My final project is about halfway done. I have all my research completed in terms of Lincoln and his life at the cottage. Once again, my final project topic is President Lincoln’s daily life at his summer cottage. Withing this topic, my focus is on helping students learn and understand how to write historical narratives. Students or museum visitors will use my educational tool to create their own historical narrative about their day at the cottage through the eyes of Lincoln. My intended audience for this project is 6th-12th graders. I believe that this is the age where students tend to drift away from history or become less interested in history. Therefore, I wanted to create an educational tool where students will become engaged in history and learn about historical figures that are relatable. Students tend to ignore the fact that all people discussed in history are actual human beings who endure the same emotions we do. So, with my project, I wanted to help students come to that realization and learn how to tell their stories.
I currently have a half skeleton of a project. I have created a majority of my Google Site, including sections and pages. I am almost completed with uploading my Day in the Life activity. I have been exploring the website recommended to me by Dr. Shrum which is called hp5.com. This website has been helpful in terms of figuring out which interactive formats and elements would work best within my project. My next steps are creating the instructions for how to write a historical narrative. I am struggling a little with the organization of this area on my website. I am unsure if I should write out clear instructions for this section of my project or if would be better to include another interactive element. Users are already completing an activity to understand historical narratives. I might consider writing steps for users to follow in relation to their selected activities and then have another page for general instructions and information about writing historical narratives. I have begun taking steps to figure out the best way to construct this aspect of my project but have not made significant progress to resolve this issue. I am hopeful that this week I will be productive within this aspect of my project.
