Dear Classroom Teacher,

 

Although we believe that students need to develop the skills to prepare a thoughtful, well-written research paper, there are other product options. Students can acquire subject knowledge and develop transferable information literacy and technology skills through a variety of creative activities. The following is a list of some enriching assignment ideas for your class. For any research products or response to literature consider how technologies like video, desktop publishing, web development or multimedia presentations might enhance students’ communication of the knowledge they have gained. Stop by the library information center, and together we can plan and discuss project ideas, available resources, and assessment options.  

Remember, that regardless of the format of the student communication, research should be driven by thoughtful questions!

Annotated bibliography: Students search for a variety of materials on their topic and evaluate them for relevance, scope, point of view, and credentials of the author. Their bibliographies may be useful for future researchers.

Pathfinder: Students create a path for future researchers on a defined area of knowledge.  (Use the Pathfinder Template in this chapter for guidance.)  Students carefully evaluate available resources and select and annotate the best print and online sources, offering search strategies, context for the topic, and concluding summaries reflecting on the issues they discover while researching.

        Newsletter: Using a desktop publishing program, students set their newsletters in another time or place. They create classified ads, theater and book reviews, sports stories, and business information. This is a perfect collaborative project.

        Debate: Choosing two historic figures and an issue, students “duke it out.” The rest of the class is responsible for asking questions and judging the debate. Videotape the debate for later discussion.

        Brochure: Using a desktop publishing program, students create flyers to advertise a product they’ve developed, a place they’ve researched, a period of time, a solution to a problem, or to offer health advice. 

Résumé: Using a desktop publishing program, students create professional-looking (online or multimedia?) résumés for a famous person and attach cover letters in the individual’s voice. They might simulate interviews of the historical figure applying for a job at a university or business. Students present the résumés and “sell” their character’s qualifications.

Database: Students collect and organize facts on any topic with an eye toward comparing information for patterns. They create a chart or graph to illustrate conclusions. For example, the topic of Italian Renaissance artists could be presented through charts to compare style, training, colors used, and subjects of paintings.

        Family tree: Students design a tree for a character in a novel. They can make the boxes large enough for illustrations and character descriptions.

        Press conference with famous people of a time period: Select a group of famous people to be interviewed and have the bulk of the class prepare questions. Students being interviewed should prepare well enough to imagine how their famous person would respond to provocative questions.

        Trip itinerary: Students studying countries, states, or time periods, prepare a detailed itinerary listing sites of importance, what to pack, money exchange, temperature for the season, where to stay, how to get from place to place, special events, etc.

        Detailed journal entries or online blog: For a fictional or historical character, students imagine what a real week would be like and create a series of entries in the life of a person present at an historical event or that a book character might have kept during a specific period. Include interaction and quotes from family and friends. Reveal deep feelings, thoughts about others, and respond to big events.

        Mock trial for a controversial historical figure or fictional character: Bring Napoleon, Hitler, Socrates, Lee Harvey Oswald, Saddam Hussein, Galileo, or Richard Nixon in front of a well-prepared class made up of jurors, attorneys, witnesses, and a judge.  Or hold a court simulation with students deciding a major issue, such as affirmative action, assisted suicide, or major constitutional controversies.

        Board game: Let an event in history or a novel, inspire a truly playable game. Host an hour of game playing in the classroom as your evaluation.

        Web home page: Web pages can advertise fictitious businesses, invented products, or present electronic résumés for historical or fictional characters.

        Visit by a person in history to the school (ala Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure): Students plan an entire visiting day and record the visitor’s reactions to gym, lunch, your classes, the mall, etc.  Get cameras ready.  Present as a skit, video, web page or monologue.

        A day in the life of plant/machine/disease/person: Students prepare an essay or speech in first person to give the class a better idea of the history and daily life of the AIDS virus, for instance.

        Awards event: Students plan a science fair for famous scientists; Grammy awards for classical musicians or Latino culture awards for a Spanish class. Students present rationale for their selected person to win; they write detailed acceptance speeches, and plan the entertainment.

        Dinner party: Students invite people from a particular period and plan what to serve and who will sit next to whom. Design the invitations. And describe the entertainment. Recreate the conversation.  Teacher evaluates the interaction among characters.

Historic experience simulation: Try a Civil War battle or a day at Ellis Island. Assign each student a role.  The teacher should assume the role of a critical character to ensure the continuation of the action. 

Skit: Students represent a typical day at a job for a career project or a major historical event.

Online threaded discussion.  Teacher poses questions among a group of related historical figures or characters in a play or novel.  Students maintain assigned roles as they respond to each others’ posts in threaded discussion.

Film treatment: For an historical event or a novel, have a critical character or the author plan the film version.  Address a letter to a producer suggesting and defending choice of actors based on knowledge of characters, select locations, and describe how you would stage specific scenes.  Design the movie poster.  Plan the trailer.  (Avoid books that have already been made into movies.)

News article.  Write an authentic newspaper-style article about an historic event or event from a novel.  Include quotes from the major players.  (Primary sources if this is historical.)

Dear Abby letter.  Have a novel protagonist or historical figure write to an advice columnist.  Present the character’s problems and create a sincere, researched response from the columnist.  Expect the advice columnist to use historic or book evidence and furnish serious insights.

Letter from one character or historical figure to another: Characters can share deep thoughts and reveal their personalities and rationale for their actions in personal letters.  The letter should reveal something about the recipient’s character, as well. 

You are the president, the general, the inventor, the senator: Create two reasonable alternate scenarios for an historic event or decision.  How else might Lee have responded at Gettysburg?  After the student presents the three possible scenarios, have the class determine most reasonable choice, or the choice actually made.

Write a short story about people who lived during a particular period or event or in a particular place.  Describe the last few minutes of the Space Shuttle disaster from the perspectives of three of the astronauts.

You are the author, playwright, or filmmaker.  Respond to newspaper and magazine reviews of your work.

What if?:  If you could change one aspect of an event or book, would you choose to change the setting—place or time? Would you alter a character’s personality or one of his choices? What if Richard III were the protagonist in Macbeth and Macbeth were the protagonist in Richard III.   What if the Pilgrims met more hostile Native Americans?  How would these one change affect the big picture?

Lesson plan Have students creatively present the results of their research in a lesson of their own.  The lesson should not be a lecture; it should actively engage the class. 

Original song or rap: Ask students to describe an event, a person, a concept or a character musically.  A refrain goes a long way toward getting the class involved. 

Oversized baseball card or wanted poster: What is the essence of the person you’ve studied or met through a novel?  Capture those qualities economically in the form of a large baseball card (with quotes, stats, image) or wanted poster.  The baseball card should include statistics and quotes, and use the border effectively.

Alternate book jacket with blurb: Ask students to create new art to advertise a book—fiction or nonfiction. Add a compelling blurb to will draw readers in.

Advertising campaign: Ask students to create a full-blown campaign for an invention or industry or simply, a book.  Or choose an important person and run their campaign for a major political office. 

Postage stamp for a person or event in history: Students attach a desktop-published stamp design to a three-paragraph essay describing why the subject was important enough to deserve a commemorative stamp.

        Picture book: Students explain a concept or event through artistic illustration and economic language.

        Phone message or telegram: Students write a lengthy message from one historic character to his or her spouse or other contemporary about an important event.

        CD or album cover with inside background pages: Students design a cover to represent an event and plan the songs with descriptions. They decide who would be the producer and musicians.

        Crossword puzzle or word search: Students use related vocabulary to create a puzzle for the class to attempt.

        Petition: Students lobby for or against an issue they have researched with a formal petition.

        “This Is Your Life” television show: Students videotape or enact the show complete with guests, illustrations, and special surprises.

        “Survivor” television show: Place teams of your students in an historic time or far off place.  Provide challenges to solve to see who knows enough to “outwit, . . . .”

        Epitaph and obituary or eulogy: Focusing on a person in history, students write epitaphs for tombstones, write newspaper obituaries, and deliver well-researched eulogies.

        Recipe: What ingredients and conditions would students need to create the French Revolution? How would they prepare and cook their recipes?

        Photograph album or scrapbook: Students seek authentic historical photographs and label all the pictures in their albums, sharing “personal anecdotes” with the class, and including journal entries and letters. This assignment could be creatively extended to be the album of a character, a teen of a period in history, a disease, animal, or invention.

        Political cartoon: Students artistically satirize a political or historic person or event.

        Monologue: More-dramatic students may opt to create a scene from the life of a famous person or a fictional person caught up in a real event.

        Want ad: Students compose an ad requesting personnel to solve a problem in history.

        Time line: Students create a wall-sized, annotated, and illustrated time line, including important quotes.

Soap opera based on a historical event: Students can add lots of drama and very dramatic characters.

Blog in the voice of a character or historic figure.

Blog about a controversial issue.

Create a wiki as a strategy for collecting group knowledge.

Podcast a simulated "you are there" presentation for an historical event.

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Valenza 9/05

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