Bobby's Revised Classroom activity, 1. 02/22/06

I am planning to be a high school history teacher and so I want to make my classroom activity geared towards some events in history. I will start by assigning the students to do research in their own family history. What nationality are they? What country are there ancestors from? Once they find out their ancestors origins and nationality, they can begin to do research on those certain country or countries. I would like the students to find out information about their ancestors country and write a 4-6-page essay. I will have a template for this essay as soon as i finish it myself. If i think it is too overwhelming then i will condense it. I will then organize and decide the questions or topics i would like the students to concentrate on. I would like for them to include why their ancestors came to America (if they know), something special about that country, an important event in that country's history, and basic information about that country. This essay will give students a better perspective of their home origins. After they completed their essay, I would like for each student to prepare a power point presentation of their country to be presented in front of the class. This will enable the students to learn about each other’s nationality. After the presentations, I would pair the students that have different nationalities (Italian and Chinese, African and English) and would like them to write a 3-5-page essay about their partner’s country. Finally I would have the students prepare a speech to share with the class the facts they learned of another nationality. I will give a lot of time in advance for the students to do research and give them a deadline to meet, probably 2 weeks to due the first part of the assignment with 2 weeks of research beforehand. I hope that this classroom activity will open the eyes of the students to the different cultures around the world.