Sunday, March 16, 2014

My Day in Peace and Justice History

Almost everyone is interested in events that happened on his or her birthday! Connecting this research project to the student's birthdays generates enthusiasm and guarantees that there will be a reasonable spread of events.



Age Group: Adult and young adult (middle school and older)
Time Required: About one half hour to introduce the project; take-home research time; depending on the size of the group, about one hour to present the results.
Preparation:
  • Print one copy of This Day in Peace and Justice History:
    www.salsa.net/peace/timeline/thisday.html (16 pages) or
    One copy of the same timeline in Excel spreadsheet format
    www.salsa.net/peace/timeline/thisdayinhistory.xls (32 pages)Depending on the space available and the size of your group, you can either tape the entire timeline to the walls or cut it into 12 sections, one month per packet - the goal is to make it easily accessible to each student.
Exercise:
  • Ask each student to find a peace and justice event on the timeline that is on or within a week of his or her birthday.
  • Have them research this event: What happened? Who was involved? Why was it important? What does it have to do with peace and/or justice? Are you happy or sad that this event happened on or around your birthday? Why?
  • Be creative with the report formats: for example, instead of written or oral reports it could be posters that are later assembled as a class timeline or dioramas. Allow class time for students to present their projects.

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