - 20 points
Summary and project contains minimal grammar errors - 20 points
Cited Biography used for assignment in proper APA or MLA format-10 points
Created a detailed, well organized, engaging, and creative multimedia representation of their villain - 50 points

The rubric is purposely vague for the actual multimedia project as what your students have available and what you might expect varies dramatically. I encourage you to consider building an evaluation rubric for the multimedia piece with your class. Once you have some examples, you should share them from term to term to help students think about what they could do. Brainstorm with your class how they might develop their project. Do they have access to video cameras? What tools do they have on their computers at home and at school to build this project? How do TV channels like the history channel convey events and history? Can the students reinact an event? Would small scale replicas work? Can students offer each other assistance? For example, John owns a video camera and Julie has an editing program for video on her computer. How can they help each other get their projects completed?

Most importantly have fun and don’t let yourself or your students get lost in the technology and lose sight of the history. The overall quality of the multimedia product in the end may be poor or vary greatly from student to student but the content and learning will be rich!