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.