Here are a few projects from previous classes. Have a look through. If you have any questions, let me know on Twitter @LovingHistory.
Commonplace Books in the Classroom
Keeping a commonplace notebook is a great assignment for certain seminar and smaller lecture classes. It allows students to focus their learning on things they care about. While the assignment sheet is geared for History, this can work for Humanities, Literature, and many other areas of study.
| Commonpace Book Assignment |
Using Genealogy As A Vehicle For History
I'll start by saying that you should have previous genealogical work behind you. Your students come from diverse backgrounds and you should know how to address various cultural issues.
Also, you absolutely should not require that they a) research their own family b) share info with you that is not publicly available. My students can research their families IF they want to. Or the families of a partner/spouse/friend. Or they can randomly find a stranger on the 1940 census and work backwards. 1940 is a magical year. It is the last census openly posted.
Having said all that - how to approach this? Step one, teach your students how to get to 1940. They need to find someone who was alive when the census was taken. That month will vary depending on where you live. They can ask family members, check out birth/death records and so on (see the Powerpoint below). Do not involve yourself in this process for all sorts of reasons (legal, privacy, common decency). Once the student has this info and found that person on the 1940 census, THEN you can be more hands on. I tell my students straight out that privacy matters. I don't want anything from anyone that the government has not made publicly available.
Time Management: This process should take a full semester. Build in library days (or have BYOD days) to get together as a group and work things out. Ideally, you'll want to illustrate genealogical search techniques on a large screen, while students practice on their own devices. Best practices:
I'm attaching the Powerpoint I used to introduce this - complete with Real Housewives of Atlanta and New York references. Sorry, not sorry. I used those images to remind students that these are sensitive topics for some family members and that in some cases, it's best not to push the issue.
Also, you absolutely should not require that they a) research their own family b) share info with you that is not publicly available. My students can research their families IF they want to. Or the families of a partner/spouse/friend. Or they can randomly find a stranger on the 1940 census and work backwards. 1940 is a magical year. It is the last census openly posted.
Having said all that - how to approach this? Step one, teach your students how to get to 1940. They need to find someone who was alive when the census was taken. That month will vary depending on where you live. They can ask family members, check out birth/death records and so on (see the Powerpoint below). Do not involve yourself in this process for all sorts of reasons (legal, privacy, common decency). Once the student has this info and found that person on the 1940 census, THEN you can be more hands on. I tell my students straight out that privacy matters. I don't want anything from anyone that the government has not made publicly available.
Time Management: This process should take a full semester. Build in library days (or have BYOD days) to get together as a group and work things out. Ideally, you'll want to illustrate genealogical search techniques on a large screen, while students practice on their own devices. Best practices:
- Introduce assignment.
- A week later, visit a library/resource/computer room as a class.
- About a month later, a second library day for military research.
- Beyond that, group computer meetings will depend on your goals for the class. For my students, they were charged with completing various tasks, based on where their families were during a series of world changing events.
I'm attaching the Powerpoint I used to introduce this - complete with Real Housewives of Atlanta and New York references. Sorry, not sorry. I used those images to remind students that these are sensitive topics for some family members and that in some cases, it's best not to push the issue.
| Genealogy Assignment Powerpoint |
Comics in the College Classroom
Coming soon!