Jump to content

Menu

Project ideas for history/lit.


Recommended Posts

I'm trying to brainstorm for ideas for highschool project ideas for history and literature. There are so many great ideas for elementary hands on activities/projects, but high school level seems to be mostly reading, discussing, and writing reports/essays. We love all that, since reading is a a favorite thing to do here, but it can be tiring for several hours a day, year long.

 

One idea I thought of is to create a power point presentation of an event/person in history. What are some other ideas? Help me brainstorm, please!:lurk5:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can remember one school project that I did when my class read The Grapes of Wrath. We each had to create the front page of a newspaper and write articles pertaining to the time period. It was a neat way to incorporate history as it spun off from literature.

 

Regards,

Kareni

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a great book called Living History in the Classroom that offers a lot of different activities or approaches. Some of my favorites are mock trials and debates (although these work better with a group), using and drawing political cartoons (my favorite), making newspapers/articles suitable to the time period, analyzing music or art or learning dances from the times.

 

My daughter also absolutely adores the Society for Creative Anachronism, which has Renaissance Faires all over the country during the course of the year. Some are historically accurate, some not; but you can meet people who handmake armor, clothes, shoes, etc.; see playlets; find reprints of broadsheets or ballads. Sometimes bigger fairs hold jousts, which are truly thrilling to watch, and offer all kinds of historical games and events. I even found a DVD that teaches Renaissance-style dance. There are similar societies for re-enacting the Revolutionary War, the Civil War -- down the road from us there's a yearly re-enactment of a battle from the war with Mexico in the mid-1800s. Some is hokey stuff: in LA there's a place you can go to experience what they call a medieval banquet. Part of the fun is seeing if you can spot all the inaccuracies. (You can do this with movies too.) On a more serious and historically accurate note, I read about some kids who did a big project on the Civil War whose focus was sewing reproductions of a full period outfit -- they looked really great.

 

One great idea I came across lately had kids reading "The Clan of the Cave Bear" and then writing an essay on the degree to which it accurately represented what research tells us, and what parts were furthest away from that. This could transfer to any work of historical fiction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The curriculum I used with my dd's, Gileskirk has a 40-hour project each year. Student pick something relevant to the time period or literature they are studying that year.

 

Past 40 hour projects have included composing music for As You Like It, outlining an historical novel, creating an illuminated manuscript and making a period costume.

 

It is a great chance to use less academic skills but of course they all take longer than 40 hours...

 

hth

Moira

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My kids love to make movies based on a time period in history they are studying. My oldest dd (8th grader this year) is always the director, writer, etc--in other words, she's the instigator and motivator for the other kids. They make their own costumes, they do all the filming and editing, and then my dh burns their finished product on a DVD. Sometimes they will ask me to drive them someplace to film something, but they do most of it around and in the house when I'm gone. They do the whole thing in secret, so the movie won't be spoiled for dh and I. They do a great job, and my entire extended family can't wait until they do another one--they've done 2 so far. I am amazed at how much outside research they do in order to pull the whole thing together, and they always listen intently during history time trying to learn all they can and come up with new ideas.

 

They way this whole movie thing started was that I just said, "Do a project to show me you know about the colonial time period." Their idea was a movie. I guess my point in saying that is that when kids get older, I think sometimes they might be able to come up with a project on their own that's better than what we come up with. At least in our case, this was true--the more I stay out of it, the better they do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My oldest is very much into military history, so we do things like: having him do a diagram of a particular battle, or modeling it with miniatures; having him do an analysis of how a battle might have changed if X had or had not happened .... sometimes we look at the weapons, for instance using "The Art of the Catapult" or similar resources. He may even choose do join a reenactment group once he gets a little older.

 

I love the movie idea!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...