History Day Schedule
Dates
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Classroom Activities & Due Dates
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History Day Assignments
Journal Entries
At the beginning of every week I will hand out a worksheet for students to fill out throughout the week---this worksheet will be referred to as their history day journals. The journals are meant to keep the student, teacher and parent all on the same page. Parents and students can think of the journals as a newsletter. Each one will come with an explanation of what the students should be concentrating on during the week. On the worksheet students will be logging the time they spent on history day. At the bottom of the page I would like parents to sign the worksheet so I know parents have seen it. Students who keep up with the journal will be up better off by the end of the project. PDF copies of the journal worksheets are below
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Due Dates: Every Friday starting on
December 14
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Topic Choice
Your topic choice will be the most important decision you will make this trimester. You will spend the next 3 months working on this project - so find something that interests you! The key to a good History Day project is a combination of a good topic with good sources. When picking a topic, ask yourself the following questions:
Example:
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Due Date: December 14
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Group Choice
Students will be able to work on their own or in a group (3 max). Students will be able to choose their own groups, but I will have final approval.
Working alone has some distinct advantages. With no one else to depend on, the success of your History Day project is your own - this can be a very rewarding experience! Working with a group can have distinct advantages. You can share the work load and share skills. Each person will bring their own talents to the group! Be careful choosing a group! Working with your best friend might not always be the best idea. When selecting group members concider the following:
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Due Date: December 14
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Source Checks
Completing a history day project will require finding a lot of information from a variety of sources; however, not all sources are good ones. Some sources ( cough Wikipedia cough) can give you incorrect information. Search engines like, Google and Wikipedia, are good places to get a start --- but are not meant the be-all end-all. You need to find sources that dig deeper and you need to find a lot of them!
To make sure that students are not putting it off until the last week---I will be doing four source checks through out the project. For each check you will need to have at least 5 sources --- only two of these can be from the Internet! I will only do one check per group. Your sources will need to be listed in MLA format. You will need to include:
Keeping track of your sources will be important because you will need to turn in an annotated bibliography with your project. I suggest creating a note card for each source or creating a master list on a word document. |
Due Dates:
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Category Choice
Students will be able to pick the format to present their project. Students have the following options:
When selecting a category it is important to remember the following:
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Due Date: January 11
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Thesis
A thesis statement is the central argument that hold your project together. It is the heart of your History Day experience. You are creating an argument that expresses your topics significance and demonstrates how the theme plays a central part
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Due Date:
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Process Paper and Annotated Bibliography
Process Paper
Students creating an exhibit, documentary, performance or website must also write a Process Paper. The proses paper introduces your topic, explains how you developed your entry and documents your research. The process paper contains three parts:
Annotated Bibliography An annotated bibliography is an alphabetized list of the sources used in developing a historical project. It includes a short description of each source and how you used it. A History Day Bibliography should be separated into primary and secondary sources. |
Due Dates:
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History Day Project
Students will present their projects to students, teachers, parents and judges at a history day fair. Students will need to have their projects, process papers and annotated bibliography. Judges will select projects to move on to the regional competition. Students who move on to the regional competition will receive extra credit.
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Due Date: TBA (week on February 18th)
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