Blog Duel

Learning Objectives:

1.      Describe a historical verbal or physical duel between two people in history.

2.      Describe the origins of the discontent of each others’ views and how the problems grew.

3.      Describe the outcome and historical significance of the duel itself.

4.      Evaluate blogs on the internet and those created by peers.

Formative and Summative Assignment

Outcome:  Students will compose a blog post describing the origins and outcome of a verbal or physical duel between two people in the past. Students will use and evaluate blogs on the internet and of their classmates.

Assignment Description:  Blogs have become an outlet for many aspiring writers to post informative articles on a variety of historical topics that we used to find in scholarly journals.  Reading and following blogs is a very common activity for our students and writing an informative, thoughtful blog can become part of their portfolio as they search for jobs in the future.  The class should follow at least one but hopefully a few blogs from the beginning of the term.  The instructor might provide a discussion time each week to discuss what is covered in the selected blogs.  Students may even be encouraged to respond to those blogs. Students will read and select their top three history blogs and share those with classmates.  After using blogs for a while, students will write their own blog post about a duel either assigned by the teacher or selected by the students.  (Students could be asked to blog about anything but this carries home the theme of the blog duel that will come later in the lesson and that individual disagreements occur and can be taken too far even by our leaders.)  Students will post their blog into a discussion or closed blogging tool.   Students will read each others’ blog and select their favorites for a blogging duel.  The dueling blogs will post additional articles and the class will evaluate them for accuracy and interest and vote for their winner.  (Just like in a real duel, there has to be a winner).

Steps and Instructor Notes:

1. Blogs can be a great addition to the curriculum in your classroom on a daily basis.  Select a blog that is appropriate for your class and follow it on a regular basis from the beginning of your term.  This could be done as an ongoing discussion or a kick off for each Monday.
2. Students will research and select their top three history blogs and share them in a discussion with their classmates.  Their post should include links to the blogs and an evaluation of their quality. 
3. Students will compose their own 400 word blog post describing a historical duel.    The duel can be a verbal debate like the Lincoln-Douglas Debates or an actual duel like Burr and Hamilton.  Students will post this blog in a discussion or other online tool.  Students will vote for their favorite post by a classmate. 
4. The top two bloggers’ will duel for the title of “Best Class Blogger.”  The two bloggers will post additional articles on historical topics of their own interest.  The class will evaluate their posts for accuracy and other qualities the class determines using the earlier evaluation remarks they made about public blogs.  The class will select the “winner” based on criteria they establish.

Rubric is based on 100 points total but this assignment is very organic and is as much about participation and collaboration as composing a blog post.  Simply put, done right students will be motivated to participate in this without points and will be exposed to specific historical facts as well as blogging/writing techniques.

10 points-Student submitted their top 3 blogs and described the qualities of each.
50 points-Student posted a grammatically sound 400 word post about a duel that described who, what, where, when, why, and the historical significance.  Student read and voted for the best blogs in the class. 
50 points-Either student was nominated for best blog and kept writing or student helped create criteria to evaluate “best” bloggers and voted for best.

Blogs that might be useful:

Throwing Down the Gauntlet History's 7 Most Famous Duels - http://newsonrelevantscience.blogspot.com/2012/06/throwing-down-gauntlet-historys-7-most.html  

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/

http://ushistoryfiles.wordpress.com/

http://ushistorysite.blogspot.com/

http://blog.americanhistory.si.edu/                       

A list of blogs- http://www.blog4history.com/2010/11/top-50-american-history-blogs-2/

Comparing a Civil War Soldier to a Modern Soldier

       Learning Objectives: 

1.  Compare and contrast the battlefield equipment and rucksack packing list of a Civil War soldier to a modern soldier. 
2. Identify equipment and rucksack packing items of these American foot soldiers. 
3.  Describe why soldiers have certain equipment then and now.
4. Create a chart comparing Civil War soldier’s equipment and rucksack packing list to a modern soldier.
5. Compose a double-spaced 3-5 page comparison essay describing what equipment a Civil War soldier carried into battle and what they carried with them while marching and contrasting that to what a modern soldier uses today.

Formative/Summative assignment

Outcome:  Students will compose a double-spaced 3-5 page comparison essay that describes the equipment carried into battle by a Civil War foot soldier and what they packed in their travel bags.

Assignment Description:  To better understand life as a Civil War soldier, students will compare and contrast the battle equipment soldiers used and the items they carried from camp to camp with the equipment of a modern soldier.  Ideally in a face-to-face class, a current US Army soldier would be invited to show and explain the modern equipment he or she currently uses.  In an online class, this could still take place with a guest speaker discussion, web conference session, or by video.  Students will then research the items a Civil War soldier carried (possibly divide the class into Northern and Southern soldiers to cover both sides and different experiences.)  While researching, students will create a chart comparing the Civil War and modern soldier’s equipment.  Then students will compose a comparison essay that contrasts the Civil War soldier’s and modern soldier’s equipment in battle and travel.  One side benefit for this assignment is that students will better understand the harsh conditions the Civil War soldiers experienced but also appreciate and better understand the lives of the men and women who currently fight for our country.

Steps and Instructor Notes:

1. Arrange for a soldier to visit the class.  Outline for this volunteer the project expectations and request they bring equipment used in both the battlefield and in day-to-day life (what they would pack in their rucksack.  Be sure to confirm and get special permission with the school if any weapons were to be brought on campus, even army knives.  
2.  Students will take notes to begin to build a comparison chart, but class could create one as a group, in teams, or pairs at next face-to-face meeting or on google docs.  
3.  Provide library and research time for students to find both primary and secondary sources about what Civil War soldier’s equipment in the battlefields and in camp was like.
4. Students will complete chart for Civil War Soldier.
5. Students will compose a comparison essay that is double spaced and 3-5 pages in length.  The comparison chart should be a good resource for students while doing this essay.  Citation should be provided and instruction from the instructor regarding the citation of the modern soldier's visit to the classroom should be provided.

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

20 points-Student participated on the day of the guest-soldier lecture.

20 points-Student submitted a compare and contrast chart for a Civil War soldier and a modern soldier.

60 points-Student composed a grammatically sound, well organized 3-5 page double spaced comparison essay that was cited properly. 

John Brown: Hero or Terrorist

Learning Objectives:
1. Define the qualities of a heroic action and/or person.
2. Discuss modern terrorism and the impact on our lives.
3. Define the terms terrorist/terrorist action.
4. Research the events at Harper’s Ferry and John Brown.
5. Explore newspaper articles from the period and other primary sources about Brown’s attack on Harper’s Ferry.
6. Debate as a class whether Brown’s actions were heroic or terrorism.
7. Compose a persuasive newspaper report that could have been written in Brown’s life time supporting either the statement that Brown was a hero or a terrorist.

Formative assignment
Outcome: Students will critically analyze primary sources and the actions of John Brown at Harper’s Ferry.

Assignment Description: Sometimes the actions of a person are viewed very differently depending on which side of an argument you support. Billy the Kid was a murderer and still considered a hero by many. During the abolitionist struggle to free slaves before the Civil War, John Brown conducted a violent raid on Harper’s Ferry with the idea that slaves he freed would join him in rebellion and inspire slave rebellion across the South. Was he a hero for taking up the slaves’ cause or a terrorist attempting to strike fear in the minds of citizens?

Steps and Instructor Notes:
1. As a class, students will define the qualities of a heroic action and/or person. Students should come prepared with examples and at least two criteria they want to have the class consider. (The instructor’s role is to facilitate the selection of the final criteria.)
2. During the following class period, the students will discuss modern terrorism and the impact on their lives and define the terms terrorist and terrorist action. Again students should come prepared with examples and two criteria and the instructor should facilitate the defining of terrorism.
3. Each student will then research John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry.
4. The instructor should provide sources or encourage students to share with the class primary web sources such as newspaper articles from the period and other primary sources about Brown’s attack on Harper’s Ferry. For example, what did Frederick Douglas say about the event?
5. Debate as a class whether Brown’s actions were heroic or terrorism. Students could be divided by the instructor to argue one side or the other, or the instructor might require students to come prepared with a one minute or brief argument.
6. After participating in the class debate, each student will compose a persuasive newspaper report that could have been written in Brown’s life time supporting either the statement that Brown was a hero for the abolitionist cause or a terrorist striking fear in the hearts of innocent citizens. The instructor should review expectations for citation, grammar, format, and length.

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 both criteria based discussions with sources and examples.
10 points-Student actively participated in discussion to develop criteria.
30 points-Student participated in debate and offered brief argument to support view of Brown’s actions.
50 points- Student composed a grammatically sound newspaper article as if it was written at the time of John Brown’s life either describing Brown as a hero or a terrorist. The article should include very specific details of the event as well as arguments supporting his actions or condemning them.

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!