Hello, 5B families!
A major theme of term three is TIME TRAVEL!
Heading into Spring Break, today I planted a seed for students about the fun we will have in term three of Social Studies! To foster an historian mindset, I am asking students to imagine they have access to a time machine to go on field trips to times and places in the past. Students will research and develop their expertise in their chosen area and perform a time traveler’s report for the class. They will be encouraged to dress in either a “time traveller” costume or a costume relevant to their chosen time period (where possible and appropriate), and guidelines will be given for that to ensure sensitivity and respect.
This project will further develop students’ skills in research (evaluating the trustworthiness of sources, creating a bibliography, note taking, transforming notes into authentic texts), storytelling/public speaking, and acting for the stage or screen. Students will be responsible for curating 3-5 images/photos to share of the time/place they visit (digital or print), and they must properly credit the source of each image in their final presentation.
We will explore what it means to create an authentic work versus a plagiarized work, copyright issues, and fair use law. We will also discuss the concepts of bias and cultural appropriation with the goal of ensuring all presentations meet learning objectives and present perspectives grounded in evidence.
In early April, I will teach students the specific skills they need to succeed in this project in a step-by-step way and with modelling. Projects will be presented in the last two weeks of May.
Students who are eager to get started now can begin finding and making a list of books, magazines, websites, documentaries and other sources of information in their chosen historical time period.
Students should choose a time period that is a least 20 years in the past—so earlier than 2004. They should choose a time/place/event of historical significance. So while “my cousin’s birthday party” may have been a cool, memorable event in the past, we may need to challenge students to think in broader terms and grow as historians.
I am so excited to find out where our creative students will take us in term three!
On Tuesday, April 8th, students must be ready to name and commit to the time and place they have chosen to research for the remainder of the project.
The full project presentation due date is Thursday, May 30th, but there will be a series of of smaller deadlines of project components leading up to this date to ensure projects are well organized and developing on time.
Tiffany Poirier 