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Fieldston History Day |
The Fieldston History Fair
Project- 2008
The Individual in History
For a number of years now, all Form IV Fieldston students have participated in the Fieldston History Fair, which is a chance to collaborate on non-traditional projects (tabletop exhibit, video documentary and performance), exhibiting their intelligence and ingenuity to parents, peers and faculty members. Getting your hands dirty, exploring primary sources and putting together a unique and creative project can be both challenging and rewarding. This is also a shared enterprise in the sense that up to three people can work on any given project, and that you are free to work with students in any section of the form, i.e. students of Banks, Cullen, Hamilton, Kleinman and Meyers can work with each other.
The following is a description and list of due dates of this year’s theme. Attached you will also find details of the various media for you to consider when you begin your masterpiece (i.e. paper, documentary, performance or exhibit). Please study this document carefully.
Parameters:
This year we will be borrowing the National History Day theme: “Conflict and Compromise in History .” (see The National History Day website) The theme is pretty broad, but certainly suggests moments of friction, of controversy and resolution, of decision, in history. We will spend some time talking about possible topics in class, but please refer to the handouts on theme and topics on this website to begin shaping your own question. It should be clear that the theme is quite elastic; moreover, you can choose any topic in the period from 1600 to 1865. That said, we are going to impose a little structure in the way we’d like to see these projects executed. That means three things:
1. Each
project should prominently display a question. That question could be as simple as “Who Was
Ida B. Wells and How Did She Take a Stand?” which can be answered in a
relatively straightforward manner (though as we note below, should have an
interpretive dimension in the form of a thesis), or as potentially complex and
controversial as “Was Robert E. Lee Reckless at Gettysburg?” To a great extent,
the quality of your project will depend on the quality of your question. And
the originality of your question, too – it would be great to go a year without
multiple projects on the Salem Witch Trials, the transcontinental railroad, or
Jackie Robinson.
2. Each
project should have a clear thesis
– by which we mean a not-obvious, but
true, assertion one you can’t prove but you can argue persuasively. Saying Ida
B. Wells was a black woman who lived in the late nineteenth century is not a
great thesis, because while it’s certainly true it’s certainly obvious (and
boring). Saying that she was a woman who defined the meaning of courage in her
time is better, because it piques interest in just what it was Wells did and
just what your definition of courage actually is. Better still is a thesis that
answers a question that clearly could be answered differently – indeed, you
explore that alternative answer – but which you nevertheless believe your
assertion to be the best one. A really good thesis would be something like,
“Although Lee was reckless at Gettysburg (and here’s how), his behavior
nevertheless reflected the reality that the odds were against Confederate cause
and only bold actions could tip the balance its way.”
3. Each
project should have a motive.
That’s where the “Okay, so what?” or “why we should care?” comes in. Tell us
why your argument is significant, important, interesting or useful. All right:
Ida Wells was brave. (Check out this quote from one of her newspaper articles,
for example, where questions the manhood of some white guys who murder black
people – now that’s brave.) Fine. But
why does that matter? Is it because her brand of militancy is exactly what’s
missing from African American leadership today? Is it because being brave but
crazy is admirable but not terribly effective? Does her story tell us anything
about taking a stand? About race in America? About American history? Does
Robert E. Lee’s behavior at Gettysburg matter because it shows us why the
United States is having such a difficult time in Iraq today? (Just like Lee,
these Iraqis in Falluja are leveraging their minimal resources by striking hard
and fast.) Coming up with a good motive is hard – we don’t expect effortless
mastery in something you’re going to be working on for years to come – but
success, or something resembling it, is what gives a project like this its
vitality, its kick.
Put all these elements together – the question, the thesis and the motive – and you’ll have an argument. One good place to demonstrate you actually have an argument: the title of your project, which may not get finalized until relatively late in the process precisely because it often takes a while for a real argument to take shape. Developing and sustaining arguments is a big part not simply of your History Day Project, but what your education here is all about.
Note: The new Fieldston Writing Guide, which has clear applications even for projects that are not primarily print media, has clear utility here.
Due Dates
Please Note: Missed deadlines adversely affect not
only your grade, but the quality of the final project. Also, in the event two
teachers give different due dates, the earlier date applies.
Monday, 10/27:
Topic and Question Due
On a single piece of paper, you
are to indicate what your topic and question is.
Monday 11/10: First
Outline and Three Sources Due
By this point you should have
an answer to your question, i.e. a thesis. Please include how you plan to
explain that thesis --- a sketch of the exhibit, a storyboard for the documentary
or the beginnings of a play for a performance. Please see the Fieldston History Fair
Worksheet, attached.
You must also include the start
of your formal, annotated bibliography.
Make sure that you have at least three primary and three secondary
sources. There are recommended
books on reserve in the library. ANY AND ALL INTERNET SOURCES DO NOT APPLY!
Tuesday, 11/25: Rough Draft is
Due
Students must demonstrate progress on their projects. A full layout of an exhibit, several rough minutes of a documentary or a small skit would suffice (for an actual paper, an actual rough draft). By this point you should either know, or be working actively toward, a motive, a “so what.” In addition, you must include a second bibliography that contains three additional primary sources and three additional secondary sources --- all annotated. ANY AND ALL INTERNET SOURCES DO NOT APPLY!
Monday, 12/15: Final
Deadline
All projects are due (attach
the annotated bibliography to your project). Bring your work to the second
floor of the library, where the relevant faculty individual or teams will
evaluate them. They will remain there until curriculum night in February, when
they will be displayed in the cafeteria for your parents, at which point you
will take them home, bronze them and add them to your parents’ shrine to your
high school days.
Fieldston History Fair: Tuesday, February 10th,
2008
Media
Options for History Day Projects
Research Essays
A research essay is the traditional form of presenting historical research. Various types of creative writing (for example, fictional diaries, historical fiction, poems, etc.) are permitted, but must conform to all general and category rules, and must be accompanied by a short (4-5 page, double spaced) research paper establishing the historical context. You should enlist the support of your English teacher if you pursue a creative writing option, but be sure that it integrates significant historical material. Your paper should be grammatically correct and well written. Be sure to make use of the Fieldston Writing Guide in developing your essay. You may not do a paper in a group. Essays should be no less than 2000 words or more than 3000 words (typically 7-10 double-spaced typed pages.
see Essay Tutorial and Fieldston Writing Guide
see Research Essay Evaluation Form
Exhibits
An exhibit is a visual representation of your research and interpretation of your topic's significance in history, much like a small museum exhibit. The organization is not unlike an essay, with an overall thesis and sub topics, but the method of presentation is different. The analysis and interpretation of your topic must be clear and evident to the viewer. Labels, captions, colors and graphics should be used creatively with visual images and objects to enhance the message of your exhibit. Your exhibit should not have more than 500 of your own words (not including quoted passages – but you shouldn’t have too many quoted passages either, because few things are more deadly from a visual standpoint than a text-heavy exhibit). A short media element (video, computer display, audio) may be included, but it cannot exceed 3 minutes and the viewer must be able to operate it.
see Tabletop Exhibit Evaluation Form
Performances A performance is a dramatic portrayal of your topic's significance in history and must be an original production. There should still be a thesis question, argument and motive, but it can be expressed implicitly through the drama. You should enlist the help of the drama department in developing a performance
see Performance Evaluation Form
Documentaries
A documentary should reflect your ability to use audiovisual equipment to
communicate your topic's significance, much as professional documentaries
do. The documentary category will help you develop skills in using photographs,
film, video, audio tapes, computers, and graphic presentations. Your presentation
should include primary materials but must also be an original production.
Be sure to develop a synthetic thesis argument and to use sources for support,
as in an essay. To produce a documentary you must have access to equipment
and be able to operate it. Documentaries should be approximately
ten minutes in length. Be sure to enlist the help of the graphics lab teachers in
developing your documentary.
see Documentary Storyboard Diagram
see Documentary Evaluation Form
Website
The virtue and challenge of a web project is threefold:
1. Multimedia: A web page combines different media. While a traditional essay uses only texts as evidence, a web page uses images and sounds as well. This means you must expand you notion of what a “source” is and what kinds of support you might wield in making a historical argument. How might a rowhouse facade or a campaign song tell us about Jacksonian Democracy? How might a tenement plan tell us about class in New York? Be prepared to use paintings, songs, buildings, street plans, posters, furniture, clothing and recorded oral histories as the texts in your page.
2. Hyperlinks: A web page permits the reader to move around your site (and off and on your site) in unpredictable, “non-linear” ways. Your argument cannot pass from point A to point B in quite the same straightforward manner it would in an essay. establish your overall argumentÊ on your homepage, including your conclusions. You may not get to make your whole argument to your reader again, therefore think of your homepage as the equivalent of boht an introduction and a conclusion in a traditional essay.
3. Public Access: Your web page will be accessible to anyone who finds it over the web. Be sure you present an argument that is clear, compelling, and appropriate.
see Website Tutorial and Diagram
see Website Evaluation Form
Just as with an essay, I will ask for your topic and sources, then an “outline,”Ê “rough draft” and “final draft.”
All right, then. You’re off to the races.