History Unchained

Good news!  You have your first project, and it’s going to be fun!  We’re going to start off the year with something I call History Unchained (has also been called Deconstructing History, What if, and Fork in the Road).  You will be assigned a topic from the Civil War and the Period of Reconstruction to research.  You will then take your specific event and change what happened.  This is when your imagination takes hold.  You and your group will construct a new series of events that might have occurred that includes short, middle and long-term effects (like today).  But it’s not just made up events because it’s history class.  You need to figure out what ended up happening since then and attach your “fork” to it.  

I’m guessing you don’t know all of American History since the Civil War.  That’s where it gets tricky.  First you’ll need to know the background for what happened (that’s where your book, chapter 18 comes in handy).  Then you’ll need to look at events as they unfolded (also requires research), then you need to look at possible long-term effects (also need to know about life today).

How does this work?  Well, after researching, brainstorming and putting together an old and new timeline, your group will be writing up a 2-3 page paper summarizing that new Unchained History.  AND you’ll also be presenting this to an audience (more to come on that).   I will expect very high quality, your participation, and your attention to detail.

How do we get it done?  Let’s start with the jobs needed: 

Leader - Organize and assign homework and various duties, liaison to me, be the expert on the rubrics, make sure other members know background well for their personal essays.

Secretary - Take notes on brainstorming, and discussions/debates; keep track of all assignments, their quality, considering the rubric on proper group membership.

Writer - Craft the working and final drafts of the paper.  Construct the outline, get feedback and peer and expert reviews, make revisions and print final copy.

Presenter - Determine form of presentation.  Follow presentation rubric, you speak for the group.  Create a smooth and polished presentation (using whatever form and means necessary) explaining the project.

Okay, Mrs. Todd, really, what am I supposed to do?

1.     Research the event I give you.  Research what happened and what the short-term effects were.  Brainstorm what the long-term effects were.  You should be dealing only with what really happened first.  

2.     Make a timeline or some kind of chain of events diagram so you know what happened.

3.     Begin to devise an alternate short-term effect of changing history.  This takes knowledge of what happened!  Make a timeline or an event diagram that helps you put together an alternate reality.  

4.     Expand your timeline until you can make a reasonable long term plan.

5.     This requires a lot of research and creativity.  Take your time with this part and do it well.  I would suggest dividing the work by assigning homework.

6.     Once your general plans are made, begin to put together your paper and your presentation outlines.  You should do this as a group, but the writer and presenter are the leaders on this.

7.     You will need to write, review, revise, write, review, revise…as many times as possible.  I want to see a mentor signature and group members too.

8.     You will turn in your paper and make a public presentation.

After it’s all over, you will write a reflection essay of my choosing.