Thursday, May 27th, 2010...10:37 am
Students move beyond the historical facts
and grasp raw emotions.
The freshmen class is currently wrapping up their Living Histories project by presenting their final projects to their classmates. During the presentation they reflect upon their learning experiences and the challenges they encountered. This project as helped them move beyond literal interpretation and helped them to recognize the human aspect of writing.
When asked the questions, “Describe your favorite part of the project” and “What was the most challenging aspect of your project,” the vast majority of the students answered the interview for both. They recognized their own faults and weaknesses during the interview: they were nervous, they missed opportunities to get more in-depth answers from their interviewee or they didn’t think they had enough questions. However, they also admitted that this was their favorite part because it made the event real to them. They described interviews where their interviewee broke down crying, showed them pictures and medals, and in general helped them understand what it was really like to live during any specific time in history.
The students then successfully portrayed those sentiments into their own fictional writing pieces. They meshed the factual with the emotional.
Project Examples
