Title III Technology Literacy Challenge Grant

Learning Unit

Overview | Content Knowledge | Essential Questions | Connection To Standards | Initiating Activity | Learning Experiences | Culminating Performance | Pre-Requisite Skills | Modifications | Schedule/Time Plan | Technology Use

OVERVIEW

 Students research a person who made a difference in New York’s history, they write short biographies, and then they become the person during The Living History Museum. Some students might research and become famous people like Dewitt Clinton who helped make the Erie Canal possible. Some might be people who came to New York from other areas like the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass, or Emma Willard who started the first American school to provide college-level education to women in New York. Some might be people who did important work in New York such as a worker on the Erie Canal or on the O&W Railway. Some might be people who explored parts of New York like Henry Hudson or Verrazano. Some might be Native Americans responsible for early forms or our present day governments like Deganawidah and Hiawatha of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Students will use the library and librarian/media specialist, dictionaries, encyclopedias, books, social studies textbooks, the internet, periodicals – Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, computers, audio-visual tapes, CD-ROMs, teachers, other students, parents, and any other resource available to get information about the person they choose to write about. Another good source is the local Historical Society. Students will use this information in the following ways:

• they will be required to write a research paper (the biography)
• they will be required to do an oral first person presentation role-playing the person they chose to the class
• they will be required to role-play the person they chose at the culminating performance "The Living History Museum".

The class will keep records and information throughout the unit. Provide each student with a folder that they can keep all the records, information, and note cards in.

On a large Map of New York students will locate where the person who made a difference in New York made the most impact on New York’s history. On a Timeline, each member of the class will fill out and attach a card on the famous person complete with name, date and important contribution to New York. The student will also indicate if the impact the person had was social, political, economic, technological, scientific, cultural, religious, etc. The card will be attached to the appropriate place on the Timeline.

Please note that this unit is organized in the order that it would be taught. Assessments for each Learning Experience are included within that particular Learning Experience rather than altogether in one section at the end of the unit.

The unit will take between 3 and 4 weeks. The amount of time estimated for each Learning Experience is indicated in the Contents that follow.

CONTENTS:

Overview

Content Knowledge-Declarative /Procedural

Essential Questions

Connections to NYS Standards

Initiating Activity (including Materials, Vocabulary, Prerequisites, Letter to Parents) (1day)

Learning Experiences: (a dot means Learning Experience)

Report Writing:

• Choosing a Topic (2-3 days)

A Partial List of People that Made a Difference in N Y

• Searching for Information (2-3 days)

What Do I Need to Know?

A Day at the Library

Checking Out Available Resources

• Taking Good Notes (3-5 days)

Notes! Notes! Notes! and "Bib" Cards! (Collecting Information)

How Do I Fill Out a "Bib" Card?

• Organizing Your Notes to Write Your First Draft (2-3 days)

Organizing Checklist

• Ready to Write (2-5 days)

From Author’s Circles to Final Draft

Author’s Circles

Author’s Circle Critique Sheets

• Handing in Your Complete Biography (1 day)

Student Rubric for Biography

Oral Presentation:

• Prepare to Present! (3-5 days)

Presentation Pointers

Presentation Checklist of Things to Do

Oral Presentation Rubric

Listener’s Evaluation Sheet of Class Presentations

Letter Writing:

• Invitations to The Living History Museum (2-5 days)

Letter Writing Rubric for Letters in Progress

Rubric for Letters

Culminating Performance

Assessment and Evaluation

Pre-requisite Skills

Modifications

Unit Schedule/Time Plan

Technology Use

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How do individuals impact society?
• How is New York different because of the contributions of individual people?

CONNECTIONS TO NYS LEARNING STANDARDS

Social Studies:

Standard 1-

Key Idea 1-

Performance Indicators:

• Students know the roots of American culture, its development from many different traditions, and the ways many people from a variety of groups and backgrounds played a role in creating it.

Key Idea 2-

Performance indicators:

• Students distinguish between near and distant past and interpret simple timelines.

Key Idea 3-

Performance indicators:

• Students gather and organize information about important accomplishments of individuals and groups, including Native American Indians, living in their neighborhoods and communities.
• Students identify individuals who have helped to strengthen democracy in the United States and throughout the world.

Key Idea 4-

Performance indicators:

• Students explore different experiences, beliefs, motives, and traditions of people living in their neighborhoods, communities, and state.
• Students view historic events through the eyes of those who were there, as shown in their art, writings, music, and artifacts.

Standard 3-

Key Idea 1-

Performance indicators:

• Students locate places within the local community, state, and nation; locate the Earth’s continents in relation to each other and to principal parallels and meridians.

Key Idea 2-

Performance indicators:

• Students gather and organize geographic information from a variety of sources and display it in a number of ways.

(Please note that other Standards might be learned depending on the particular people chosen for reseasrch and their contributions to NYS history, especially Standard 5)

English Language Arts:

Standard 1-

Key Idea 1-

Performance indicators:

• Students gather and interpret information from children’s reference books, magazines, textbooks, electronic bulletin boards, audio and media presentations, oral interviews, and from such forms as charts, graphs maps, and diagrams.
• Students select information appropriate to the purpose of their investigation and relate ideas from one text to another.
• Students select and use strategies they have been taught for note taking, organizing, and categorizing information.
• Students ask specific questions to clarify and extend meaning
• Students make appropriate and effective use of strategies to construct meaning from print, such as prior knowledge about a subject, structural and context clues, and an understanding of letter-sound relationships to decode difficult words.
• Students support inferences about information and ides with reference to text features, such as vocabulary and organizational patterns.

Key Idea 2-

Performance indicators:

• Students present information clearly in a variety of oral and written forms such as summaries, paraphrases, brief reports, stories, posters, and charts.
• Students select a focus, organization, and point of view for oral and written presentations.
• Students use a few traditional structures for conveying information such as chronological order, cause and effect, and similarity and difference.
• Students use details, examples, anecdotes, or personal experiences to explain or clarify information.
• Students include relevant information and exclude extraneous material.
• Students use the process of pre-writing, drafting, revising, and proofreading (the "writing process") to produce well-constructed informational texts.
• Students observe basic writing conventions, such as correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, as well as sentence and paragraph structures appropriate written forms.

Standard 3-

Key Idea 2-

Performance indicators:

• Students monitor and adjust their own oral and written presentations to meet criteria for competent performance.

Standard 4-

Key Idea 1-

Performance indicators:

• Students listen attentively and recognize when it is appropriate for them to speak.
• Students take turns speaking and respond to others’ ideas in conversations on familiar topics.
• Students recognize the kind of interaction appropriate for different circumstances, such as story hour, group discussions, and one-on-one conversations.

Key Idea 2-

Performance indicators:

• Students exchange friendly notes, cards, and letters with friends, relatives and pen pals to keep in touch and to commemorate special occasions.
• Students adjust their vocabulary and style to take into account the nature of the relationship and the knowledge and interests of the person receiving the message.

Mathematics, Science, Technology:

Standard 2-

Key Idea 1-

Performance indicators:

• Students use a variety of equipment and software to enter, process, display, and communicate information in different forms using text, tables, pictures, and sound.
• Students access needed information from printed media, electronic databases, and community resources.

Arts:

Standard 1-

Key Idea 1 (Theater)-

Performance indicators:

• Students use creative drama to communicate ideas and feelings
• Students imitate experiences through pantomime, play making, dramatic play, story dramatization, story telling, and role-playing.
• Students use language, voice, gesture, movement, and observation to express their experiences and communicate ideas and feelings.
• Students use basic props, simple set pieces, and costume pieces to establish place, time, and character for the participants.

INITIATING ACTIVITY

 To introduce this unit, you, the teacher, will come to school dressed as a person that is important in New York’s history or the history of the United States. (If you are uncomfortable with this idea, convince another person to do it or bring in a picture.) The person should be somewhat familiar to your students, therefore connecting with the students’ prior knowledge. During a portion of the day (with background music playing such as "New York, New York" or "I Love New York" or other appropriate music) role-play that person using first person point of view – speaking only of ideas and in language that would be relevant while you were alive. Tell the students they will play "20 Questions" where they may ask you any question that has a yes or no answer. After 20 questions have been asked, the students can guess who you are.

Once you have been identified, show a poster you have made with your name and a few other identifying pictures/words, etc. Present the large New York State map and New York State Timeline either in the classroom or in the hall (See Overview). Locate the place in New York on the map where you made a difference. Put a marker there. For the timeline fill out a card with your name, important dates, and the difference you made to New York. Also categorize the type of contribution/difference (impact) you made such as social, political, economic, technological, scientific, cultural, religious, etc.

Enter the students in a discussion of what you needed to know to be your character. (You needed information about the person’s life.) Ask how you would be able to get the information. (You would have to search through resources mentioned in the "Overview" of the unit.)

Materials:

• a pocket folder for each student
• a Social Studies notebook (any notebook or part of a notebook that can be used and kept in the pocket folder during the unit)
• a gallon size zip lock bag stapled into the folder for note-cards so they aren’t lost
• index cards in different colors used for notes on different information (for example: white for bibliography cards, blue for basic biographical information, yellow for other information that might be important, pink for information about how the person made a difference in New York’s history, etc.)
• Student pages from the unit (Note: All pages to be given to the students begin with the following: Name ________________ All of these pages need to be put in the folder as you hand them out, for future reference, or for later use during the unit.)

Vocabulary to introduce: When introducing vocabulary, write the words on the board or overhead, have students copy the words in the Social Studies notebook kept in their pocket folder. Have students use dictionaries to look up words. As a class, discuss definitions then write a shortened version on the board/overhead as the students copy them into their notebooks. These words can be tested and used as one assessment.

Vocabulary: biography, autobiography, note card, bibliography, bibliography card, citation, periodical, publisher, author, outline, source, resource, role play, first person and third person points of view

Vocabulary specific to the Timeline: social, political, economic, technological, scientific, cultural, religious (and other words that are appropriate)

Prerequisites: It would be helpful if students had note taking skills as well as researching skills. Although you can teach note-taking skills as you work through this unit, it would be helpful if students had prior experience with taking notes. Process writing skills are needed. It would be helpful if students had prior experience with writing pieces so that they are familiar with introductions, detail sentences/ detail paragraphs, and conclusions.

Below is a letter that can be sent home to get parental involvement with the unit:

Name_____________________

LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM

Dear Parents,

Your student will be participating in a lengthy project that involves many Language Arts skills as well as research skills. He/she will be choosing a person that has made a difference in New York. It can be a person from the past before New York was even known as New York to a person who is making a difference in New York today.

So that you know what your student is involved with see the process that is outlined below:

_______Choose a person that has made a difference in New York. Please look over the list of suggested people. Add to it as necessary. (Parents, please help your child with his/her decision.)

_______Research the person using the library, the Internet, primary sources if available, people, and any other sources that could provide information. (Parents, we will be doing a lot of this in school but your help will be appreciated since you might have sources we don’t have at school.)

______Take notes on your person from different sources.

______Organize the notes.

______Write a first draft of the person and how he/she made a difference in New York.

______Author’s Circles, Revisions, and Editing.

______Write a final draft.

______Present the draft for a grade based on the ELA Rubric for Independent Writing.

______Prepare for THE LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM by role-playing the person during a class presentation.

The date for THE LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM will be determined later.

How can you help?

Your student will need help from you. Your interest in the project will add greatly to your student’s success. Nightly ask where in the process your student is. Remember this is a process; it will take a long time.

Your student will need support from you. For THE LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM you will need to help with props, costumes, and anything else that will make your student more believable as he/she role plays the person chosen. Also, your student will need to make a poster that can be displayed stating the name of the person. The student might want to decorate the poster with pictures that are relevant to the way the person made a difference in New York.

As it gets closer to THE LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM date, you can help to make sure your student knows the pertinent information that will be expected of him/her. At THE LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM teachers, parents, and other students will be asking questions of your student about the person he/she is role-playing. You can help by quizzing him/her about the information therefore helping to make him/her more confident about THE LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM and his/her role at it.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

Choosing a Topic:

Choose a person that made a difference in New York’s history.

Tell the students they will be choosing a person that made a difference in New York’s history. Like you, they will also have to research the person to get information since they will also come to school when their work is finished acting and dressed as that person. Tell them that they will each be part of The Living

History Museum. The Living History Museum is a museum where people (parents, school board members, administration, students from other grades, teachers, etc.) will come to learn about the history of New York by talking to people who have "come to life" and have made a difference in New York’s history. Tell your students that everyone will participate in The Living History Museum. In order to be a part of the Museum, tell the students they will need to choose a person from New York’s history. The person they choose can be any person that was important in the history of New York State from Native American times to the present. Students will need to research that person for information, take notes about the information they find, and write a report about that person. Students will

be graded on their written report. However, they will also have to plan an oral presentation that would enable them to role-play that person for The Living History Museum. Along with the information they learn about the person, they will need to dress the part and include a poster with the name and possibly some other identifying pictures, words, etc. of the person they are role playing. Tell the students they will have worksheets, guidelines and rubrics that they will keep in a folder to help them step by step through the research, note taking, writing and oral presentation processes.

Simultaneously, as the students work on their projects, they will also use the New York State map and timeline. On the New York State map, instruct them to locate the place or area where the person they are researching made a difference. For example, DeWitt Clinton’s name could be written on the Erie Canal.

On the Timeline instruct each student to briefly fill out a card about the person they researched complete with name, dates and the important contribution/difference the person made to New York. Also instruct them to categorize the type of contribution/difference (impact) the person had on NY by writing social, political, economic, technological, scientific, cultural, religious, etc. on the card. Have the student attach the card to the appropriate place on the Timeline. For example, on the card for DeWitt Clinton the student might write DeWitt Clinton, mayor of New York City, governor of New York from 1817to 1823, enabled Erie Canal to be built, EC brought a lot of changes to New York as well as the US especially with commerce, EC was started in 1817 and finished in 1825. Impact: Political, Economic, Social, Populated the west. Make sure the student can explain all the information on the card to you and the class.

Prior to this step, it might be helpful if you and your students did some searching to find people that are important in New York’s history if you have not already done this. Start with your Social Studies textbook. Also, contact your librarian/media specialist for help finding names important in New York history. The local Historical Society may also be helpful in providing a list of local people important to the history of New York. Other places to look are dictionaries, encyclopedias, books, the Internet, periodicals – Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, computers, audio-visual tapes, and CD-ROMs. Other people that might be helpful are interested teachers (7^th Grade history teachers might have a lot of information on New York history they would share), your local historian, other students, parents, and community members that enjoy local and New York history. You will need to determine if there is enough information to write a biography and enough information for the student to "become" the person for The Living History Museum.

Tell students they will have about 30 minutes to briefly search through their New York Social Studies text books and any other sources (New York Studies Weekly newspapers, for example) to identify people who made a difference in New York’s history. This is just to get them thinking about names of people and possible choices. Let them know they will be choosing a person that they will write about and eventually "become" during The Living History Museum- the culminating activity for this unit. Students can record names of people, or jobs, that they find interesting during this time, however this is just a preliminary search.

When choosing a topic remind students to make sure the topic interests them since they will be spending at least a month learning about and becoming the person. Have a second choice in mind in case there is not enough information about the first choice once the search for information starts.

Pass out the sheet A Partial List of People That Made a Difference in New York. Look over the sheet, have students add the names of people they found interesting if the names are not already there.

Name ___________________________

A Partial List of People That Made a Difference in

New York

This information is to be used with the Language Arts/Social Studies/Performing Arts project that includes a biography of a person that made a difference in New York and the role playing of that same person at THE LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM. Most of the names on this list came from one of the two following sources:

1. a newspaper published weekly about New York State:

2. New York Studies Weekly. 1999-2000 edition. New York, New York.

3. a social studies textbook about New York State:

The World and Its People: New York Yesterday and Today. Atlanta, GA: Silver Burdett Company, 1985.

Native Americans

Samson Occum – Mohawk leader that tried to unite Mohigans at Brothertown, NY

Deganawida – Iroquois Peacemaker

Hayenwatha (Hiawatha)

Ganiodaiyo – Handsome Lake, a Seneca Sachem

Joseph Brant – a Mohawk Chief that led Indian raids on the frontier in the 1700’s

Explorers

Giovanni da Verrazano

Henry Hudson

Samuel de Champlain

Early Settlers

Adrian Block – established 1^st European Settlement in NY 1613

Peter Minuit – 1^st governor of Dutch Colony of New Netherland

Rensselaerswyk – a Patroon form the Netherlands, founder of settlement called Beverwyck where Albany is today

John Calvin – French Huguenot, settled in community known as New Paltz

Paul D’Angola, Simon Congo, Anthony Portugese, Jon Francisco – slaves brought to the Dutch Colony of New Netherland in 1626

Henry "Box" Brown – slave who shipped himself in a box to Philadelphia (made news in New York)

William Kieft – 2^nd governor of Dutch Colony of New Netherland

Peter Stuyvesant – 3^rd governor of Dutch Colony of New Netherland

Richard Nicolls – governor of English Colony of New York

Duke of York – New York was named after him

Benjamin Fletcher – governor of New York Colony from 1692-1697, accepted bribes and presents from pirate captains

William Bradford – newspaper – New York Gazette, 1725

William Cosby – governor of English Colony of New York, 1720’s

John Peter Zenger

Alexander Hamilton – lawyer, helped write the Constitution of the United States

Robert Yates – NY Supreme Court Justice, helped write the Constitution of the United States

John Lansing – Albany Mayor, helped write the Constitution of the United States

Privateers and/or Pirates

Captain William Kidd

Captain Regnier Tongrelow

Edward Teach (Blackbeard)

Other Significant People who made a Difference in New York

William Johnson – friend of the Indians, 1730’s

Father Simon LeMoyne – a missionary from France that worked with the Onondagas

Father Issac Joques – a French missionary that worked with the Mohawks

George Clinton – 1^st governor of New York State 1777, "Father of New York", governed for 21 years

Margaret Corbin – helped to defend Fort Washington near New York City during the Revolutionary War in 1776

William Johnson – helped English win the French and Indian War

Willie Mays – New York Giants

Mickey Mantle – New York Yankees

Duke Snyder – Brooklyn Dodgers

Steve Dramer – composed lyrics for song "I Love New York"

John Jay – author of the Federalist Papers along with Alexander Hamilton, both from New York City, and James Madison

Horace Mann – believed education should be free to everyone

Mark Twain – author (Samuel Clemens)

Sojourner Truth – Isabella Baumfree, an abolitionist who fought for civil rights for African Americans

Frederick Douglass – an abolitionist who fought for civil rights for African Americans, wrote The North Star, Rochester

Gerrit Smith – an abolitionist from Peterboro who fought for civil rights for African Americans

Susan B. Anthony – fought for civil rights for women

Elizabeth Cady Stanton –fought for civil rights for women along with Carrie Catt and Abigail Adams

Bella Abzug – fought for women’s rights

Lillian Wald – a nurse who worked to improve the lives of people in New York City

Emma Willard – 1821, was invited by DeWitt Clinton to come to New York State and establish her school, 1^st American school to provide college-level education to women

Inventors and Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and Artists, etc.

Henry Burden – made horseshoes using machines, could produce about 3,000 in one hour

Elisha Groves Otis – built elevators for high rise buildings around the world

Issac Singer – developed new ways to sell sewing machines

George Eastman – bank clerk who founded Eastman Kodak Company

Levi Pease – was important in developing 1^st long distance stage travel

James Watt – 1^st steam engine in the 1780’s

Robert Fulton – The Clermont – the 1^st commercially successful steam boat

Dewitt Clinton – the Erie Canal

Peter Cooper – steam engine named "Tom Thumb"

Emma Lazarus – author of inscription on the base of the Statue of Liberty

Sam Ellis – owner of Ellis Island which later became the place where most immigrants came into the United States

John Wesley Hyatt – known to manufacture plastic

Joseph Henry – scientist and inventor

John Stevens – improved motive power and machinery of steamboats

Gertrude B. Elion – received Nobel Prize in 1988, discovered drugs that helped advance medicine

Robert Livingston – diplomat to France, helped get Louisiana Purchase for Us from France

Erastus Dow Palmer – sculptor

Henry Kirk Brown – sculptor

Sam Wilson – the original "Uncle Sam" from Troy, NY (more information can be found about Sam Wilson at the web site http://home.nycap.rr.com/content/us_bio.html

L. Frank Baum – author of The Wizard of Oz

Washington Irving – author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

George Crum – cook at Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga, NY in 1853, made potato chips

Jonas Salk – polio vaccine

Martha Coston – designed a type of flare of emergencies

Edward Armstrong – FM radio

Glen Curtiss – worked to build better planes in Hammondsport

Igor Sikorsky – helicopter

Nikola Telsa – designed the Telsa coil used in radio technology

A C Gilbert – erector set

Alice Binney – crayons (Crayolas)

Frederic Remington – famous artist born in Canton

William Seward – arranged for the US to buy Alaska from Russian 1867

Nathaniel Rochester – started the settlement of Rochester in 1812

Jacob Riis – wrote a book in 1890 called How the Other Half Lives about the terrible conditions in New York City tenement houses; in 1901 a law was passed to improve housing conditions in New York

If you don’t find a person on the list above that you would like to research, and you know of a person that made a difference in New York, see your teacher to discuss the possibility of using the person for this assignment.

You also might want to research a type of person that made a difference in New York. For example, you might want to research

• the life of a person who did a certain craft
• a member of a group of people that influenced New York (ex. a Dutch colonist)
• what your life was like as an indentured servant of master of a particular craft or trade
• a person who helped build the Erie Canal
• a fur trapper or fur trader in New Netherland
• a soldier in one of the wars in the history of New York
• a governor of New York
• your life as a Native American of one of the six Iroquois Tribes (this could also include a person such as a sachem, a wampum maker, a clan mother, etc.)
• the life of person of a particular era (ex. a teacher in a one room school house in the 1800’s; a young child forced to work in a factory in the 1800’s-1900’s; an immigrant that came into Ellis Island such as Molly Moore-1^st immigrant to set foot on Ellis Island from County Cork, Ireland; an immigration worker at Castle Garden or at Ellis Island, etc.)
• a New Yorker that has contributed to sports, arts (dance, music, theater, etc.), sciences, etc.
• a player on one of the many New York State athletic teams
• a person that is involved in maple sugaring either as a Native American, a colonist, or a present New Yorker
• a person that has or has held a job in the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the government of New York State (governors, mayors, assembly persons, judges, etc.)
• a person from New York State that holds or has held a job in the United States government (ex. one of the 6 Presidents of the United States that came from New York)
• a worker in one of the 8,000,000 different jobs in New York (types of jobs include service industries, education, government, finances, manufacturing, agriculture, mining and natural resources, wholesale/retail trade, transportation, communication, commercial fishing, tourism)
• a factory worker at one of the following: a steel worker from Buffalo, a glass worker from Corning, a worker at Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester (cameras, film), a worker in the Ketcham Factory (eating utensils for prospectors headed for the California Gold Rush in 1849, a worker at First and Pryibil (fancy woodwork), Bausch and Lomb (optical instruments, Bausch was a German immigrant), Robert Patton and Sons (school furniture), John Stephenson and Company (streetcars), McCammon (pianos), Steinway and Sons (pianos), etc.

Another option is that you might want to research a historic site or event. You could be a person at the place or event where New York history was made. You might want to be

• a member of the mob at Bowling Green that knocked down the statue of King George after the Declaration of Independence was written
• a person at Fraunces Tavern in New York City where George Washington said farewell to his officers after the Revolutionary War in 1783
• a person at Federal Hall in New York City when George Washington was being sworn is as the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789
• a member of a terrible riot in New York City in 1863 when mobs rebelled against the military draft during the Civil War
• a soldier at Saratoga or another place during the Revolutionary War
• a New Yorker supporting, or disputing, the tax money to be spent on the Erie Canal, the Civil War, etc.

For some of you that like a challenge you could be

• a region of New York and explain why you are important to New York State
• a place in New York that has some historic importance to New York (Harper’s Ferry, Saratoga, West Point, a particular part of New York City, etc.)
• one of the New York State symbols (you’d have to explain its history and why it was chosen as a symbol of New York, as well as research the symbol itself)

Names of others that made a difference in New York’s history: Loomis Gang

Searching for Information

Students are given the sheet What Do I Need To Know? You might need to change the questions depending on what you want your students to know for their biography and The Living History Museum. This information is given to the students before the search for resources begins so that students have a better idea of what they will be asked to write in their biography and what they will need to know about for The Living History Museum.

Name _________________________________

What Do I Need to Know?

The information that is required for your biography and for The Living History Museum follows:

• Basic Biographical Information you MUST know. When you start collecting this information from your resources, put it on blue index cards. The color of the index cards will help you organize your biography later in the process.

-What is your full name?

-Where were you born?

-When were you born?

-If you were not born in New York, when did you come to New York?

-When did you die? (You will use this for your biography but not for The Living History Museum since you will be alive!)

• Other Information. Put this information on yellow index cards.

-Include any other information that seems

important and interesting to you about your person (examples would be information about your family, your education, your jobs, your marriage and children, etc.)

• How did you make a difference in New York history? This information will form most of your biography. You should have a lot of information for this part. Put this information on pink index cards.

-What did you do that made a difference in the

history of New York?

For each source you use you will need to fill out a white index card with bibliography information on it. More information on the bibliography cards will be given to you later.

A Day at the Library

Finding information can be frustrating if students are either unable to find enough information on their chosen person or find so much they don’t know where to begin. To help with this problem, schedule a day at the library and have the students use the sheet Checking Out Available Resources. Require at least 2 sources of information.

Name __________________________

Checking Out Available Resources

To find information for your person, you will need to look in a lot of places. Before you begin your biography, you will need to make sure enough information exists about your chosen person. Search in the 3 areas of the library to find resources on your topic. Fill in the information from these resources below.

Your topic: _____________________________________

Reference Section:

Write the name of the most recent encyclopedia that includes your topic:______________________________

Publisher: ______________________________

Year: ______________________________

Volume Number: __________________________

Page Numbers: __________________________

Card Catalog:

The number of nonfiction books about your topic in the library: ______________________________

Write the title of a nonfiction book that might be helpful and tell why it might be helpful: ______________

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature:

The number of magazines that have articles about your topic: ______________________________

Write the title of a magazine that might be

helpful: __________________________________

Month of the magazine: ______________________

Year: ______________________

Page Numbers: ______________________

Other Sources:

If you find other sources of information list them on the back of this sheet. Some possibilities are newspapers, the Internet (remember to include the address), an almanac, books specific to New York, video/movie of New York history, interview with an expert or the actual person you are doing research on, TV show, primary sources and documents, and letters to an organization, company or museum.

Taking Good Notes

To give your students practice with note taking, make copies of a short encyclopedia article about an important person in history. Pass out the following sheets if you haven’t already done so:

What Do I Need to Know?

Notes! Notes! Notes! and "Bib" Cards! (Collection Information)

How Do I Fill Out a "Bib" Card?

Also give students a white, blue, yellow and pink index card.

Tell the students that when they have found a source that has information on their topic that they will need to fill out a white index card with information about the source. Demonstrate what information needs to be recorded for a bibliography card (use How Do I Fill Out a "Bib" Card?). Show them how to write the number in the top right part of the index card so that for every note taken from that particular source the student can simply write the number rather than the whole title. (We’ll use the number 1 for this example.) Also have them write their initials (or name) in the top left corner of the card. Remind them to do this on every card they write so if a card is misplaced, it can be returned to the owner. Have the students practice writing their bibliography card with information you provide from the source the article was taken from.

After your students read the article, ask them how they would take notes for each question on the sheet What Do I Need to Know? Using an overhead or the board, show the students how to note the information using examples from the article. Try to get an example of the basic biographical information to write on the blue index card, other interesting information to write on the yellow index card, and information about how the person made a difference in history on the pink index card. Write the number 1 in the top left corner of the each card to indicate that the information came from the source you listed on your white bibliography card.

Divide the students up into groups. Give each group a few blue, yellow, and pink index cards. Have them take notes. Remind them to put the information in their own words. Also remind them that one piece of information should be written on one card. Remind them to write the number 1 in the top left corner to indicate all the information comes from the source listed on their white bibliography card. Circulate, observe and give help where needed. When the groups have finished taking notes, share them. (You could have the class share all the notes on blue index cards first, yellow next, and pink last. There will probably be some duplicate notes.) Discuss positive and negative points about the notes.

When the lesson is done, make sure students put the sheets into their folders, and the white index card and some of the other index cards in the zip lock bag in the folder to use as reference.

Name ________________________________

Notes! Notes! Notes! and "Bib" Cards! (Collecting Information)

You will be researching a person that made a difference in New York’s history. You will write the information on color-coded note cards. The color of the cards will help you to organize your note cards so that when you start to write your biography it will be easier.

All the basic information about your person will be written on blue index cards, other interesting information will be written on yellow index cards, and the important information about what your person did that made a difference in New York will be written on pink index cards. On each index card write your name or initials so that if they are misplaced, they can be returned to you if found.

Once you have collected all the information on the index cards you will then use the information to write a biography. The same information will be used for The Living History Museum where you will role-play the person you learn about. (Make sure you learn about your person well since you will be role playing him/her. You will be asked questions by people who will be invited to the museum, so you must know a lot about the person you have chosen to research.)

After you have found sources with information about your person, you are ready for the next step. You will need to Read, Read, and Read some more. You will need to make sense out of everything that you read. Who can help? Your parents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers, and anyone else who can read can help you understand the information about your person.

As you read, you will take notes that give answers to questions on the sheet What Do I Need To Know? Notes are not in sentence form. Write your notes so that you understand them but do not copy the words from your sources. That is called plagiarism and can get you in a lot of trouble!

We take notes from the sources we use so that our writing is in our own words. If we simply copied the words from a source then they would not be ours. As mentioned before, copying words from a source is called plagiarism. It is not right to plagiarize because you would be taking credit for someone else’s work.

We always give credit to the authors we get information from in a bibliography that comes at the end of a report. To do this, we copy certain information from the source onto a bibliography card. We will be using white index cards for our bibliography cards. You will understand this better after you use the sheet How Do I Fill Out a "Bib" Card? The information you write on the "Bib" cards will be copied, in a special format, into your report. It will be the last page and you will title it Bibliography. For more information on the format of how to write the Bibliography, see the sheet Writing the Bibliography.

Let’s get back to notes that you need to write as you read from your sources. An example of a note card from a source follows.

The following excerpt was taken from the resource The World and Its People: New York Yesterday and Today. The excerpt is on page 115.

The Dutch heritage The colony of New Netherland lasted less than 60 years. We are still reminded however, of the part the Dutch played in New York’s history. New York City began as the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. These places all have names that come from the Dutch language: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Harlem, the Bronx, Kinderhook, Rensselaer County, and Dutchess County. Some places in the Hudson Valley have old stone Dutch churches. Many towns have old Dutch homes. Are there any reminders of the Dutch in your community?

Some of our foods and customs come from the Dutch. Coleslaw and cookies come from the Dutch. The idea of Santa Claus and the custom of hanging stockings at Christmas come from the Dutch. Three Presidents of the United States who came from New York had Dutch ancestors. They were Martin Van Buren, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The World and Its People: New York Yesterday and Today. Atlanta, GA: Silver Burdett Company, 1985.

Notes on information above would tell how the Dutch people living in New York in the 1600’s influenced people living in America. The notes would be taken on index cards. Information on a note card might look like this:

JW (my initials in case I lose the index card) ………………………………………………………………………………………1

(This number would represent the source I got the info from. On a white bibliography card labeled number 1 would be all the information about he source. For example: The World and Its People: New York Yesterday and Today. Atlanta, GA: Silver Burdett Company, 1985. The information gives the title of the book; where the book was published, what company published the book, and the date the book was published.)

What we got from the Dutch:

Names of places- Staten Island, Brooklyn, Harlem, the Bronx, Kinderhook, Rensselaer and Dutchess Counties

Foods - coleslaw, cookies

Customs - Santa Claus, hanging stockings at Christmas time

Presidents that have Dutch ancestors - Marin Van Buren, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt

Keep the following in mind when you write your note cards:

• Only write about 1 idea on each card (The information on what we got from the Dutch could also have been written on 4 separate cards. Do you know how?)
• Everything you write should be about what you are supposed to be finding, make sure everything you write is relevant to your biography
• Be accurate! It is extremely important you correctly write the information!
• Only write notes from one source on one card. Every time you use a different source, use a different card. Try to put the information on the correctly colored card since that will help you with organizing your information before you write your first draft (blue-basic biographical info., yellow-other info., red-the important info. about how your person made a difference in New York’s history).
• All your note cards will be handed in and evaluated. Check the section for Note Cards on the sheet Student Rubric for Biography. That will let you know what is expected for good note cards.

Name ___________________________________

How Do I Fill Out a "Bib" Card?

"Bib" Cards"

As you know, we give credit to the people who wrote the books and articles we use for our biography. We give them credit in a bibliography. A bibliography is a list of books and other sources you have used for your notes. The bibliography is included at the end of your biography. There are lots of ways to write a bibliography.

So that you will have the information about your sources to write in the bibliography, you will fill out bibliography cards on each source you use. Each time you find information on your person you must fill out a "Bib" Card (bibliography card). Use white index cards for all Bibliography Cards. (If all the bibliography cards are on white index cards it will be easier for you later on to find them when you need them.) Use a separate white index card for each resource you use.

A Bibliography Card should include . . .

1. the name of the author (last name first).
2. the title of the book or resource (underlined).
3. the city of publication.
4. the name of the publisher.
5. the most recent year of publication.

Also, number your "Bib" cards so that you can refer to them by number on your note cards. That way when you write a note card, you will know what resource you got the information from but you won’t have to write all the bibliography information on each note card. You simply write the number of the resource! The following information is what you will need to include on a bibliography card:

JW……………………………………………. 1

Larkin, F. Daniel

The World and Its People: New York Yesterday and Today

Atlanta, GA: Silver Burdett Company, 1985.

The "Bib" card above shows that the student (JW) got information she needed from the book The World and its People: New York Yesterday and Today by F. Daniel Larkin. It was published in Atlanta, Georgia by the Silver Burdett publishing Company in 1985. JW numbered this "Bib" card #1 in the top right corner. JW will put a #1 on each note card she writes using the book The World and Its People: New York Yesterday and Today. Do you remember the example of the note card on the sheet Notes! Notes! Notes! and "Bib" Cards! (Collecting Information)? It had a # 1 in the top right because the information on the card came from the source The World and Its People: New York Yesterday and Today.

Your teacher will give you information on the format to use for your "Bib" cards. Two web sites that have information on how to write a bibliography are:

http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/education/hcc/library/mlahcc.html

http://www.sls.lib.il.us/DGS/bibliog.html

Name _____________________

Organizing Your Notes to Write Your First Draft

Now that you have your notes it is time to organize them so that you can write about them in a way that will make sense. If you have followed directions, the information that you have written about your person will already be color- coded. All the basic biographical information should be on blue note cards. All other interesting information about your person should be on yellow index cards. All the important information about how and why your person made a difference in New York’s history should be on red index cards.

Put all of the same color cards together. Either get or make an envelope for each color. Label the envelope with the blue index cards "Basic Info.", label the envelope with the yellow index cards "Other Info.", and label the envelope with the red index cards "Important Info.".

Now that all your information is organized in categories, read over the information in each envelope and arrange the cards in the order they will make the most sense. They should tell a story of your person’s life. Get help from your teacher or work with other students and tell your story from your cards. Once you have arranged your cards so that the story makes sense, number the cards on the lower right side in each envelope so they will be in the correct order when you are ready to write.

Name _________________________

Organizing Check List

Use the checklist below to help you organize your note cards. Write a check on each blank as you finish that step. When you have a check on each blank, you are ready to hand in your note cards to be evaluated. Hand in the note cards with the sheet Student Rubric for Biography. The Quality "Note Cards" will be evaluated. The rubric and note cards will be returned to you to correct or to use for writing your first draft.

_____ I have put all my blue note cards in an envelope and labeled it "Basic Info."

_____ I have put all my yellow note cards in an envelope and labeled it "Other Info."

_____ I have put all my pink note cards in an envelope and labeled it "Important Info."

_____I have read through my blue note cards and put them in an order that makes sense. I can tell part of my story with them. I have read them to my teacher, an aide, other students, and/or my parents. They think it makes sense. I have numbered them in the order I plan on writing about them.

_____I have read through my yellow note cards and put them in an order that makes sense. I can tell part of my story with them. I have read them to my teacher, an aide, other students, and/or my parents. They think it makes sense. I have numbered them in the order I plan on writing about them.

_____ I have read through my pink note cards and put them in an order that makes sense. I can tell the rest of my story with them. I have read them to my teacher, an aide, other students, and/or my parents. They think it makes sense. I have numbered them in the order I plan on writing about them.

_____I have read through my blue, yellow and pink note cards to a listener. The story I read makes sense. I am ready to write my first draft. I will write about the blue note cards first, then the yellow and finally the pink unless I have found a better way to organize my notes so the story makes more sense.

Name ________________________

Ready to Write

You have your note cards organized so you are ready to write your first draft. Look at the sheet Student Rubric for Biography before you start to write so you will know what is needed for a good writing piece.

Before you begin, think of a good introduction (lead) to hook your readers and make them want to read on. You want to lead your readers into your biography.

You might start with a question: What is 363 miles long and over 150 years old? It’s the Erie Canal. One man that was important in making sure the Erie Canal would be built through New York was DeWitt Clinton.

You might start with a character introduction: You are about to meet one of the most interesting people in the history of New York: DeWitt Clinton.

You might start with a quote from a book or an actual quote from your person. "I guarantee that this endeavor will, in the long run, earn money for the state of New York due to the increased commerce that will result from it; commerce not only in our state, but between the frontier and New York City all the way across the ocean to Europe." A great New Yorker, DeWitt Clinton who promised the people of New York that if he were elected governor, he’d build the Erie Canal, spoke these words. (Note: This is a made-up example, it does not contain actual words spoken by DeWitt Clinton. It is written to give you an example of how a quote could be used if you have one.)

You might start with a vivid description of the person or of something he/she did. It was 363 miles long. Diggers worked long hours and were paid $.50 a week. It took eight long years to dig it. It wound through the muddy swamps of Montezuma infested with mosquitoes carrying malaria. Locks were built as it went over the land that climbed to great heights and dropped to astonishing lows. Aqueducts were built to carry it over rivers such as the Mohawk and Genesee. It crept across the state from Albany to Buffalo. And finally, when it was finished, it would be compared to the 7 Wonders of the World! It was the Erie Canal, and one of the people we have to thank for it was DeWitt Clinton.

Once you have a good and interesting introduction, refer to your cards and write your biography. Make sure the introduction leads you into the rest of your biography. Include the information on your cards. This will make up the detail paragraphs of your biography. Remember to conclude your biography.

After you have written your first draft, reread it.

• _____Does it make sense to you?
• _____Have you included the information from all of your note cards?
• _____Do you have an introduction, detail paragraphs, and a conclusion?

If you answer yes to the above questions, sign up for an Author’s Circle.

From Author’s Circles to Final Draft

The PURPOSE of Author’s Circles is to

• make sure the writing piece makes sense
• help authors improve their writing pieces

Author Circles are groups of students working together and listening to each other’s writing pieces. The purpose of Author’s Circles is to determine whether or not a writing piece makes sense and to help each other make their writing pieces the best they possible can be.

Please note that if Author’s Circles have never been used in the classroom before, they must be demonstrated first to be successful. Also, there are some prerequisites for successful Author’s Circles. Students must be familiar with cooperative groups and know the rules of working cooperatively before Author’s Circles can be effective.

Students must have completed the first draft of their writing piece before they can sign up for an Author’s Circle. I have students sign up on the board in groups of 3 as they finish their first drafts. Students waiting for one or two students to sign up can proofread their own or work on their bibliography. Allow only 3 students per Author’s Circle; that number seems to work well. 2 students also work well, but groups larger than 2 or 3 take too long.

Students must bring a pencil, their writing piece, and good listening skills to the Author’s Circle. It is helpful if you provide the students with a "Critique Sheet". There are two Critique Sheets included on pages 41 and 42. One is for the biography; the other is for a letter/invitation that you might require the students to write for The Living History Museum. Each student will need a Critique Sheet for each person he/she listens to.

As one student author reads his/her writing piece, the other 2 students listen and critique it. The first time the author reads his/her writing piece the "critics" simply listen to determine if the writing piece makes sense. The second time it is read, they write down comments about it on the Critique Sheet you provide. After the second reading, the students discuss how the author could improve the writing piece. The Critique Sheets are then given to the author so that revisions can be made after everyone has had a chance to get their writing piece critiqued. This continues until each author has read his/her writing piece to the other members of the Author’s Circle getting feedback from the student critics. Once all the members have read their writing pieces, they work on the necessary revisions.

After a student has revised his/her writing piece, he/she can sign up for another Author’s Circle as many times as needed. Once all revisions have been made, it is time for you to conference with the student to edit the work. After you have edited the work, the student can start to type the final draft.

Make sure you instruct the students as to how you expect their final drafts to look. You will need to show them how you want the title, where you want their name, if you want them to use block form or standard paragraph form, etc. After I demonstrate the format I want my students to use, I type out the directions and post them near the computers or give them a copy to keep in their folders so they will have the information about tabbing and spaces between paragraphs, etc. when they need it.

Name __________________________

AUTHOR’S CIRCLES

As an author, you want all the help you can get to make your written work as good as it can possibly be. One way to help make sure your writing makes sense is to get into an Author’s Circle and have other students critique your work as they listen to you read it out loud.

What is needed for an Author’s Circle?

• 3 students, each with a sloppy copy (1^st draft) of a writing piece
• a listener’s Critique Sheet for each person you will be listening to
• a desire to help another writer
• a desire to be helped

The purpose of Author’s Circle is to make sure your writing makes sense and to help other author’s improve their writing.

As an author, you will read your writing piece out loud to the two other members of your Author’s Circle. You want help from your listeners. You wan t to know whether you have written well enough so that your writing piece makes sense. You will read your writing piece to the listeners two times. You want good listeners to catch your mistakes. Improve you writing by using the suggestions from the listeners that make sense. Make notes on your writing piece and take the Critique Sheets so you will know where to improve your writing piece when you return to your seat.

As a listener you have the most important job in an Author’s Circle. You have to listen carefully to the writing piece. You have to make sure it makes sense. As you listen, you need to help the author make the piece as good as it can be by suggesting ways to improve it. You will be listening as the author reads the writing piece two times. First just listen to find out what the writing piece is about. As you listen, ask yourself, "What is the writing piece about?" The second time you listen, you will need to listen more carefully. Ask yourself, "Does what I am hearing make sense? Does the writing piece have all the necessary parts? Do I understand what the author is trying to say? Can the author say it more clearly? Can the author say it in another, more interesting, way?" After you have listened to the writing piece the second time, you will need to record your ideas about what needs to be improved. Write your concerns in note form. If you are not sure about a part, have the author read it again. If a part seems OK to you, you can record OK on the Critique Sheet. If you are unsure about a part, but don’t know how to help improve it, write a ? next to the part on your Critique Sheet. Your job, and it’s a tough one, is to help the author improve his/her writing piece.

Example 1 of a Critique Sheet for a Biography (You might need to add or change some of the information to meet your particular needs.):

Author’s Name:_________________________________________

Name of Person biography is about __________________________

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did I hear the basic biographical information about the person? Check if you heard the following:

_____the person’s name

_____when was the person born

_____where was the person born

_____when the person came to NY if he/she wasn’t born there

_____what year was the person born

_____has the person died

_____if so, when did the person die

_____other info.

Comments:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did I hear other information about the person?

_____yes, sounded OK

_____yes, but I’m not sure it sounded OK

_____no

_____needs more information

Comments:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did I hear why the person was important in New York’s history?

_____yes, and there seems like enough info.

_____yes, but the author needs to elaborate or explain more

_____no, I didn’t hear why the person was important in NY’s history, or I don’t think it made sense.

Comments:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Listener’s Name: ______________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Example 2 of a Critique Sheet for a letter or invitation (You might need to add or change some of the information to meet your particular needs.):

Name _______________________

Handing in Your Completed Biography

When you are done with your biography, hand in the following for a grade in the order listed below with this sheet on the bottom and your final draft on the top:

_____this sheet

_____your Student Rubric for Biography sheet

Keep your folder with the note cards (all three colors along with your bibliography cards). You will need these to practice for the class presentation of your which you will tell like a story, an autobiography, from your person’s point of view. You’ll also need the note cards to practice for The Living History Museum.

_____your first draft of the biography

_____your Author Circle Critique Sheets

_____your final draft including the bibliography

Name __________________

Student Rubric for Biography

Rubric Words to Know: accurate – correct; audience – the reader you’re writing for; coherent – makes sense; incoherent – doesn’t make sense; elaboration – to give a lot of relevant information about the topic; engagement – really knows what you are writing about very well; relevant – pertains to the topic; irrelevant – doesn’t have anything to do with the topic; sophisticated – at a high level; sequence – the order of something; vivid language – words that "draw a picture" in the reader’s mind

NOTE: THE NOTE CARDS SHOULD BE COLLECTED AND GRADED BEFORE THE FIRST DRAFT IS WRITTEN SO THAT YOU CAN MAKE SURE THE STUDENT HAS ENOUGH INFORMATION TO WRITE THE BIOGRAPHY. ONCE THE NOTE CARDS HAVE BEEN GRADED AND APPROVED, HAND THEM BACK SO THE STUDENT CAN WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT. IF THE NOTE CARDS ARE NOT ADEQUATE, CONFERENCE WITH THE STUDENT. THE NOTE CARDS MUST BE IMPROVED WHERE NECESSARY SO THE 1^ST DRAFT CAN BE WRITTEN.

This rubric can be used as one overall grade, or each category can be graded separately. More weight could be given to the MEANING AND CONTENT category, especially if the rubric is used for separate grades.

Name ____________________

Prepare to Present!

After you have written the final draft of your biography you will need to go back to your notes and again use them to tell your story orally to the class. However, this time, you will tell the story from your person’s point of view using first person narrative. This will help you get ready for The Living History Museum because it is like a dress rehearsal for The Living History. Read over the sheets Presentation Pointers, Presentation Checklist of Things to Do and the Oral Presentation Rubric. You will be getting a grade on your oral presentation.

Name ____________________

PRESENTATION POINTERS

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance!

The 4 P’s of a Presentation:

PLAN:

The key to a successful presentation is planning. You must take time to think about what you will be presenting, how you will present it, your audience, your visuals, etc. Use your note cards to help you.

PREPARE:

All presentations must include an Introduction, Body, and Conclusion. Organize your presentation by preparing all the necessary parts.

The introduction will be you introducing yourself. After your introduction you might want to get your audience involved by asking a question. For example: Hello. My name is DeWitt Clinton. Do you know how I helped make history for New York?

Know your topic, make sure your information is accurate and you are able to pronounce correctly all the words. Be prepared for questions about your topic. Charts and posters should be displayed in an attractive and helpful way so your audience understands your presentation better. Make sure you have any equipment necessary for you presentation and that it works.

PRACTICE:

"Practice Makes Perfect" is a statement that has proven true many times. The more times you practice your presentation the more comfortable you will feel and less nervous you will be. Also, you can fix many problems that you did not anticipate by practicing before presenting. It is also good to practice so you can arrange the space where you will present. You want to have enough space so you have room for your poster and any necessary props. Also, you should make sure your audience will be able to see everything.

PRESENT:

After all your hard work getting ready, it is time to present! Remember to speak clearly, slowly, and loudly. Your audience wants to hear what you have to say!

Name _________________

Presentation Check list of things to DO for The Living History Museum

(a partial list)

Things to do:

_____DO introduce yourself as the person you researched. Use an interesting way to get your audience’s attention (a question works well for this.)

_____DO dress for your presentation in clothes that help you communicate your message to your audience.

_____DO speak loud enough so your audience can hear. Otherwise your audience will loose interest.

_____DO speak slowly. You have a lot of information to share. You have prepared yourself well. Now is the time to show off all that hard work!

_____DO pronounce all words correctly. Since you have practiced and worked out problems before the presentation this shouldn’t be a problem.

_____DO continue if you happen to make a mistake. Apologize and go on.

_____DO make eye contact with your audience.

_____DO know all your material. If you are presenting with others, know their material as well since you are all part of one presentation. If one person looks weak, it makes the entire presentation look weak.

_____DO have all materials, visuals, props, etc. with you as you present. Make sure all your materials, visuals, props, etc. enhance your presentation rather than distract from it.

_____DO know where you will stand, and/or where you will be positioned if you are working in a group where the presenters need to move about. Make sure all movements enhance your presentation rather than distract from it.

_____DO try and enjoy yourself and your accomplishments as you present.

_____DO be prepared to answer questions from the audience.

Student’s Name _____________________

ORAL PRESENTATION RUBRIC from 1^st PERSON POINT OF VIEW

Name of person student is role-playing: _______________________

Use this to rubric for both the oral presentation and to make sure you are prepared for The Living History Museum. The oral presentation is like a dress rehearsal for that.

EVALUATION (Conversion to letter grades):

Students who have all 3’s earn an A+. Students who have more 3’s than 2’s earn a B. Students who have more 2’s than 3’s earn a C. Students who have mostly 1’s earn a D. Students who earn all 1’s or do not have a presentation earn an F.

Name ___________________________

Listener’s Evaluation Sheet of Class Presentations

As you listen to your classmates present their information you must fill out the following sheet. For each student’s person, write the name and briefly what difference he/she made in New York’s history. An example has been done for you. This information will be used for a test on people who made a difference in New York when everyone is done presenting.

Invitations to The Living History Museum

This Learning Experience can be a class activity where one invitation is written by the class. Copies can be made and sent to all the people that will be invited to The Living History Museum. If you choose, the Learning Experience can be extended to include individual letter-writing skills where each student writes a letter to invite a particular person. Make this Learning Experience fit your needs.

Since people will be invited to The Living History Museum and the students will be writing the invitations, they need to know exactly what types of information need to be included. Have students bring in examples of invitations they have received. Discuss the invitations and the types of required information.

Determine the people you will invite to The Living History Museum. Some ideas are Board Members, school administration, staff, other grade levels, parents and interested adults.

If this Learning Experience is done as a class activity, design an invitation with your class (or have a group of students work on this as they finish their biographies and oral presentation) and use the computer to print it. Include word art and borders. Make it look inviting. You might want to advertise the event in the school newspaper, monthly newsletter or local newspaper.

To extend this into a letter writing lesson, show the students the correct form of a friendly letter. Tell them they will write personal invitations to their parents (or significant others) for The Living History Museum. Make sure they are aware of the 5 parts of a letter (heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature). Require first drafts, Author’s Circles (a Critique Sheet for a letter or invitation is included with the information on Author’s Circles on page 42), revisions, and editing. Once the invitations have been edited, students can use the computer to type their letter. My students either use the Full Block form or Modified Block form. Since Full Block form is easier, most prefer that form.

Use the Letter Writing Rubric for evaluation.

Name _____________________

Letter Writing Rubric for Letters in Progress

If you have earned a No you must revise your letter so that the information needed is included or the mistakes are corrected. If Yes is circled each time, write your final draft. Use the sheet Rubric for Letters so you know what is needed for a good grade.

Name __________________________

Rubric for Letters

CULMINATING PERFORMANCE

The Living History Museum will be the culminating performance. Prior to The Living History Museum, invite Board Members, parents and relatives, administrators, other teachers and classes, and staff that work in your school to The Living History Museum. To write the invitations, use the Learning Experience Invitations to The Living History Museum.

Set up the classroom (or use a larger room such as the cafeteria or a hall) with all the historic people from your class. Each student will be dressed as his/her person from New York and have a poster hanging near him/her giving his/her name and other important graphics or information that is relevant.

The visitors make their way around to the "history makers" asking them questions and finding out information. You can facilitate this by having copies of a questionnaire that the visitors can use. The questions on the questionnaire should be questions the students have researched and have the answers to. This not only helps the visitors know what types of questions are appropriate, but it also helps your students. The following sheet Welcome to the LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM can be used for this purpose.

Once the Museum visit is over, have a pizza party for all the hard working "historic" New Yorkers! They deserve it, as do you!

Welcome to The LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM

We thank you for coming to The LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM. You will be able to learn a lot about the history of New York. You may need to try and send yourself back in time to talk with some of the people you will meet at the museum today; others you meet might be of a more present time.

Please introduce yourself to the people who made a difference in New York’s history. Please feel free to ask them questions.

They will be able to tell you . . .

. . .their full name.

. . .when and where they were born.

. . .how they made a difference in New York’s history.

 ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

Many assessments and evaluations have been included throughout the unit. A final assessment that could be included is a written test using information from the sheet Listener’s Evaluation Sheet of Class Presentations. This final assessment would make all students accountable for information about all the people that were researched. The format of the assessment could be a matching test of the people who made a difference in New York’s history with their most major accomplishment or impact.

PRE-REQUISITE SKILLS

It would be helpful if students had note taking skills as well as researching skills. Although you can teach note-taking skills as you work through this unit, it would be helpful if students had prior experience with taking notes. Process writing skills are needed. It would be helpful if students had prior experience with writing pieces so that they are familiar with introductions, detail sentences/ detail paragraphs, and conclusions.

MODIFICATIONS

Student with disabilities will receive modifications per their IEP’s. Also, teachers should guide students to work with another student if they anticipate the student might have difficulty. For example, more than one student could research the same person, or a group of students could research people who worked together to make a difference in New York such as Deganawidah and Hiawatha, or the Loomis Gang. Emphasis could be placed only on quality, not quantity, with these students. Hopefully, remedial and special teachers involved with these students will give guidance and help with the assignments.

UNIT SCHEDULE/TIME PLAN

The unit will take between 3 and 4 weeks. The amount of time estimated for each Learning Experience is indicated in the Contents Pages. Below is a timeline for your students to put in their unit pocket folder (see Materials after the Initiating Activity).

Name _____________________

STUDENT TIMELINE FOR YOUR UNIT

TECHNOLOGY USE

 Students will use the computer to obtain information, and write their biography. Below is a list of web sites to use for various assignments in this unit. Students will also use the computer to make posters that will be needed for the classroom presentation and The Living History Museum.

 WEB SITES

The following Web Sites might be helpful. Part 1 lists web sites that give information about New York. Some are a link from another site that has been included in the list. Part 2 lists web sites that give information about writing bibliographies.

Part 1

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/kidsroom/nysfacts/factmenu.html This site if sponsored by the NYS Department of State. Included in the site are New York State History, State Symbols, Origin of County Names, State Seal, Places in NY Puzzle, Facts and Symbols to Color, Facts Crossword Puzzle, Empire State Facts, Governors of New York, and a section called Did you know…?

http://www.nyhistory.com/ This site has many good links. Check out NY History Link or go to the link:

http://www.nyhistory.com/historians.html Once you are there, check out Stefan Bielinski’s web site.

http://nystatehistory.org/

www.state.ny.us

http://home.eznet.net/~dminor/NYNY.html

http://dir.altavista.com/Regional/US/New_York/Counties.shtml

http://iloveny.state.ny.us/

http://postcardsfrom.con/map-ny.html

www.puzzlemaker.com This web site makes word searches, puzzles, and crossword puzzles, etc. that the students might be able to use in their presentations or to pass out at The Living History Museum.

http://wwwldickshovel.com/iro.html This web site has information about the Iroquois.

http://www.Memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html This web site has primary sources.

The 4 web sites below give information about the Erie Canal. Some are links from each other.

http://www.history.rochester.edu/canal/chron.html

http://www.canals.state.ny.us/eriecanal.html

http://www.canals.state.ny/faqs/canals.html

http://www.canals.state.ny.us/history/index.html

Part 2

The web sites below give information about writing bibliographies and citing works.

http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/education/hcc/library/mlahcc.html

http://www.sls.lib.il.us/DGS/bibliog.html