These difficulties can pose special challenges when it comes
to NHD research, as well as during project creation and the
judging process. Sometimes questions that seem routine to
most people, such as what year an event took place or what
source the student found most helpful, are really tough for
our students. On the other hand, the answers to more abstract
questions, such as why was a given event important, may come
more naturally. This may have to do with the way a student
makes connections or connects to prior learning. Students
with dyslexia, for example, often have strengths, in that they
are able to see events from a different perspective. What our
students have in common is intelligence that is above their
skill levels, as well as intellectual curiosity, which is what
we seek to tap into, igniting their interest in topics they can
research for an NHD project.
On the positive side, we have good parental support, in
addition to a school culture where the expectation is that
students, not parents, will complete projects. We are able to
build in work time within our class schedules, which is critical
because our students also come from a wide geographic
range, sometimes traveling more than 50 miles to school.
We are also fortunate to have strong support for NHD from
the administration and from faculty in other departments.
Our school has a strict one-project-at-a-time rule, however,
which means that we have to fit NHD work into periods of
time not already reserved for things like the Science Fair and
English research papers. Fortunately, we have students who
are willing to stay late (and sometimes even come in over
vacations!) to work on their projects.
The first group to create NHD projects in middle school are the
eighth-graders. During the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades the
students learn to do basic research and smaller projects that
set the stage for the work they will tackle in the eighth grade.
Middle school students are taught to first determine a topic
that ties in with their curriculum, then find resources that can
help them gain a general understanding of that topic—usually
an encyclopedia article. They are asked to read and highlight
that article for essential information, and then they are taught
how to create note cards (either on actual cards or digitally)
that each contain one thought, phrased in their own words.
Then they learn how to organize these separate thoughts into
categories of information.
THE CHALLENGE OF
LEADERSHIP IS TO BE
STRONG, BUT NOT RUDE;
BE KIND, BUT NOT WEAK;
BE BOLD, BUT NOT
BULLY; BE THOUGHTFUL,
BUT NOT LAZY; BE
HUMBLE, BUT NOT
TIMID; BE PROUD, BUT
NOT ARROGANT; HAVE
HUMOR, BUT WITHOUT
FOLLY.
– JIM ROHN
Next they need to think about how they will use that
information to communicate how their topic relates to the
NHD theme. Generally this involves getting them to place the
cards into three big categories. The first is thinking about
what makes their topic fit the theme, for example a turning
point or whether something is a right or responsibility. The
second category is the cards that describe an actual event,
person, or action. The third is the “so what, or why did it make
a difference for people then and in the future?” category. After
that we work on coming up with sub-categories, and then we
have an outline for creating either an exhibit, a performance, or
a documentary. We usually compete in only those categories,
because of where our students are in terms of technology
use and writing ability. This part of the project takes a lot of
oversight and encouragement from the teacher.
In our eleventh-grade history course, I introduce NHD by
exploring that year’s theme. Typically most of these students
completed projects in the eighth grade, but there are always
some who entered our school after that. Both in class and for
NATIONAL HISTORY DAY 2015
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