WITNESS TO HISTORY Project

The first turn in date is Thursday, February 02, 2012
Students must turn in PRELIMINARY INTERVIEW and TOPIC SHEET

We are all witnesses to history by living our lives and being aware of what goes on around us. Historians gather information about the lives of everyday people at different times in history because history does not just consist of the actions of the powerful and the great leaders of their time. It also consists of the lives and actions of average people.

Your Task is to choose a person and interview that person about an historical event, person, or era that they lived through or know. You will do a basic background report on the event, person, or era, but the major grade will be the interview. You will develop a list of questions to ask the person. You will then ask the questions and record the answers. You can record the interview in written form, on cassette tape, or as a video. I would suggest that some of you consider posting the video on Youtube. You will also make a presentation to the class about the event and how the interview increased your knowledge and understanding.

MOST of this work will be completed outside of class, though I will try to arrange for us to use the library and computer lab for a day or two of research.

STEP ONE: Preliminary interview.

To be submitted as a grade and returned.

STEP TWO: Final choice of person to be interviewed and topic of interview.

This must be OKd by me.

Steps ONE and TWO due: THURSDAY, fEB. 02

STEP THREE: Background research on topic.

STEP FOUR: Preparation of interview questions.

Steps THREE and FOUR will be completed in two weeks. Due THURSDAY, FEB. 16

STEP FIVE: Teacher acceptance of interview questions.

Questions will be returned as accepted.

If not accepted, student will have two additional days to rewrite questions that will then be submitted for acceptance.

STEP FIVE will be completed in one week.

STEP SIX: Interview with subject.

STEP SEVEN: Writing of final report on era or event, and interview.

Steps SIX and SEVEN will be completed in two weeks. Due__________

STEP EIGHT: Class presentations.

The person that you interviewed may come to class and participate in your presentation.

EXAMPLES OF TOPICS

War: Iraq, Afghanistan, Desert Storm, Granada, Panama, Vietnam, Korea, World War II, World War I, Philippines Independence Movement.

Combat

Experiences of soldiers in non-combat jobs

The civilian view from home (sometimes called The Home Front)

Experiences of civilians in the war zone

Problems faced by veterans upon return

The 1950'S, 1960's, and 1970's

Women's Liberation

The Anti-War Movement

The Hippies

Woodstock

Civil Rights Movement

Black Power Movement (Black Panthers, etc.)

Assassinations: John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, M.L. King, Malcolm X

Cuban Missile Crisis

Humankind lands on the Moon

The Great Depression of the 1930's

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

Unionization Efforts in the South and elsewhere

Experiences of Immigrants

Rock and Roll Sweeps Across America (1950's)

America Changes (Choose any period of at least 20 years in length and analyze the changes).

Economic Globalization

NOTE: The participant you interview does not have to be American and the event that you research can be non-American. You could interview someone who participated in the Civil War in Nicaragua of the late 1970's or the student uprisings in France in 1968.

REMEMBER: The idea is to pick a topic that the person you are interviewing knows about from personal experience, either as a witness who observed what was happening, or as a participant who helped make things happen. The interview should give you additional information to help you and the class understand the topic.

STEP I

PRELIMINARY INTERVIEW

Choose a person to interview. This DOES NOT have to be the person whom you interview for the project. Ask these questions and record the answers. In this preliminary interview you must record the answers on this sheet or on sheets you attach.

It might be best to interview an older person, but younger people have also lived through important historic events and some may have participated in events such as the invasion of Iraq.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

HOW OLD ARE YOU?

WHERE DO YOU LIVE?

IN WHAT OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY OR WORLD HAVE YOU LIVED?

WHAT JOBS HAVE YOU HELD IN YOUR LIFE?

WHAT IS SOMETHING PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT YOU TO HAVE A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF WHO YOU ARE?

WHAT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT HISTORICAL EVENT THAT OCCURRED IN YOUR LIFETIME?

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT HISTORICAL EVENT IN WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN A DIRECT WITNESS OR PARTICIPANT?

IN WHAT WAY WERE YOU A WITNESS OR PARTICIPANT?

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THAT EVENT AS THE MOST IMPORTANT?

WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO DO A LONGER INTERVIEW ABOUT THAT EVENT?

IN YOUR OPINION, WHO WERE TWO OF THE GREATEST AMERICANS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS?

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THOSE PERSONS?

IN YOUR OPINION, WHO WERE THE WORST PERSONS (AMERICAN OR OTHER) OF THE PAST 100 YEARS?

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THOSE PERSONS?

IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE FOR THE BETTER IN AMERICA OR THE WORLD IN THE PAST 50 YEARS?

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THAT CHANGE?

IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE FOR THE WORST IN THE PAST 50 YEARS?

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THAT CHANGE?

DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD TO YOUR REMARKS?

TOPIC CHOICE

TOPIC:

Why do you wish to do your project on this topic?

What will you do to research this topic? What resources are available to you for such research? (Be specific. You need to check the library and the internet for sources, then write them below)

PERSON TO INTERVIEW:

Why would this person be a good choice to interview?

What insights into your research topic do you expect this person to have?

TOPIC AND INTERVIEW ACCEPTANCE (by Mr. Johnson) YES NO

BACKGROUND REPORT

In order to properly prepare questions for an interview, you need some understanding of the topic so you know what kinds of things to ask.

The background report will not be written as a regular report.

Instead, you must identify FIVE sources of information.

They can be books, magazine, journal, or websites.

Any source you use, especially websites, needs to be reputable and must give correct information.

You will identify each source and then give BULLET POINTS of information that you gained from the source.

Below is an example on the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.

SOURCE: Britannica.com

DESCRIPTION OF SOURCE AND RELIABILITY:

This is the website for the Encyclopedia Britannica. The Encyclopedia Britannica is a reputable encyclopedia that is used in libraries across the world. Therefore it is considered very reliable.

FACTS OBTAINED FROM SOURCE:

John Hinckley, Jr. shot President Reagan
Hinckley was a Ã¯Â¿Â½deranged drifterÃ¯Â¿Â½, which means that he had emotional problems, had no home, and traveled around the country
The shooting took place on March 30, 1981
Hinckley fired six shots from a .22 caliber pistol
He hit Reagan, a Secret Service agent, and James Brady, the PresidentÃ¯Â¿Â½s Press Secretary.
The Secret Service agent was hit when he threw himself in front of the President to protect him from the shooter.

You will then use the bullet points to write a short report (at least two pages) in which you give the basic background of your event.

Include all of the information that you put on your source sheets.

You must attach the Source sheets.

REMEMBER: You need FIVE sources of information.

BACKGROUND SOURCES AND INFORMATION

SOURCE:

DESCRIPTION OF SOURCE AND RELIABILITY:

FACTS OBTAINED FROM SOURCE:

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

You are to devise a list of at least 20 questions to ask the person whom you will interview.

The purpose of the questions is not for the person whom you interview to show that they know what you found out in your research.

The purpose is to discover additional information about the event, how it affected the nation, the world, or the person whom you are interviewing, why the event might be considered important, and in what way the person was a witness or a participant.

FOR EXAMPLE: If I were to interview someone about the attempted assassination of Reagan, I might ask questions such as:

When did you first learn of the shooting?
What was your reaction?
Had you voted for Reagan?
Did the shooting have any effect on how you felt about Reagan?
What affect do you think the shooting had on the nation?

In this way I am learning about how the shooting affected the nation and the individual people who lived here. If the person I am interviewing had been a participant, such as an ambulance driver who treated the President, I would ask questions about what they actually did to affect the event.

You must submit the questions to me for acceptance. If I do not accept them you will have time to devise a new list of questions.

RECORD OF INTERVIEW

You have several choices of how to document your interview.

Cassette Tape (The easiest option for you.)
Videotape (If you videotape, you will need some way for me to see the tape. You might consider playing the video on your TV, putting a tape in the VCR and hitting record. Then you can give me the tape.)
Written Record

If you use audio or video, the voices must be clear and understandable. It must cover the entire interview with no editing.

If you provide a written record, you do not have to write down every single word that is said. Think of yourself as a reporter who is after the facts and some good quotations. Get the basics of the answers that were given.

Try to get all questions answered, but if the person you interview goes off on a tangent, do not let that bother you so long as you pull him back to the basic event under study. In an interview you can sometimes discover interesting things when the person answering the questions begins to volunteer other related information and you ask him about that. You can also do more than one interview if you feel the first interview goes badly.

WRITE UP

You will already have written up your background report.

The interview write up is an analysis of what new understanding you have as a result of the interview. Explain what new information you have gained, what new insights into the importance of or affects of the event. In other words, explain how you now have a better understanding of the event and in what ways your understanding of the event has increased.

CLASS PRESENTATION

You CANNOT just play your tape.

You are to teach the class about the event you researched and explain the additional knowledge or insights that you have gained. You can show some of your tape, but only those parts that are of importance and you must then discuss those sections on your presentation.

RUBRIC

BACKGROUND PAPER:

NUMBER OF SOURCES:

1 2 3 4 5

RELIABILITY OF SOURCES