“We must always look forward, but we have to understand our history in order to not repeat the mistakes of the past.” –Winston Churchill
Students are interested and invested in learning history, and the subject should not be confined to a single period in a day.
History should not only involve memorizing events and dates to regurgitate; history should involve a healthy dose of debate and discussion, critical thinking on the right and wrong, the good and bad. Students want to figure out how history connects to today, and they can come up with the most amazing solutions to today's problems based on past events.
My students want opportunities to debate and discuss the past at a higher-level than copying notes. My students want to choose what to read, what to learn about, and what to study. When students aren’t provided choice and voice in learning, their educational experience suffers. Engagement and motivation exponentially increase when students are not just allowed, but encouraged to learn skills through material chosen by them.
My Project
The resources in my project will contribute to an extended unit involving literary study, student research, and creative writing. Students will study historical fiction, learning how authors synthesize history with fictional characters. The students will then research a historical event important and interesting according to their own interests in order to create a fictional account of a real event. The short story will foster greater understanding and empathy in readers, sending a message through historical fiction which is still relevant for a modern audience.
My students will become historical fiction authors, researching minutiae to ensure historical accuracy while developing realistic characters.
As historical fiction authors, they will not only research, brainstorm, and draft, but publish their best draft at the end of the unit in a class anthology.
The variety of novels provide a wide range of historical events and time periods, offering students options to choose a novel based on their personal interests. Students will read the novel in a small group, not to exceed six students, and opportunities for collaboration and discussion will be encouraged and provided.
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