From what you learned in class today and from your own experience, comment on the value of having students create History Day projects and/or having special activities for Constitution Day. Do the benefits seem to you to justify the extra time necessary to help students prepare such projects?
7 comments:
I think History Day or Constitution Day projects are great! Like was said in class, students will probably never forget the information they put together and presented. It also gives them ownership oversomething and empowers them, which is also great thing.
Speaking from my own experince when I was an eigth grader our history class teacher, Mr. Olsen, set up a Constitutional Convention. Each student was assigned a different signer of the constitution. We then had to research that individual. As follow-up to that research we drafte our own idea of a constitution, and we were to vote as how we felt our person would vote. I was Charles Puckney (from SC and one of the youngest delegates who also had a cousin who was a delegate). Will Charles Puckney ever be mentioned on a standarized test? No probably not, but it is one of the few things I know where I can pinpoint a time and a place that I learned about an event or person (however trivial).
Should all time be spent on side projects? No, but a few days won't hurt
History Day (and to a certain extent Constitution Day) is a great way to involve students in the study of history by being participants in the research of famous people and events. It allows them to gain thier own perspective on history through their own research and creating projects that reflect this research.
During the lecture, the issue of whether to work as a team or by oneself is a better strategy. If students work in a group, they have to worry about "anchors," or students that don't do their fair share of the work. Also, the group must be able to coordinate their "sails" to gain the most efficient research and work out a project.
Overall, History Day sounds exciting to be involved in for a teacher, especially with a group of enthusiastic students wanting more out of their history classes.
History Day is great (kind of like frosted flakes). What allows it so great is the multiple formats, which allows students to express themselves in a multitude of different ways.
The way Mrs. Gerhts structures History Day into her class is also very good. Setting timelines and guidelines for her students, forces her students to take their time and do it right.
History Day is a great concept, and it would be great to see this program across South Dakota.
I think that History Day is a great way for students and teachers to break away from the traditional delievery of information that takes place in the classroom. History Day also gives the students a chance to conduct in depth research on the own, which teaches them the valuable lesson of researching primary documents. I do think that a teacher should not require their students to do this project, but they should encourage students to participate. This will ensure that the students that do participate actually want to and they will more than likely do a better job. I was very impressed with some of the examples that Mrs. Gehrts had in her classroom. The opportunities that this project presents for the students are invaluable.
I think History Day is a great way for kids to use History for something, other than Trivial Pursuit and Jeopordy. History Day allows kids to explore their imagination with things, and honestly lets the teacher sit back and guide more than teach. Students usually become intrinsically motivated by their project and become more interested in it because they picked it. Rather than teaching everyone about a certain thing, in which they are forced to learn, the students can pick whatever they want and learn at their own speed, and look at things that interest them. I have judged for History Day a couple of times, and the projects that students show, are often times more impressive than a test they would have to take. It seems as though they take a lot more away from History Day than they do over Chapter Six dealing with the Middle East. I think History Day is a great educational experiance for the students.
Like everyone else, I think History Day is a good project to get the students involved in because it lets them work more "hands on" with historic materials. They get a lot of work with research witch is good for them when they get to college classes. Also, they get to look at and analyze primary documents witch is something I think all high school students should at least be a little familiar with.
I also think the student learn a lot about these their project material in a different way. Like one student on the video said, they will never forget the content they did their project on because it is implanted in their minds.
I think that history day projects are a positive activity to implement. I had never even heard of history day prior to coming to South Dakota and judging them at Waubay. However I plan on adding them to my classroom adgenda, after the first few years. The extra time put into History day would be well worth it since both the teacher and students get something out of it. History Day projects are a nice way to place more accountability and independence on the students as well. Learning about primary documents versus secondary is a very important lesson and distinction for the kids to know too.
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