1. Has History Influenced Society Today?1
Wednesday, January 5th: Project Kick Off
View Podcast and You Tube videos about events in history
Choose an event in history that you believe influences society today. This event can be from any century and any geographical location in the world. 2
Due Date: Monday, January 10th
Standards work: One social studies and 2 language arts standards are mandatory for this project. One social studies standard is student-selected.
Select 1 social studies standard from the provided list.
Meet with your parents and paraphrase these standards in language that students in grades 4-8 can understand. 3
Monday, January 10th Teacher Meetings begin and Action Plan templates distributed
Meet with your teacher to share your paraphrased standards
Begin working on your Action Plan (template will be provided by your teacher)

2. 4 5 6 January 11-14th: Complete your Action Plan
Teacher meetings as needed throughout the week
Due Date for Action Plans: Friday, January 14th 5
January 17-21: Build background knowledge surrounding your event.
Search for cause/effect relationships between your event in history and society past and present.
Identify important people, personalities, beliefs, art, music and other cultural conditions that contributed to how this event was important then and now.
Find evidence to support your position on how y our historical event influences society today.
Start looking for an expert who might be able to help you go further with your research. Record gaps in your fact finding that can generate questions for this expert.
Request a teacher meeting if you need help steering your project. 6
January 25-28: Collaboration and Finalize your background knowledge
Collaborate with your Arrowhead Big Buddy (face to face, online or Skype)
Share your background knowledge with your Big Buddy and ask for their help to locate an expert in the field to fill in the gaps
Rubrics for podcasts will be distributed by your teacher this week.
Mandatory teacher meetings this week to share your status and ask for guidance on your project.
Due Date: Background Knowledge and Finding an expert to help you fill in your gaps should be finished by Friday, January 28th

3. 7
January 31 – February 4: Communication with the expert you have found. Ask them to help you fill in the gaps in your information.
Create a script for your podcast. Use the rubric handed out last week as grading targets for your work.
You will need to select an authentic audience to target for your podcast. A list of possible audiences will be distributed this week. In addition, your podcast will be distributed to an online audience via your homeroom teacher’s Twitter account.
Mandatory teacher meetings this week to share your progress and ask for guidance
Due Date: First draft of your podcast script is due Friday, February 4th 8
February : Work on producing your podcast
Finalize your authentic audience
Request a teacher meeting for guidance with your podcast.
Due Date: Final podcast and appointment with your authentic audience is due on Tuesday, February 15th 9
February 16-17: Showcase work by sharing your podcast to your authentic audience.
Tweet your podcast via your homeroom teacher’s Twitter account.