What Have You Seen Or Heard About This Before Today?

Name Date

The Wayne County Historical Museum is building a new exhibit space where they hope to help students like you make a personal connection with American history. You have been invited to learn about what life was like for young people growing to adulthood on the changing American frontier, during Westward Expansion from Indiana to the Pacific coast.
The challenge is to present accurate and engaging interpretations of many diverse people including perspectives of those who are original inhabitants, and those moving to and from the frontier during the Nineteenth century and how their experiences connect with young people today. Students will collaborate to create a variety of projects for addition to the exhibit that tell the stories of history in realistic and interesting ways. Your role is to select an individual or group on which to focus.
Research primary sources about the time and place related to this individual.
Use details from primary and secondary source artifacts to create a realistic interpretation of life on the frontier from the perspective of the selected individual.
Remember that your exhibit will be viewed by other Richmond youth visiting the museum as well as visitors that may come from almost anywhere. Your exhibit should coordinate with others from the project group to present both accurate historical information about America’s western expansion and engaging interpretation of personal stories collected from youth living through change.
Your audience will want to connect the lives of others with their own in memorable ways.
Your exhibit will be one way to use writing, visual display, performance and/ or multimedia to share the stories of adolescents living through periods of great change, how that change influenced them personally and added to our American history. Young people who visit the museum may consider how writing to record one’s personal experience helps us understand ourselves and others better.
Each day of this project you will be asked to record your progress in this special Frontier Journal . your daily reading, writing, group participation, and research will be included in your project grade.
Week 1 / Week 2 / Week 3 / Week 4
4 3 2 1 / 4 3 2 1 / 4 3 2 1 / 4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1 / 4 3 2 1 / 4 3 2 1 / 4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1 / 4 3 2 1 / 4 3 2 1 / 4 3 2 1
Assessment choice grid
You may choose the form of your final project. Please keep this table with you each class period for conferences and turn it in with your final project.
Choose at least one assessment product for each column
Write / Perform / Create
On my own / Write a travel log or short story that reflects the time and place of the 19th Century American frontier in characters, setting and events / Record and publish
An oral history interview with someone at least 20 years older than yourself / Create a piece of art that reflects your understanding of change from childhood to adulthood in America
Collaborating / Reader’s Theatre
Reenact a significant scene from your lit club selection / Develop a pod cast, that explains your understanding of one of the cultural groups under study / Create a Weebly website comparing the lives of adolescents on the American frontier in the 19th century and the 21st Century