| Getting Started
Devise a learning standard:
What do you expect your students to know and be able to
do when they have completed this project? Create an assessment rubric for students
based on your expectations. This Analytic
Rubric may serve as a model for your
own.
Decide on the learning product:
It could be a Web page, a multimedia product,
a video, or the transformation of your classroom into a Decades
Museum. Whatever format the product may take, students will
present and defend their ideas.
Create the "hooks" to
engage your students:
Meet your students "where they are"
by inviting them to begin their inquiry by considering the dreams
of today, the dreamers of the present. Next, use the American
Memory collections to learn about our cultural heritage and
find evidence of the dreamers in our collective history. Finally,
ask your students to compare their own dreams to the dreams of those
who lived before them. Students should understand that history is
the continuing story of human experience, the stories of people
like themselves. Help them to understand that as they define and
pursue their own dreams, they create the future of our nation and
the world.
Organize:
Introduce students to the student pages. Divide your class into
learning teams and assign roles and responsibilities. Introduce
the
team management check
list .
Each team will select (or be assigned) a research role (photographer, lawyer, poet, politician,
producer, comedian, musician). Each student will choose (or be assigned) a group
task and will work as part of their team to bring the project to completion.
Remind students that while they each have specific group tasks, all team members pitch in and help one another.
As a class, define the scope of the historical
research conducted in this project. Will teams gather material from
a specific decade? Will they work with a single American Memory
collection? Will research be guided by a theme, such as immigration?
Will research be linked to literature the class is reading?
Provide time for students to explore the student
and resource pages of the project.
Elements for Success:
- Student-centered teaching environment
- Adequate time spent teaching students to analyze primary
source documents
- Rich array of additional materials from your content area
to support the project
- Student choice and accountability
- Access to the library media center
- Adequate collaborative planning time with the school librarian
- Time for students to complete tasks
- Computer access in the media center or classroom for students
and teachers
Phase One of Implementation --
Building Background Knowledge and Skills
Anticipatory Set:
Link to students' prior knowledge and work with them to
develop a concept of the traditional "American Dream." Use the "What
Is the American Dream?"
essay to initiate a discussion (either as a whole class or in team groups).
You may wish to have your students conduct interviews,
explore other readings, engage in further class discussions, or hear guest speakers.
The Dreamers
of Today Web site can provide a context for how others see the "American
Dream." Use the Activity 1
worksheet (or create your own introductory activity)
to engage your students.
Using the American Memory collections:
Introduce the American
Memory collections through the
Discovering American Memory Workshop. Assign
these learning activities:
Document Analysis:
Before students begin their research, review strategies for analyzing
primary source materials. Each student team
will work with a set of preselected materials. The document
analysis worksheet provides a model to guide older students
through the analysis. Younger students may find the analysis guides
from the Discovering
American Memory Workshop more manageable (Photo
Analysis Guide, Listening
Guide, Document
Guide). Each team will analyze their assigned document. An engaging
and effective way to introduce students to their resource (if appropriate
for the media involved) is to create a Primary
Source Set for each team.
Photographer
- Mr. & Mrs. David Vincent and daughter,
Martha, by their sod house
Poet
- "Dedication," Robert Frost's presidential
inaugural poem, 20 January 1961
Politician
- "Americanism", Harding, Warren G. (Warren Gamaliel),
1865-1923
Producer
- Arrival of immigrants, Ellis Island
Lawyer
- Petition for change of venue, 1886 June
10, Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887
Comedian
- Katzenjammer Kids: "Policy and pie"
Musician
- The old cabin home. H. De Marsan, Publisher,
54 Chatham Street, New York.
Reporter
- The Independent gazetteer, or, The chronicle of freedom, 1788
Phase Two of Implementation
-- Researching Online and gathering primary
resources
Team organization and accountability:
Guide students in developing an action plan (e.g. photographer).
The team management check list can provide a model for this
task.
The project requires your students to apply their research
skills, as well as team planning skills to ensure completion of
their product by the set deadline. Keeping a "research log" of work
accomplished during each work session can help students stay focused (and can
help in the evaluative process).
Review the assessment
questions:
Choose just the questions (e.g. photographer)
that will provide a focus for the project. Students can use these
questions to guide their research.
Gathering primary sources:
As a class, create and continually add to,
a list of "tried and true" search terms. Remind students
that American Memory is a collection of collections. It is not encyclopedic
and it simply does not have "everything." If an initial
search does not yield desired results, guide students in how they
can narrow or refocus the search.
Your schedule may limit students to visiting only
the suggested collections and provided links for each team. As possible,
however, encourage them to develop their own, additional links in
the American Memory collections and to expand their resources with
other Internet sources.
Begin independent team exploration. Supply
students with document analysis
worksheets to
use to record their growing set of evidence. Allow
at least two (more preferred) days/class periods for exploration
and research.
Phase Three of Implementation
-- Creating the Learning Product
Students can produce a variety of products to demonstrate their interpretation of the material, including web pages, multimedia products, video documentaries, oral presentations, creating booklets or newspapers, or even photos of your classroom turned into a museum comprised of print documents, multimedia, and realia.
Creating and refining a final learning product
that allows students to represent, present and defend their ideas
about the American Dream is the tangible outcome of this project.
Allow plenty of time for this vital phase. (Having students add
what transpires during this phase of the project to their research
log can provide useful insight in the evaluation process.)
Require that proper
citation and/or bibliographical entry be used for all collected print material,
photos, sound, video, etc.
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