Is it a Massacre or a Battle?

Learning Objectives:
1. Explore the documentation of historical events by historians, the public, and politicians.
2. Develop criteria as a historian for the use of the labels “massacre” and “battle” for historical events.
3. Evaluate historical events and determine whether they are correctly labeled based on criteria.
4. Examine the name changes over time associated with some battles or massacres.

This is a formative assignment and students will critically analyze the labels associated with historic battles or massacres and the reporting of those events.

Assignment Description: The struggle between tribes and pioneers while the United States government expanded westward is depicted in social media as a one-sided event. However, the interactions between the two cultures were more complicated than a western tale of good versus evil. Students will explore this period of westward expansion by analyzing encounters between the groups. Students will be empowered to make their own decisions regarding the correct labels for the events and encouraged to analyze those labels of the past and present.

Steps and Instructor Notes:
1. As a class, students will develop a set of criteria to label a historical event as either a battle or a massacre. Participation in this discussion is required and students should come prepared with research about what each term means, sources and examples of use, and at least two criteria they want to have the class consider. Student will submit document to instructor with research and proposed criteria. (The instructor’s role is to encourage discussion and debate, but then facilitate the selection of the final criteria the entire class will use in their analysis of events. Here is a link in the Chicago Tribune on this very topic. Instructors may have students read this article before starting the assignment to set the tone for the upcoming work. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-08-18/news/0908170600_1_native-american-history-chicago-park-district )

2. Provide a list of battles and massacres for students to research individually or in pairs. After selecting one event, students should write a three page, double spaced summary of the event including who was involved, what happened, motivation for the attack, and outcome. The report should include research about how the event was reported at the time using primary source documents and describe whether the label for the event has evolved or changed over time. Additionally, the student or pair of students will determine, based on the criteria, whether the event is correctly labeled by modern historians. Proper citation is required on an additional page. (This assignment could be applied to a wider range of battles and massacres, but for the purpose of this post the limit will be encounters between tribes and pioneers after 1830. This assignment directly correlates with the Sand Creek Massacre in 1863 in Kiowa, Colorado, see Hippocampus.org link below.)

3. Students will share their research on one of the battles and massacres with the class. Classmates will evaluate at least two classmates’ conclusions about the labels applied to historical events, and openly share whether they agree or disagree and why.

Rubric is based on 100 points total but it is likely this assignment would take several days and could be broken down into more graded parts.
10 points-Student came prepared for criteria discussion with sources and examples.
10 points-Student actively participated in discussion to develop criteria.
60 points-Student individually or in a pair composed a well organized, grammatically sound document summarizing in 3 double spaced pages the event including who was involved, what happened, motivation for the attack, and outcome. The report included research about how the event was reported at the time using primary source documents and explained whether the label for the event has evolved or changed over time. Finally, the paper concluded and explained whether the label meets the class’s criteria for a massacre or battle. On the fourth page of the document, correct citation is included.
20 points-Student thoughtfully responded in writing or verbally (this may depend on your classroom format and level) to two classmates conclusions about other events.

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

Augmented Reality Assignments

Last week I attended the ELCC Conference and presented with Mary Cash, Save the Trees!, on open content courses including my use of NROC content in CCCOnline history courses. One of my favorite presentations at the conference was by Chris Luchs and Kae Novak on Augmented Reality Assignments.

Scenario based learning, Authentic Assessments, and Augmented Reality Assignments in many ways are the same concept with different names. As seen in the previous link, Augmented Reality Assignments can be an assignment conducted in a virtual space including Second Life, but I want to imagine this concept more like a Murder Mystery Dinner party in your online or face to face classroom.

Our students and instructors become players in a carefully constructed game created by Instructional Designers, Teachers, and Librarians. Students become the content experts and may be assigned various job titles like Curator, Archives Specialist, National Historian for a Federal Agency, Research Librarian, History Journalist, and Professor. A “client” contracts the historians for a project that involves research, writing, presenting, communicating, and meeting deadlines with their “client.” The instructor, librarian, and designer engage the students as professionals, but have some pre-made clues and guidance tools in place to provide at opportune moments to help students be most successful. Like a Murder Mystery party, the hosts (teacher, designer, and librarian) will release information as the party progresses to guide the guests to the clues and the solution. Instructors have a variety of tools to provide obvious and subtle hints to their students such as twitter, websites, discussion, and resources at the library.

I admit, this sounds like a daunting task for an instructor to create and conduct by themselves. My suggestion is experiment with an augmented reality assignment on a small scale first. For example, in collaboration with an English Instructor, your students become writers for a historical journal like the Journal of American History. The English class becomes the editors of the Journal and using the articles written by the historians selects the best for publication or provides editing comments for consideration and future approval on the rejected articles. What an opportunity for cross-curriculum collaboration and providing a simple real world scenario!

To make the scenario most believable, students in the history class should believe they have submitted their writing to a real historical journal (in fact, they could submit directly to a journal of their choice) and the English students should believe they are truly evaluating professionally written articles for publication. You may even want to have a “visitor” to the class from the Historical Journal that explains why they are excited about the opportunity to work with the class. If not a real visitor, maybe a "letter" to the class from the Journal describing the scope of what they are trying to do by working with them.

Truthfully, I would only be successful with this kind of assignment in an online environment because my facial expressions would give me away. However, with a real-life purpose, I do suspect that many students would feel more engaged and motivated to produce some of their best work.

If you are ready to create a more complicated augmented reality for your students, the summer is a great time to plan and I look forward to your examples!

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.