Young Chautauqua / Timeline:12 weeks
Enduring Concept: Students will be exposed to role models who inspire them and help them to understand how historical characters overcame obstacles to have an impact on society.
Colorado State Standards
READING, WRITING, AND COMMUNICATING
- 9-1.1Oral Expression and Listening:Oral presentations require effective preparation strategies
- 9-2.2Reading for All Purposes: Increasingly complex informational texts require mature interpretation and study.
- 9-3.1Writing and Composition:Narrative texts develop a controlling idea or theme with descriptive and expressive language
- 9-4.1Research and Reasoning: Informational materials, including electronic sources, need to be collected, evaluated, and analyzed for accuracy, relevance, and effectiveness for answering research questions.
- 6-1.1History: Analyze and interpret historical sources to ask and research historical questions.
- 8-1.1 Create:Creating and sustaining a believable character.
- 8-2.1 Perform: Characterization and performance.
- 8-3.2 Critically Respond: Use critical thinking skills in character analyses and performance.
Evidence Outcomes
Students will be able to:
Justify the relevance of the student’s character to history and to themselves
Research from multiple resources including primary sources
Develop their character’s persona through investigating videos, speeches, primary sources
Respond appropriately to audience questions with supporting evidence from the character’s life
Be able make inferences regarding their character beyond concrete textual support
To present using proper stage presence to at least two audiences
Vocabulary
- annotated bibliography: a list of source citations with short paragraphs explaining what the source is, how it contributed to your research, and how you know the source is credible
- artifact: a cultural object of historical significance
- autobiography: a written account of a person's life written by that person
- biography: a written account of a person's life
- characterization:the creation and convincing representation of a fictitious or historical character
- Chautauqua:an education movement in the United States, popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; named after Chautauqua Lake where the first was held
- citation: a reference to a credible source
- costume: any item a character wears externally on the body
- enunciation: the act of pronouncing words
- extemporaneous: spoken or done without preparation
- Library of Congress: the national research library and archive of the United States
- monologue: a long speech by a single actor
- primary source: texts or artifacts from a period in history
- property [prop]: any object that is handled by an actor at some point in a play or film
- secondary source: texts or artifacts about a period in history
- sensory image: a mental image created from a very detailed description of something, often using more than one of the five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing)
- stage presence:the ability to command the attention of a theater audience through engaging speech and appearance
- theme: the central idea or message of a text; what it is about
- vocal projection: the strength, loudness, and clarity of a person’s speaking or singing voice
Student Inquiry Questions:
- Why does this person’s story need to be heard?
- What is universally human about this person’s story?
- How will the audience benefit from knowing this story?
- What was the historical context in which the character lived, and how did it motivate their actions?
- Why is the world a different place because this person lived?
- How can I recreate the character’s experiences through performance?
Assessments
Summative Assessments:
A written monologue from the perspective of a famous historical figure
A dramatic presentation of said monologue to an audience
A bibliography (at least 5 sources to include one book)
A timeline of the characters life and historical context
Formative Assessment Options:
Character proposal with vital information – (see Character Analyses in supporting document)
Notes from research (either Cornell or index cards)
Informal story presentations in class
Supporting Documents:
- History of Chautauqua
- Character lists
- Researching Electronically for Young Chautauqua
- Questions to Ask Yourself When You Are Developing a Living History
- Research Tips for Young Chautauqua
- Young Chautauqua Information Sheet (p 39 Creating a YC Program)
- Beginning Questions for Chautauqua Scholars
- Timeline rubrics ( – see supporting documents
- Techniques for Memorization
- Analyzing Your Character
- Presentation Rubric
- Costuming for Chautauqua
- chautauqua.com/ (Colorado Chautauqua website)
- highplainschautauqua.org/ (High Plains Chautauqua website)
- coloradohumanities.org/content/young-chautauqua (Colorado Young Chautauqua information website)
- Spiral notebook/folder for organization or a section in student binder
- Books from public library on costuming
- Thrift Stores for costume possibilities
- Greeley History Museum
- Central HS drama department
- Chappelow K-8 for costumes
Course Week-at-a-Glance
WEEK 1 / Introduce history of Chautauqua and yearly theme
Create digital portfolio and research notebook
Discuss: Why do we study history?
Class readings and discussions on YC theme / WEEK 2 / Research list of characters in groups
Activities for character selection
CHECKPOINT: INDEX CARD PROPOSAL
WEEK 3 / Teach how to research/”Three Cs”
Teach research note format
Have students research character and take notes / WEEK 4 / Continue research on character
Teach how to create a timeline
CHECKPOINT: CHARACTER STORY #1
WEEK 5 / Continue research on character
Teach annotated bibliography form
CHECKPOINT: CHARACTER STORY #2 / WEEK 6 / Finish research
Learn specific rules and rubrics for project
CHECKPOINT: CHARACTER STORY #3
WEEK 7 / Teach characterization using support docs
Students analyze character and plan monologue
Choose when in character’s life they’ll portray
CHECKPOINT: MONOLOGUE PLAN / WEEK 8 / Teach monologue writing
Students begin to write monologue
CHECKPOINT: MONOLOGUE DRAFT
WEEK 9 / Teach memorization, enunciation, and projection
Work on refining and memorizing monologue
Work on refining timeline / WEEK 10 / Teach stage presence, props, and costuming
Work on refining monologue in small groups
Find and create props and costumes
CHECKPOINT: TEACHER CHECK IN
WEEK 11 / Peer-edit timeline and ann. bibliography
“Dress rehearsal” performances and feedback
Polish presentations
FINAL TIMELINE DUE / WEEK 12 / FINAL PRESENTATIONS
FINAL MONOLOGUE AND ANN. BIBLIOGRAPHYDUE
Students post materials to digital portfolios
Students reflect on presentation
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TEACHERS GUIDE / Young ChautauquaChautauqua Background
In 1874, John Heyl Vincent and Lewis Miller rented a Methodist camp meeting site to use as a summer school for Sunday school teachers; this became known as the Chautauqua Institution and reflected a nation-wide interest in the professionalization of teaching. Within a few years, the scope of the Chautauqua Institution had broadened to include adult education of all kinds, seeking to bring "a college outlook" to working and middle-class people. The Chautauqua Movement grew out of that Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. As its members and graduates spread the Chautauqua idea, many towns--especially in rural areas where opportunities for secondary education were limited--established "chautauqua" gatherings intended to introduce people to the great ideas, new ideas, and issues of public concern. At the height of the Chautauqua Movement, about 1915, some 12,000 communities had hosted a chautauqua. The movement pretty much died out by the mid-1930s because of the Depression and the introduction of more popular media (radio and film), but today, Chautauqua is experiencing a renaissance.
--From the Chautauqua Website
Steps of the Young Chautauqua Project
Step 1: Developing a paperwork management system
Organization is a key factor in successful research and presentation. During the first week of class, students need to develop a paperwork management system. Have each student divide a binder into three sections:
Project Guidelines: Students will place all instructional sheets in this section
Research: Students will place all research notes, timeline drafts, and bibliographies in this section
Character Writing: Students will place character sheets, stories, and monologue drafts in this section
Step 2: Background of Young Chautauqua and Historical Context
Before you begin, check the District 6 website for the current year’s Young Chautauqua theme. ALL class work should fit inside this theme, and students will eventually select a character related to this annual theme. Next, introduce what Chautauqua is using background documents, YouTube videos, and even presentations by former Chautauquans. You should explain the idea behind Young Chautauqua is selecting a character and performing a monologue about his or her life from his or her perspective.
Before character selection can begin, teach students to identify the difference between primary sources and secondary sources using some example texts you select that fit into a theme. Primary sources are texts or artifacts from a period in history, while secondary sources are texts or artifacts about a period in history.
Step 3: Selecting a Topic
Selecting a character for Young Chautauqua is a process of gradually narrowing from a broad group of figures to a single figure. Start by giving students a list of 50-75 characters and having the students narrow from the list. You should also provide selection prompts, such as:
Pull three names from hat and research their backgrounds
Have students pick a country and research important figures from the country
Pick an object you can’t live without and research who invented or discovered it
Pick your hero, then research who was their hero.
Have students create a bulletin board of figures from the list. Each figure should have a picture and three-sentence life summary. Then, students connect howfigures are similar using string.
Students can always select their own figure with two caveats. One, the character must be a positive role model worthy of presentation(this may be up to interpretation—Andrew Jackson revolutionized democracy but also hastened Native American genocide. It is up to instructor judgment what is appropriate). Two, the character must be historical, not a current living or recently deceased person. Enough time must have passed to allow historians to evaluate the historical significance of a figure, creating secondary sources.
Before students move from “pre-research” and building historical background to in-depth research, students should write aninformal proposal to get approval—this way, you can make sure students each have an appropriate figure that no one else in class has selected. To propose a figure, students will create an index card with the following information: his or her name, the character’s name, a sentence explaining why the student wants to study the figure, two questions the student has about the figure, and three alternatives for a figure to study. This is the first and most important checkpoint, as students cannot start research without a solid choice of character.
Step 5: Gathering and Recording Information
To be responsible researchers, students must credit sources from which they gathered information. To begin the process, however, it is important for the student to know how to gather and record relevant and useful information. First, have the students generate a list of 10-12 inquiry questions about their figures. Here are some example inquiry questions for the sample figure of George Washington Carver:
- Why did George Washington Carver decide to become a scientist?
- Who inspired George Washington Carver?
- Did George Washington Carver face any adversity being African American?
- How is George Washington Carver remembered today?
CONTRIBUTION: Does this source answer your inquiry questions and aid your research?
CREDIBILITY: Is the source trustworthy? Is it biased?
CITATION: Did you write down the important source information? (Author’s name, title, publisher, etc.)
*Note on citations: Projects should use Modern Language Association (MLA) format. Though English classes in middle school teach the MLA style, expect to quickly review the citation format with students. For help with MLA questions, go to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab at owl.english.purdue.edu.*
As students research, they must keep track of their sources to assemble them into an annotated bibliography. Anannotated bibliography is like a regular bibliography where each source is cited in MLA format and listed in alphabetical order. However, under each source citation is a short, 1-3 sentenceannotation paragraph about the source. The annotation paragraphs for each source must explain what the source is, how the source is credible, and how it helped the student understand the topic. Here is an example:
Bates, Daisy.The Long Shadow of Little Rock. 1st ed. New York: David McKay Co. Inc., 1962.
Daisy Bates was the president of the Arkansas NAACP and the one who met and listened to the students each day. This first-hand account was very important to my paper because it made me more aware of the feelings of the people involved. I know it is credible because Bates was a personal eyewitness and victim of the segregation at Little Rock High School.
You will want to check on students during research to make sure they are noting sources with citation as they go, and that their research is striving to answer inquiry questions. Students should also condense research into a timeline, which will feature both events from the figure’s life as well as national or global events that put the figure’s life into historical context. See the timeline assignment sheet and rubric for more details.
Step 6: Writing a Monologue
Students will synthesize their research into a monologue from the perspective of the historical figure. This monologue will be a first person narrative, so to prepare students for writing a monologue, there are three checkpoints where the students will craft simple, one-page narratives on specific prompts from the point of view of their characters. See the checkpoint sheet for these prompts. Students will also need to know how to characterize their historical figure, so use the resource documents to help them with this.
Monologues should be original, though students may include some quotations from the actual figure. The monologue will “happen” at a specific time in a person’s life (e.g., for a monologue based upon Abraham Lincoln, the monologue could “happen” during his debates against Douglas, right after Gettysburg, during the second inauguration, or hours before he was shot at Ford Theatre). The monologue should include a summation of the figure’s life up until that point but include NOTHING AFTER, as the character would not be aware of his or her own future and legacy (though a character can express his or her hopes for the future).
A monologue is crucial to a successful performance, so a student should not be allowed to begin creating a performance until he or she has a solid draft of the monologue. The emphasis here should be on draft: as students refine their performances, the monologues will naturally evolve and change. See the monologue sheet and rubric for more detailed expectations.
Step 7: Creating a Performance
The performance will be a live, dramatic presentation of the figure as acted by the student. It has three parts:
- The student will recite his or her monologue from the perspective of the figure.
- The “character” will answer any audience questions.
- The performer will answer any audience questions.
The first step in creating a great performance is memorizing the monologue and getting a feel for the character’s voice. This means you must teach students how to not only speak clearly and project loudly, but students must also use the slang and speech patterns their characters would have had.
Students should also find or create costumes and props that are necessary to the script action and historical accuracy. Good costumes and props help make a performer convincing, but they must be appropriate to the historical context. Sometimes simple works best-- a white shirt and dark pants/skirt can fit almost any period. While you as teacher may help them find resources, make sure students are first finding their own resources.
Finally, students should practice extemporaneous responses to questions, as they will have to answer in character without a scripted response. This is why mastering the characterization is so important.
Step 8: Presenting the Performance
You will have to set at least two different dates for performances. The first date should be a “dress rehearsal” where the students perform for a small audience of either peers or other adults and then receive feedback on the performance so they can adjust monologue, characterization, vocal articulation, and externals (props and costuming). This means that students should have a couple of days after the first performance to make adjustments before the final performance.