IEW-Week 18

Week 18

Faces of History Essay Project

Faces of History Essay Project

Due: April 1, 2015 (no joke :)

What is it?

For the next 3 weeks we will be working on a 3-5 paragraph essay on an historical figure from American history. On the fourth Wednesday you will present your essay dressed as your character or bring in a prop or display related to your character. This is going to be fantastic!

Optional schedule:

Week 18-Choose character and gather resources

Week 19-Rough draft of body paragraphs

Week 20-Introduction & Conclusion paragraphs and final editing

Present!

Week 18

Choose your character. Some ideas might include:

Any of the presidents

Susan B. Anthony

John Steinbeck

Mark Twain

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Louis Armstrong

Babe Ruth

Eli Whitney

Davey Crockett

Noah Webster

Lewis and Clark

Henry Clay

General Robert E. Lee

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant

Eleanor Roosevelt

Jackie Robinson

Walt Disney

The Wright Brothers

Andrew Carnegie

John D Rockefeller

Henry Ford

Thomas Edison

Martin Luther King

Benjamin Franklin

The person I will write my paper on is: __________________________________

Read anything you can find about this person. Use library books, timeline cards, the Story of the World books, history books, or the internet* (I recommend sites that say “for kids”). *Only one internet source, and no Wikipedia.

Next, you need to organize your information into 3 topics or “themes” about your person.

Here are some suggestions: (others are ok, too)

Their childhood/what life was like when they were young

Their personality/quirky things they did/what made this person unique

Their clothes (if this was a big deal to him or her)

The thing that they are famous for doing

The thing that they invented

Their adult life/unusual things they did or things that happened to them

How they got to be famous

Their second biggest accomplishment

How this person affected the rest of history or science or whatever

The three themes that I think I will write about are:

________________________, __________________________________, and _____________________

Now it’s time to start taking notes in Key Word Outlines. Start with your first topic or theme. Use at least 2 sources. Three would be best but 2 will do. You can use the form provided in the packet. If you are satisfied that you have enough information from your sources, you can go ahead and fuse them. Go on to the other 2 topics. If at anytime you find you don’t have enough information, or are unhappy with your topics, feel free to find more information or change topics.

You should have 1-3 fused outlines at this time.

Week 19

Now it’s time to write our rough drafts from our KWO. It might be helpful to have a list of dress-ups and sentence openers on hand so that you can incorporate them into your essay as much as possible.

Week 20

You’ve completed the bulk of your paper. It’s easy-breezy from here. Add your introduction and conclusion paragraphs and do any final editing. Don’t forget to think about your costume, prop, or display for your presentation.