1. Senior American History Final Project Explanation

2. What the Project is A recreation of a historical event using yourselves as the characters. Picturing the events of history is one of the best ways to understanding it. Through this project, you will step foot on the battlefield of Gettysburg, walk the streets as part of the Million Man March, sit on the grass as the presidential caravan of JFK drives by and suddenly hear gunshots followed by panic. These are just some examples. There are many, many more

3. Choosing a Topic The first step is to choose a topic that you find very interesting. If you could star in a movie about any historical event, which one would it be. The only limitation here is that it must be an event you can easily research. Most of the events that would be coming to mind quickly will qualify. If there is any doubt, just propose the idea to me and I should be able to tell you how much info is out there.

4. Research Find specific information about your event. Start with secondary sources. They will provide valuable information and lead you to primary sources Here is a helpful description of the difference between secondary and primary sources http://www.princeton.edu/~refdesk/primary2.htmlhttp://www.princeton.edu/~refdesk/primary2.html Try to find as much specific information from the primary sources as you can. Especially focus on things your character can experience. Weather Times Personal descriptions of the surroundings

5. Create your own experience Give yourself a name and a background story. Who are you? Why are you there? This is your chance to be creative. Just remember, the more accurate it seems, the easier it will be to include historical evidence. You cannot change historical events. For example, you cannot send a tank back in time and dominate the Civil War. You also are not able to kill President Lincoln some other way. It must be historically accurate. You can control the things that happen to your character, but the real story of history must stay the same. It would help to put yourself in a place where you can see the biggest moments of your event unfold. (Using the JFK assassination as an example, find a real place that could have seen the president, heard the shots, and seen the Secret Service agents react.

6. Plan out your events Combine your fictional story with the historical evidence you have gathered. The most effective way to do this will be to either write it on paper or on a computer Start organizing all of the details you have gathered into a personal story. One helpful tool for connecting your fictional and factual data is a Concept Map http://www.inspiration.com/Freetrial

7. Concept Map Example Here is a useful example of concept mapping. Instead of two different spiders, you can use your fictional character in one and the event in the other. Begin listing characteristics of each and see which can incorporate both without changing anything about the event.

8. Blog Create your story through two blog entries. Write them out as if you were retelling your own story in the context of your historical event. http://www.blogger.com/home a free and easy site to use. Make sure to include the dates your fictional character is writing on since the website will post the current date. Each entry must be at least 300 words long Bibliographies will not be included in the blogs. Print them off and turn them in.

9. Video Create a short video in which you recreate a small portion of what you are writing about. Using the JFK example, a video could include you cheering on the street, with sudden, simulated (It better be fake!) gunshots in the background and your reaction to what you are seeing. Since I am using so many JFK examples, this topic is now off limits. Sorry! Obviously it may be difficult for some of you to recreate the visual things that happened at the time of your event. Just be creative. As long as there is creativity and you keep to the historical truth of what happened, I will be very fair.

10. Video cont. Another possibility for the video can be a collection of still photos. If you are using a more recent event, there will be plenty of pictures online to use. The biggest challenge will be fitting them into your story. They must be relevant to what YOUR CHARACTER is doing, not just to what is happening in general. This kind of video must also include narration by your fictional character. I want to feel like I’m listening to someone who was there.

11. Video cont. To help with the video, there are free programs that will help you edit. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker /default.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker /default.mspx For Windows http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/ For Mac We will go over some of the basics for these together. They are very easy to use.

12. What to do with the Video There are a couple options here. Once the video is completed (including any editing), you can either post it online or submit it to me. I will create a space on Youtube.com for our videos to be submitted. Creating another blog entry with a link to the video would be a good idea in this case. You can also put the video on a disk or flash drive. It can also be uploaded on your blog We will be watching the videos in class. Just make sure there is a way to access it at school.