Autobiographical Timeline



Autobiographical Timeline Project

OVERVIEW

This project is designed to help students learn how to examine a particular historical time period. To make the lesson relevant, students will be asked to create an autobiographical timeline based on the time period of their life—beginning with their birth to the current date. They will be introduced to several resources which are particularly useful when studying history.

GOAL/OBJECTIVE

Students will gain an understanding of how to study a historical period by examining the relevant historical, social, and political events during their lifespan.

TIMEFRAME:

This lesson is best suited to 1 or 2 class periods depending on length. Additional time outside of class for additional research and work on the final product will be required.

END PRODUCT:

Students will create a poster or chart featuring an autobiographical timeline covering the time period of the student’s life.

Students will also have the opportunity to:

--analyze historical images;

--employ search strategies to obtain primary historical data from targeted collections of sources;

--gain an understanding of relevant historical, social and political events during their lifespan;

--practice analysis, evaluation, and decision-making and skills; and

--create a poster featuring an autobiographical timeline

MATERIALS:

Students will need assorted art supplies and a poster board.

ACTVITIES:

--Students should have ample time to go to the Media Center and use appropriate internet resources. Collaborate with librarian to refresh students’ skills with accessing and using resources.

--Day One

Demonstrate to students how one can study history and culture by examining historical events. Provide an example from the teacher’s lifetime. Explain the objectives of the lesson to the students. Emphasize that the heart of the lesson is observation, analysis, and evaluation of sources. Explain how the assignment will be evaluated.

--Day Two

Begin research in the Media Center with a worksheet that lists all the years of the students’ lives. Under each year of life, one personal and one historical event will be researched and written about using the suggested resources. The students can print historical photos and graphics to be included in the project. The students need to mount information and photos on poster board and present to the class. The presentation will be one week from the last day of research in the Media Center.

SUGGESTED RESOURCES & TECHNOLOGY:

-- access to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States

-- a free,[5] multilingual, open content encyclopedia project operated by the United States-based non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. (Enter a year into the search box)

-- ReadWriteThink offers a collection of online Student Materials to support literacy learning in the K-12 classroom. (Do a search for “Autobiography Timeline” or “Interactive Timeline”)

Almanacs

Timeline books

History books

Other Web Sites:

EBSCO Middle School Plus—(Publication Search ex. Time magazine; Search Yearly Archives ex. Time September 1988; do Image Search)

American National Biography—(Search for deaths of famous American during student’s lifespan)

Britannica Online—(Do year search; also provides web guide page of important events for years researched)

SIRS Discoverer

ASSESSMENT

Class created rubric to evaluate project. See example below.

Autobiographical Timeline Rubric

Name ____________________________

|CATEGORY |Excellent |Good |Satisfactory (3-2 pts.)|Needs Improvement (1-0 |SCORE |

| |(5 pts.) |(4 pts.) | |pts.) | |

|Historical Detail |The timeline contains |The timeline contains |The timeline contains |The timeline contains | |

| |over 10 entries of |at least 8-10 entries |at least 5-7 entries of|less than 5 entries of | |

| |historical significance|of historical |historical significance|historical significance| |

| | |significance | | | |

|Historical Accuracy |All entries are in |Almost all the entries |Most of the entries are|Few of the entries are | |

| |correct order, and are |are in correct order, |in correct order, and |in correct order, | |

| |indicated by the proper|and are indicated by |are indicated by the |and/or are indicated by| |

| |date |the proper date |proper date |an inaccurate date | |

|Mechanics |Grammar, spelling, |Includes 1-3 |Includes 4-5 |The timeline has so | |

| |punctuation, and |grammatical errors, |grammatical errors, |many errors it is | |

| |capitalization are |misspellings, or |misspellings, or |difficult to read | |

| |correct. Includes a |punctuation errors. . |punctuation errors. |and/or understand, and | |

| |bibliography in correct|Includes a bibliography|Includes a |has no bibliography. | |

| |form. |with most elements in |bibliography, but | | |

| | |correct form. |elements are not in | | |

| | | |correct form. | | |

|Graphics |The timeline contains |The timeline has a few |The timeline contains |The timeline contains | |

| |appropriate visuals, |visuals, but visuals |visuals that do not |no visuals. | |

| |which enhance the |relate to the content. |relate to the content. | | |

| |project. | | | | |

|Overall Appearance |The timeline is neat, |The timeline is neat |The timeline is |The timeline is sloppy | |

| |attractive and |and attractive and |acceptable, but appears|and/or poorly done. | |

| |creatively done; |shows evidence that the|as if the student was | | |

| |student worked hard to |student cared about how|just completing the | | |

| |create a quality |they completed the |assignment | | |

| |product |assignment | | | |

|TOTAL POINTS = | |

|GRADE = | |

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