Creating Personal Histories of Lincoln
Christine Adrian
Lincoln Bicentennial Project, June 2008
To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.
Abstract:
In this culminating lesson, the history of Lincoln and his memory is incorporated into a personal history toolbox. Learning to recognize what we admire about people from our past and how it connects to our present and future will be demonstrated in a final scrapbook project.
Essential questions/enduring understandings:
á Why is the past important in my daily life?
á How is history shaped by the people who tell it?
á How can individuals connect with people they have never met?
á How can I make someone elseÕs history a part of my own?
á How do individuals manage to feel a part of the larger community?
Assessment:
Students will be assessed using My Lincoln Comic Memory Scrapbook Directions and Rubric
Setting the Purpose:
Students will organize information for their final Lincoln Comic Scrapbook by reviewing analysis done on Lincoln artifacts and constructing personal connections through a short series of activities. Students will utilize comic software to construct electronic scrapbooks that illustrate their understanding of Lincoln and the role of memory that was learned in this unit.
Duration:
Between 4 and 6 class sessions, depending on the class.
Procedure:
Part 1
In this section, students will make connections between their learning of Lincoln and people they know. They will also anchor knowledge by making a connection between Lincoln and a quality they share with the famous figure.
á Start class with the question: ÒWhat events would you include in your personal history?Ó Discuss various answers.
á Review the difference between a collective history and personal history. While collective histories are agreed upon and studied by all of us in our history classes, most people individualize their learning through what they remember from class, what theyÕve heard from friends and family, what theyÕve read, and what theyÕve seen on TV. This creates historical memories that while similar, are still at least a little bit different from person to person.
á Distribute the Lincoln Character Map. Students will use their previous research on Lincoln (by the primary sources they have looked at or other research the teacher may have had students to before this lesson) to complete this character map. Remind students to narrow it down to 5 qualities Lincoln had that we value, and that those qualities must be backed by research.
á Next, distribute the Connecting Lincoln to People I Know handout. Students should think of people who embody those same qualities as the ones they chose for Lincoln doing the Lincoln Character Map. Each student should explain why they chose that person to match with that quality (one person per quality).
á Next, have students narrow down to one quality that they chose in the Lincoln Character Map that they most admire and try to demonstrate in their own lives. Have them complete Which Lincoln Quality Do I Most Admire? In order to think about how they connect to Lincoln in their own lives.
á Make sure students have page 2 answers from LincolnÕs Memory, Artifacts and Monuments Worksheet handy for Part 2.
Part 2
In this section, students will begin work on the final comic book project, which they will create using computer software.
á Distribute My Lincoln Comic Memory Scrapbook Directions and Rubric. Explain that students will make their own Lincoln scrapbooks, in comic form. Remind students that comics require the author to choose words carefully; because little space is available for text. ItÕs important they practice great word choice skills, picking the most important information to include for their comic pages. Images are also important, since little words are available to derive meaning in comics. Images must match well with the main point and theme of the page.
á This project is best constructed utilizing computer lab and computer software. While there are a number of comic programs on the market, and certainly students can create comics using Microsoft Word or any word processing program, the author suggests using Comic Life from plasq. This program is free on Mac computers, and is very affordable program available for Windows as well. Here is a user friendly guide from Country Meadows School District to help you utilize the software.
á You may want to show Lincoln Comic Book Memory Scrapbook Sample before the students begin work.
á The teacher will utilize the rubric to grade the project. So that the teacher may decide the final point value, rubric point values have been left blank.
á Close the unit with a sharing session-this can be done in a computer lab where students can view their product as HTML online books, in class using an LCD projector, or by printing them out (though the author advises against this, because of the ink and print involved in printing a class worth of comics!).
Analysis of local primary sources:
Students will utilize primary source information gathered from analyzing Lincoln related documents from www.americanhistoryteachers.org to complete this final project.
Ties to National primary source or sources:
Students may utilize national primary sources collected throughout the unit to complete this final project.
Attachments:
á Connecting Lincoln to People I Know
á Which Lincoln Quality Do I Most Admire?
á LincolnÕs Memory, Artifacts and Monuments Worksheet
á My Lincoln Comic Memory Scrapbook Directions and Rubric
á Lincoln Comic Book Memory Scrapbook Sample
Ties to Illinois State Learning Standards