Choose a Contemporary Person

Life in a Box Analysis

Name ______

Your Life in a Box Student Project

1. Gather 5 primary source items, from your home or backpack, that describe you as a person. Think about your interests, strengths, accomplishments, things that are important in your life, and items that show the contributions you have made to your family, community, and school.

1. Order the items from the hardest clue about your life (something most people don’t know about you) to the easiest clue that would lead the viewer of the box to guess that the box was about your life. Clearly mark the items with a number for the order the items should be viewed.

1. Bring the box to class on ______.

1. Share your box with a partner. Ask your partner to look at each item in your box in the correct order. Ask your partner to explain why they think the item is important to your life.

1. Share why you put the items in the box with your partner. Are there any differences in the ideas? Ask your partner for suggestions on improving the choice of items or changing the order to make a challenging box.

1. Place the finished box on the table in classroom.

Life in a Box Class Activity

1. Choose a box and determine who the box represents and what the items mean about the person’s life.

1. Introduce the person to the class by sharing each item and explaining what this item means about this person’s life.

1. Ask the real person to correct or confirm the assumptions made by the presenter of the box.

1. Discuss with the class.

• How was working on these boxes like the work of historians or detectives? What other professions use this type of process?
• What surprised you about someone in this class?
• How are the primary sources similar to the Life in a Box activity with the primary sources from the Library of Congress? How are the primary sources different?

Life in a Box Quiz

As a review, examine three important people from our unit through their primary source boxes. Choose one box to write about.

The artifacts in the boxes represent important facts that you should know after completing this unit. Write a short response explaining at least two reasons why each artifact is important to the person’s life. Be sure to include the important dates and names associated with these artifacts that we have studied.

Name of Person ______

1.Artifact: ______

Importance:1) ______

______

2)______

______

2.Artifact: ______

Importance:1) ______

______

2)______

______

3.Artifact: ______

Importance:1) ______

______

2)______

______

Where do you Stand?

The teacher leads this activity before and after looking at the boxes.

The teacher will:

1. Make a line (using masking tape or string) along the classroom/hallway floor with one end marked “Agree” and one end marked “Disagree”.

1. Make a generalized statement to the students about specific roles of people such as inventors or reformers or make a generalized statement about specific people from a unit of study. For example: Inventors have one good idea and stick to it until they are done. Or, reformers often get into trouble before they accomplish their goals.

1. Ask students to walk and stand at a location along the continuum to indicate if they “Agree” or “Disagree” with the statement.

1. After each statement and the students' repositioning, call on one or two students at several locations to justify their positions. Ask those who are only partially toward “Agree” or “Disagree” to explain their hesitation or to tell what it would take to move them fully one way or the other.

1. Repeat the activity after the Life in a Box activity.

Extension Activity: Create a Timeline

1. Assign each student a person from the box activity.
2. Ask students to physically stand on a line to create a timeline of the birth year of each person from the box activity.
3. Ask students to physically stand on a line to create a timeline of the year their person made a big accomplishment.
4. Ask students to physically stand on a line to create a timeline of the year of death for their person.

Class discussion:

How did the people’s lives overlap? Had any of these people known each other? How was the life of one person connected to the lives of the people that lived before them?

Visual Representation of a Person’s Life

1. Circle the option that the teacher has assigned to you.

Option 1:Create a visual presentation representing the life of one person from

the Life in a Box Activity done in class.

Option 2:Compare two people from the Life in a Box Activity done in class.

Option 3:Compare one person from the Life in a Box Activity and one

contemporary person or fictional character from a novel. For the new

box, create five primary source artifacts that would describe the

person.

1. Conduct further research to learn facts, quotes, dates, and other important information on the chosen person(s).

1. To organize your thoughts, create a Venn diagram comparing your two people or comparing two artifacts from your box.

1. Create a visual representation (e.g. collage)about your person or comparing your two people with the primary sources from your boxes, words, phrases, and facts that represent their lives. Add drawings and other materials as appropriate.

1. Prepare a short oral descriptionabout your visual representation that explains your choices in images, color, size, shape, and words and how these qualities specifically represent the people.

1. Present your visual representation to class. Be prepared to answer questions and ask for suggestions to improve your project from your classmates.

1. Make revisions to your product based on peer feedback that you received.

1. Turn box in for teacher grading.

Create a PowerPoint Presentation

1. Choose an item from the box. Complete an analysis worksheet and further research on that item.

2. Create a small group of students who researched an item related to the same person.

2. Share what you learned about your item with the rest of the group with items related to the same person. How does each item help to describe the person?

3. Work in a group to create a five-minute oral presentation about your person supported by a PowerPoint slide show using all the digital primary sources from the box. The overall presentation should be a synopsis of what the group has deduced from the analysis of artifacts received.

The PowerPoint presentation should be five-to-six slides based upon the group analysis, research, and previous knowledge. The presentation should also include a bibliography. Your group will present its PowerPoint to the class.

Questions/comments to consider when creating your PowerPoint presentation:

1. Summarize the content of each of the primary sources.
2. Comment on what the document means for the person’s life including their accomplishments, hardships, interests, talents, relationships, and other important information.
3. Describe how the person relates to our unit of study.
4. From your research what was the happiest moment of this person’s life?
5. If this person were alive today, he/she would enjoy what about the world today that wasn’t possible at the time that they lived?

Your group will be assigned a day for making your presentation to the class.

Grading scale:

Oral Presentation:50 points

Slide Show:50 points

Your chance to write History!

1. Textbooks present only a small fraction of the knowledge available on a given subject. This knowledge is also presented from the individual point of view of the textbook author. It is not always easy for writers to synthesize information from several different perspectives and condense it into a readable entry. It is time for you to try your hand at this endeavor.

1. You are individually responsible for writing a 500 word textbook biographical entry on the person from your box.

1. Brainstorm as a class about what a textbook publisher might be looking for in a biographical entry. Contactseveral textbook publishers to find out if the criteria you brainstormed are correct.

1. Brainstorm as a class about what historians feel should be included in a biographical textbook. Through the local historical association, contact an historian to find out their opinion.

1. Brainstorm as a class what students would like to see in textbooks to make them more memorable and interesting.

1. As a class develop a rubric for grading textbook entries in terms of content, mechanics, style, organization, and use of evidence to confirm statements considering the publisher, historian,and student priorities.

1. Create a textbook entry that describes the person in your box with the publisher, historian, and student perspectives in mind.

1. Present your textbook entry to the teacher and the class. Exemplary entries can be sent to textbook publishers for consideration.

Role Play Presentation

1. Present the items in the box to the class as if you were the person (Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, etc.) explaining their life through the items.Research each item from the box and include factual information on how the item relates to the person’s life in your presentation.

2. Complete a self assessment using the rubric and the teacher will complete an assessment of student work using the rubric. The teacher and student will discuss differences in the assessments.

Rubric for Role Play Presentation

Comments:

Create a Monument

1. In a small group, create a frozen monument (like a statue) for the person represented in the box. The monument should show ideas from the box and further research on the person.

1. The students will create a title for their monument. The students should be able to explain why they titled and created the monument the way they did.

1. The teacher will call out “monument” and students will freeze in their monument for the rest of the class to observe.

1. Then the teacher will call out “title”, and the group in the monument will share the title of the monument.

1. When the teacher calls out a student’s name in the monument, they will share one quote or fact about the person that will help the audience understand the meaning of the shapes in the monument.

1. The teacher will comment to students on their participation in the group and on the accuracy of the quote or fact that is said when their name was called.

1. Students will vote on the best monument.

Create an Expository Essay

1. Use the items from the box as a beginning to conduct research on your person. After completing your research, write a five-paragraph expository essay.

Expository Essay Information

Expository essays require that the writer give information, explain the topic or define something. To accomplish that, they are best developed by the use of facts and statistical information, cause and effect relationships, or examples. Since they are factual, they are written without emotion and usually written in the third person. That means that the use of the pronoun "I" is not usually found within the essay.

Expository essays also have a distinct format.

• The thesis statement must be defined and narrow enough to be supported within the essay.
• Each supporting paragraph must have a distinct controlling topic and all other sentences must factually relate directly to it. The transition words or phrases are important as they help the reader follow along and reinforce the logic.
• Finally, the conclusion paragraph should originally restate the thesis and the main supporting ideas. Finish with a statement that reinforces your position in a meaningful and memorable way.
• Never introduce new material in the conclusion.

2. Partner with other students who are writing about a person who lived in the same time period as your person for a peer conference. Ask partners to check for accuracy, completeness and that your essay makes sense.

3. Switch partners. Assign students to partner with a person of similar writing ability to give feedback on the technical writing of the essay for a peer conference. The teacher will assist the partners who may need more assistance.

4. Turn paper into teacher for written comments and final grade.

Write an Obituary or News Report

Write an obituary or newsreport on the person’s death. Report on the person’s significance and use the primary documents from the box as visual aids. Students may turn in a written newspaper column, an oral taped radio report or a video taped newscast.

Students will grade another student’s project quality and their evaluation will contribute to their own grade.

3 – 2 – 1

Write 3 things that you learned about your person.

1.

2.

3.

Write 2 adjectives that describe your person.

1.

2.

Write 1 question that you have about your person.

1.