MAP freshmen now slated to do History Day-style project

 

It is a day in history for History Day. Long thought of as a project only for those passionately in love with history, History Day — or at least a project similar to it — is now mandatory for freshmen enrolled in the Media Arts Program (MAP). 

Librarian Kevin Heyman, a prominent figure in the History Day competition at SHS, said that starting this year, freshman MAP students are required to do a research assignment based on History Day in their English classes. 

“Modeling the research assignment after the History Day competition will allow students to create a product in a variety of different mediums: a web site, a documentary, a performance or an exhibit,” said Heyman. 

Just like History Day, students will choose a historical topic that matches this year’s theme and research it; the main difference will be that their annotated bibliography may not be on the competitive level of traditional History Day bibliographies.

“What makes English 9 MAP different [from other courses] is a project-based learning emphasis and History Day is project- based learning,” said English teacher Catherine Head. 

Traditionally, History Day is a competition for dedicated students who revel in the study of history; as a result, some are concerned with making an assignment based on it mandatory. Even former participants of History Day have some concerns, even if it is only a project modeled off of History Day. 

“History Day is for the passionate … and should be reserved for those who actually try to do a good job on it,” said Eugene Chiou, a senior student in the MAP program who participated in History Day last year. 

Chiou points out that many juniors do History Day for extra credit, without enjoying history, and have a rough time. He believes forcing freshmen to work on a project similar to History Day is a bad idea, since many of them would not enjoy the experience the way the passionate students do. 

However, other students argue that it is no different than a regular project and encourages creativity, because students are allowed to pick their own topic and medium. 

Head believes that making the assignment mandatory will not affect students’ enthusiasm. She said she is giving them additional time and assistance to work on it. 

“Doing it so that it’s part of the class gives them lab time and research support and people right there to answer their questions, and I hope this will help them like it,” said Head.

In addition to giving them freedom, it also gives the freshmen exposure to history. In the sophomore, junior and senior MAP classes, history curriculums are integrated with the English curriculums, in addition to media. However, at the freshmen level, the class has previously consisted of just English and media. 

“Incorporating History Day with English 9 MAP starts them on that integrated-discipline approach,” said Head. 

She said the new project will also help meet Common Core standards while allowing students to be creative in displaying their work.