Monologue-Women’s History Month

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify a historical significant female American.
2. Compose a monologue describing the life of that historical person and that individual’s historical significance.
3. Research both primary and secondary sources to include in the monologue and presentation.
4. In a 3-5 minutes presentation to the class, the student will dress in appropriate period attire to either be that important woman in history or as someone who might have known that person. (Boys could describe the historically significant woman as her son, husband, brother, or even someone she would have interacted with such as a student taught by Emily Griffith.)

Summative assignment
Outcome: Students will identify a historical woman, compose a 1-2 page monologue speaking as the significant American woman, and present it in a 3-5 minute speech to the class.

Assignment Description: In honor of women’s history month in March, students will select from a list of historically significant American females to research and be in a presentation to the class. The student will research that woman looking for both primary and secondary sources and compose a monologue as that person. The script is a significant part of this project and is designed to be an aide for students during the presentation. The student will then immerse herself/himself in the period of study and prepare a 3-5 minutes speech as that woman or as someone she would have encountered. For example, male students can be the husband, son, brother, father, patient, or student of the woman. Student will be expected to use materials at home to create an appropriate costume and props necessary for their presentation. This project is intended to be an immersive learning experience and special attention to detail and creativeness should be rewarded. Online students can use video cameras, photo essays, audio tools like Audacity to record their speech, or even present in synchronous sessions using an online conferencing tool.

Steps and Instructor Notes:1. Provide a list of significant American women to the class. You may want to have students draw from a hat the woman they are going to study or some other way to ensure that no two students present the same woman. You may also want to offer a trading time the next class period to give students a chance to get an idea of who they are researching and maybe trade with a classmate for someone who may interest them more.

2. Provide a few short monologues for students to read to understand the kinds of information provided in a monologue of someone’s life. An encyclopedia might even be a good place to start to encourage students to narrow a person’s life down to key events.

3. Provide library and research time for students to find both primary and secondary sources about their historical woman.

4. Students should submit the monologue with citation of primary and secondary sources at least a week prior to the presentations so that the instructor can grade and return them quickly. Students will have time to improve their presentations to the class before presenting. This is important since their classmates will ultimately learn about that historical person from the presentations so accuracy and completeness of significant details is important.

5. Students will present as a historical character or as the women from history they chose in a 3-5 minute speech. Student should be dressed appropriately and have props that may enhance their presentation. Students should be encouraged not to purchase items. (Online students should be presented with a few formats depending on age and tools available to them.)

6. Audience should be prepared to ask a couple follow up questions which the student should again respond in character. (Online presentations can be presented live for questions or asynchronously in a discussion, but feedback can still be easily provided by classmates.)

Rubric is based on 100 points total but it is likely this assignment could be evaluated as separate pieces and would take several days which could be evaluated many different ways.
20 points-Student submitted a 1-2 page biographical monologue on their historical woman that is accurate, thorough, grammatically sound, and properly cited.
10 points-Student actively participated in the question and answer period following a peer’s presentation.
20 points-Student dressed in character for presentation and used appropriate props to set the stage for their presentation. Student acted and spoke in presentation as the historical character. (Again online students may have a few different parameters here. For instance a photo essay might include actual photographs of the person, their home, and other important images to fit their story, but a audio component with a monologue should be required.)
40 points- Student delivered a well organized, informational 3-5 minute monologue that informed the audience about the historical woman they researched.
10 points-Student responded to questions about their presentation in a thoughtful way.

Student Generated Learning -- Let Students Lead the Way

Most instructors require some sort of text book or reading materials that are quite thorough and provide a good overall understanding for students on the people, places and events of history. Then instructors plan a series of lectures and assignments that compliment and expand on the readings to meet the competencies of the course. We also want our students to be life-long learners who find content relevant. However, our format of read the text and then listen to my lecture sometimes falls short with students. The lecture we have perfected over the last 5 years may be quite interesting and demonstrate the best of story-telling, but not relate content to our students’ lives and ultimately is a passive experience. What if we let students direct the content of the lectures and discussions rather than having a preset agenda when the term starts?

Title: Student Generated Topical Discussions

Objective/s: At the beginning of the course, learners will review the topics to be covered in the course and select their top 10 that they would like to discuss in depth during the term and share those in an open discussion.

Assignment type: Formative

Assignment Details: 
1. Student will review reading material and course outlines. (Bonus: This provides a great overview of the course content and get’s students familiar with their resources.)
2. Student will compile their top ten list of topics they would like to discuss and explore in more depth during the term.
3. Student will submit this list to an opening discussion with classmates and the instructor.
4. Students will also comment on classmates top ten lists and they may discover other topics they would really like to discuss.

The instructor will participate in the opening discussion and compile the top ten lists from the students and pick a diverse set of topics to be covered in more depth by lectures, discussions, and assignments. Instructors can give the text reading purpose by highlighting content that explores the concepts students find most relevant. This will take more planning time and energy by the instructor each semester. However, instead of blank faces staring back during a lecture or online discussions falling flat, students will be more actively engaged by knowing the classroom interactions with the topics originated with them.

Signers of the Declaration of Independence Assignment

Title: Signers of the Declaration of Independence Assignment

Objective/s: Learner will research an assigned Signer of the Declaration and come to class as that person with clues about who they are for their classmates to guess who they are.

Assignment type: Formative

Assignment Details
1. Student will be assigned the name of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
2. The student will research that signer’s life before and after signing the historic document.
3. Student will write a one page biography of the signer’s life.
4. In a face-to-face class, the student may come wearing clues or dressed as the signer. Each person should bring a document with the facts to submit to the instructor. In an online classroom, the student will start a thread of their own asking “Who am I?”
5. In either the face-to-face setting or online, the student will give one clue at a time to classmates providing a certain amount of time for guesses by classmates. (Students should be prepared with 10-20 clues about the person they were assigned.)
6. Class will use their own knowledge of signers to guess who their classmate is.

Rubric
Researched and found a minimum number of facts about their Declaration Signer-10 points
Composed a one page concise biography of signer-40 points
Participated in discussion and/or dressed in costume with clues on who they are-40 points
Cited Biography used for assignment in proper APA or MLA format-10 points

Production Groups: History Teamwork

Teamwork often involves a daunting assignment that is difficult for both the instructor and the students to get excited about. I suggest building a culture in your classroom of collaboration that is not usually tied to a grade so that when a group project is assigned the team experience is not foreign to anyone. For history classrooms, get students thinking about what historians do which is often researching a topic and producing something that communicates that to an audience whether that might be a website, museum display, journal article, or a TV show. Most of the time, historians do not do all the work alone and therefore work with a production group or team. A team is often more effective if each member has a defined role. The roles assigned might depend a bit on the type of project and depending on the size of a group some students might perform more than one role, but here are some of the roles you might consider.

1. Researcher-Not only locates reliable primary and secondary sources, but provides documentation of those sources for the final product.
2. Writer-Composes the text for the final product.
3. Graphics Organizer/Designer-Depending on the project and the level of your students, this person will collect images, maps, and other illustrations of the content or develop their own.
4. Director-Organizes all the text, documentation, and visual aides and develops a story board to be approved and completed by the team.
5. Editor-Edits grammar mistakes in the final product and checks for plagiarism issues.
6. Content Editor-Critically examines reliability of information in product and ensures all the key details are provided accurately.
7. Technician-Depending on the scale and complexity of the technology used in the project, one student may need to be the technical expert who brings a background in computers, AVI equipment, etc. and is responsible for any school equipment utilized and oversees use of technology in the project.
8. Producer-This is the instructor who may remain fairly hands off but should have checkpoints along the way--for instance seeing the story board and approving the production of the team. The instructor might also reject a production group's proposal outlining the specific areas that need improvement to be reconsidered.

Ideally, your students have had a chance in small ways to be these various roles on an ungraded or low stakes assignment. As a class, define the responsibilities of each role, like a job description, and the consequences for not doing the job. Be ready to answer these questions:
-Can the group fire members, and what happens then?
-How will the product be evaluated or is it their performance in their group that is evaluated?
-Do students get to form their own groups or will the instructor assign the groups?
-Will the instructor assign jobs to the students or does the group determine that?

Running production groups in your classroom takes a great deal of planning to truly be effective. However, students, particularly those who are not interested in history, will find the experience rewarding and engaging.

Olympic Games

The history of modern Olympic Games is interval snapshots of world history. While students are inspired by watching the current Olympic stories unfold on TV, we can use the event in our courses to inspire them to learn about the past. The history of the Olympics itself is a study of sports, athletes, people, and the development of sports medicine, science, and technology. The opening and closing ceremonies inform the world about the hosting nation’s history and culture. The Olympic event illustrates the key social, political, and cultural history of the period. Here is a brief timeline of some key modern Summer Olympic history. Visit this website for video, timelines, and other key images of the Olympics.

1896 First Modern Olympics in Athens
1900 Women compete in the Olympics for first time
1908 Moved to London from Rome after a devastating eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
1916 Cancelled for WWI
1924 Winter Olympics begins in Chamonix, France
1936 Jesse Owens wins Gold in Germany where Hitler and the Nazis were gaining power
1940-1944 Cancelled for WWII
1952 Soviet Union participated for the first time
1956 Olympics boycotted for Soviet Union army entering Budapest
1964 Computers used to record times
1968 US medal winning track Athletes pictured on medal stand with Black Power fists raised
1972 Israeli athletes kidnapped and killed in Olympic Village
1980 Boycott of the Moscow Olympics by the United States and 60 other nations protesting the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union.

For more history on the Summer and Winter Olympics visit Olympic.Org for links to photos, video and an Olympic Museum.

Some extension activities for students are:

1. Students create a timeline for themselves
2. Students research the significance of one specific Olympic Games. Encourage students to see beyond the games and athletes to reflect and synthesize the sporting event with world social, political, technological, and cultural history.
3. Create your own History Olympic Games with events that challenge students to answer as many questions as they can correctly in 60 seconds, get the most correct, create the most well written essay on a topic, and get a historical fact the fastest from the internet or in a library. Can't think of more or don't like these, have the students create the events and judge them.

History of Science

While working with my daughter on her science fair project, I began to reflect on the history of science and inventions in the United States. Too often, we narrow the study of history for students to some key political and social events. In reality, our lives and story are intertwined with economics, science, religion and other disciplines. I also have many students tell me they are not good at history and not looking forward to the upcoming semester. However, these students major in other disciplines that they are interested in and intend to pursue careers in other fields. To make history relevant to the budding scientist or inventor, why not provide the opportunity to study the history of that subject and long term effects these fields had on our past?

In honor of my daughter’s science project, here are a few sites worth checking out on the history of science. The list includes web sources that would take you on a research journey…

Internet History of Science Sourcebook Altius Directory
Altius Directory
History of Biology
History of Science
Famous Scientists

Assignment Feedback

This spring I shared several assignments (timelines, webliography, movie review and more) that encourage student originality, creativity, and allow them to select topics that are most interesting and relevant to them. These flexible assignments still meet the Colorado Common Course Outcomes. When designing a course, I start by creating a course map that aligns resource materials, assignments, discussions, and formative and summative assessments with outcomes. Sometimes, there are outcomes that are vague or difficult to meet in the online classroom. However after brainstorming, some very interesting and engaging assignments for students usually result.

What do the students think about these assignments? Each semester, I ask students for candid feedback regarding the assignments, assessments, materials in the course, discussions, and overall course design. I use this feedback to improve the course and stay current with the mood and needs of the students. The feedback this semester regarding the new assignments is overwhelmingly positive. Students appreciated the break from stagnant essay response assignments. They enjoyed and remained more interested in the course by having a variety of assignments. I had less students request permission to turn in work late. While I don't have specific statistics to explain why, I believe it is in part a result of not getting bored and burned out with similar assignments. Students also reported that they learned more and felt more challenged from assignments like the timeline and the movie review than from writing a typical essay response on the same topic. When asked which assignment was their favorite, some students shockingly said they liked them all. However, I did have a group report that the timeline assignment was their favorite. This is interesting because it broke the most from the traditional mold of essay assignments by requiring strong organization and encouraged the use of Web 2.0 technology.

Was I satisfied with the quality of their work? After semesters of grading responses to essays and being disappointed that students did not seem move beyond the knowledge level to the higher analysis and synthesis levels, these assignments seemed to demonstrate higher levels of Bloom’s and allowed me to better evaluate student learning. The design of these assignments required a strong understanding at the knowledge level but better encouraged analysis and synthesis.

What did I learn? Besides being pleased with the overall quality of the completed assignments, I learned that these assignments are more challenging to grade because of the unique way each student may interpret the instructions. Therefore, the assignments require detailed expectations and elaborate rubrics. I also learned that providing an optional discussion forum for students to ask questions about each assignment of myself and classmates provided some formative feedback and reduced stress and confusion for students. Additionally, even those who never posted to the study hall discussions benefited from the examples, instructions, and questions posted there.

Historical Narrative Assignment

Students often evaluate historical events and the people who lived ages ago by today’s standards and what we know now about the outcome. Sometimes this hindsight makes it difficult for students to empathize with people in the past. In this historical narrative writing assignment, students imagine what it would have been like to live in another time. Then they will write from a fictional character’s perspective a set of letters, journal entries, or story. Students completing this assignment will understand the impact of time and space on perspective, develop a narrative structure, identify events, people, groups and cultures, and practice research skills.

First, develop a list of events or people that your students can choose to write their first person narratives about. I like to make these lists about non-famous everyday people. I also allow students to select any gender or race that would be appropriate for that character. For example in a WWII unit, students choose from a soldier of any country on the frontlines, a Jewish person in a concentration camp, or a French citizen in occupied France. Another example, is to imagine they are a Civil War soldier writing a letter home about their experience, and then write a return letter from the soldier’s wife about civilian life in the Civil War.

Before writing, students research what every day life was like for the character. I require a bibliography of three sources. You may also want to point students to certain Primary Sources like autobiographies or diaries. Students should note historical references like dates, places, and events. These real facts will add credibility and interest to the assignment. For example, a soldier might mention a battle that actually occurred or a leader that actually lived. Encourage students to use descriptions that really bring their audience to the moment. What sounds or smells would the character sense in the moment their writing about?

These papers are unique for the students to write and the instructor to grade. The opportunity to plagiarize is less likely, though still possible. Students may struggle if they have not had many creative writing experiences before. Therefore, give students some specific parameters in a rubric to help organize this assignment and write an appropriate amount. You may also provide students some examples or articles to help them get started. Grade students on being as accurate as possible describing their character’s experience rather than how entertaining it is to read. For example, the character would not have modern technology available like phones or computers. The use and sounds of cars and planes might be very new and foreign to the character. Some students may really thrive in this assignment and try to use dialect appropriate for the character but grammar may suffer. I am ok with this because students are exploring a new type of historical writing and exploring character writing. I also encourage students to post their assignment for classmates to read in an optional discussion.

Movie Review Assignment

Historians like to discuss and discredit films for their inaccuracies, but the average person learns a great deal about the past from these cinematic representations. I bet each of us can think of at least one scene from a movie that really affected our understanding of an historical event or time. Movies can excite students about history and teach about the past in a way that draws viewers into the experience. Many great history instructors are also great storytellers, and film is simply another way of telling the world’s story. Directors may take creative license with the facts and characters, but they often are careful to represent dress, life-style, and culture in a way that texts and even great storytellers have trouble doing. After students finish the course they may never actively try to learn history again, but they are likely to watch movies that represent the past. This assignment will encourage students to be critical thinkers as they analyze the film for class and later films they enjoy.

First, students select a movie from a list provided by the instructor to watch. The list should provide a variety of new and old movies and cover a variety of subjects. Since new movies come out all the time and there are many films I am not aware of, I allow students to contact me for approval for a movie not on the list. While watching the movie, students are to consider these questions:

1. Were there inaccuracies in the movie compared to the material in our course which covers that time period or person?
2. What did you learn from the movie that you did not already know?
3. Were there any obvious values or opinions being presented by the director in the way they depicted the main theme of the film or the way they portrayed the heroes and villains of the story?
4. How did the depiction of this event or person compare to reading about the same topic in a textbook?
5. Did you have an emotional reaction to the film, why or why not? How do your own history and experiences affect how you perceive the film?
6. Did the film have an impact at the time of release on society’s perspective of the event and people involved? Did the film change your perspective about the people or event?

After watching the film, students write a concise review of the movie that considers the questions above and summarizes the plot. You may also provide the option for students to share their work in a discussion, so that they can learn from each other and review a variety of films.

Timeline Assignment

Historians use timelines to create a graphical, sequential picture of history. Timelines are linear or comparative. The information in a timeline gives us perspective about the relationships between events and people. Textbooks and Hippocampus.org do this for students regularly to present information in a different and concise format. Below are a couple of timelines on the web you might use in your courses as resources for students.

http://www.historicaltimeline.com/ (This site includes 5 timelines that traces world history, leaders, religion, war, and inventions)

http://www.searchbeat.com/society/History/Timelines/ (This site has a long list of timelines for various topics)

http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmah/timeline.htm (American History Timeline by the Smithsonian Institute)

http://www.mnh.si.edu/Africanvoices/ax/fs/primary_fs.html?history+intro (This is the Smithsonian timeline for African history)

http://www.lkwdpl.org/study/timeline/ (This is a student guide to creating timelines and it also provides links to many useful timelines)

Organizing content and creating a timeline requires students to break information into parts, understand the impact of time and space on perspective, and identify trends. First, create a list of topics related to the unit or course. I provide several topics that have evolved over time and have many key events. For example, students might trace medical advancements in the United States from the Civil War through WWII. Students pick a topic that most interests them, but I am careful to give students specific start and end parameters for the timeline. Students create a time line of at least 15 events using either a word processing program or this really nice web 2.0 tool at http://www.timerime.com/ (you’ll also find some timelines here that you might find useful in your courses.). Each item on the timeline should include a brief description that explains the significance of that date. Students summarize the topic the outline is about in one concise paragraph. Students are encouraged to post their work to an optional Timeline discussion for classmates to use. This student generated bank of timelines can be a useful resource for them as the course progresses.

Survey Assignment

This semester I am teaching a new Western Civilization Course for CCCOnline that has some new assignments in it. Designed to incorporate course competencies, encourage originality, and be relevant to students by allowing them to focus on topics that most interest them, I believe these assignments are applicable to many courses and topics.

To provide my online students time to become acquainted with the course layout and their digital learning materials, the first assignment in the Introduction Unit asks students to create a survey of ten multiple-choice questions. They write only one question per chapter, because I want them to get an overview of the content in the course. The students then give this survey to ten people who are ten or older and record the results. They report their findings and share what they learned about the general-public’s knowledge of history and the reactions to the survey in a discussion. While giving the survey to people students inadvertently talk about history and the answers to the survey with their friends and family, which accomplishes one of the course competencies which is simply to speak about history. They also consider assessment design and delivery, which is particularly beneficial for my students who often plan to be high school teachers.

Then students post their five best or favorite questions for classmates to see and review. This student-generated content gives me an idea of the topics that most interest the class, and the students learn from each other by reviewing this bank of questions. Later in the semester, I will use my favorite questions for an extra credit quiz. This brings an added sense of relevancy when they are generating questions for their own exam.

Topic of the Month: Pearl Harbor

U.S.S. Shaw exploding during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941(National Archives, Still Picture Branch, 80-G-16871 )

Next weekend on December 7th our nation remembers the devastating attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941. This attack by a fleet of six Japanese aircraft carriers propelled the United States into World War II. My students enjoy a comparison discussion of this event and the US reaction after 9/11 and the reaction of the nation.

Another assignment to teach research skills and to learn about Pearl Harbor is to have students work together in a Wiki to generate a Webliography of sources about Pearl Harbor. Encourage students to break the sources they find into categories such as Naval History, Eye Witness Accounts, Photographs, Japanese Perspective etc…As they post sources they find, require them to also include a summary of the information at the site and any concerns they may have about the integrity of the content.

To Get students started, this day that would “live in infamy” has many wonderful resources available on the web. Here are a few:

For an eye witness account

Many pictures related to the attack

US Naval History Website including eye witness accounts and key basic logistical information

And another US Naval History Website

U-Tube group of pictures about Pearl Harbor

Cool interactive map from National Geographic and numerous other resources

The National Archives Site also has many primary sources such as audio pieces of the Day of Infamy Speech

For some Critical Thinking you might also check out the Library of Congress “Man on the Street” Interviews

For more Critical Thinking consider the Japanese view of this attack. Check out this site to get started

What assignments and activities do you use to teach about this important event?