End of year project, and ½ of your Final
This year we have attempted to incorporate themes into your understanding of American History. One of those was the American Character and Belief System. To begin this unit we asked each of you to addyour thoughts to a Word Wall, and then we compiled the results- not just for individual classes, but between classes. And as we expected you came up with an array of descriptors which both supported your other terms and also seemed to be quite contradictory. Thus is American history.
You are going to complete a project in which you summarize the essence of the American Character and Belief System. Beginning with the French and Indian War and ending in the 20th century, identify the events, ideas, people, and circumstances that best represent these essential American qualities.
Here is a list of characteristics that you came up with at the beginning of the year:
Faith
Loyalty
Freedom
Diversity
Opportunity
Democracy
Compromise
Capitalism (greed, money, etc)
Conflict
Progress
Equality
Influence/leadership
Inequality
Here are the eras we covered during the 2nd Trimester:
The French and Indian War
The Revolutionary War
The War of 1812
The Mexican American War
The Civil War and Reconstruction
The Spanish American War
The Progressive Era
World War 1
The Roaring '20's
The Great Depression and the New Deal
World War 2
The Civil Rights Movement
The Cold War (can include Space Race, Arms Race, the Red Scare, Korea and Vietnam)
Your assignment is to create a film that tells the story of America as shown through these events. In your story, choose at least 3 characteristics from the top list to explain. The idea is to shown how these characteristics have developed/evolved throughout American history. How did the events you selected contribute to the American expression of the characteristic?
This is a review of the trimester, but we don't just want a list of events. We are looking for the meaning of events and to show connections that illustrate continuity or change over time.So for example, if you choose "conflict", show how the conflicts America has involved itself in from the French and Indian War through the Vietnam era has evolved--not just in who we have conflict with but why we have had conflict. Why did we fight? What did it help us accomplish? Did that conflict shape our views of how we addressed future conflict?
You do not have to include every single time period. But we are looking for how America's character has evolved over time, so you need to identify the time periods that best represent that continuity or change. You can use iMovie or Animoto. You will set it to music (you can use an iTunes account), write text, and choose images.
This is either an individual or partner project only.
Here is an example created by Peyton and Hart: Unity
Products
After you have selected your Characteristics, look through the list of eras and formulate a plan. Which of the erasbest represents the essence of that American characteristic? Which events within those eras contributed most in supporting your analysis? Which events forced your characteristic to change, for the better or worse?
Once you have chosen at least 5 eras, begin pinpointing specific events, people, and images to support your analysis. Sketch these out on a piece of paper with your explanations.
Scoring
This will account for ½ of your final – 50 pts.
Hard-copy sketch of events, analysis, and ideas concerning images – 10 pts.
Video- Five categories will be scored as follows:
Title -5 pts.
Information -10 pts.
Images -10 pts.
Music -5 pts.
Flow of video -10 pts.