[Incomplete Lesson Plan] Final Project - Cumulative Essay + Explanation (Made Summer 2023)

The following was entirely created by myself.

 

Part 1

FINAL PROJECT - CUMULATIVE ESSAY

For your final project this semester, you will be reading through two second degree sources I have compiled on [Topic] and using them, along with primary sources of your own choice, to create an essay, compiling the information gathered and synthesizing a personal conclusion. Think of this as both an informative and persuasive essay, as you will be informing your audience and also attempting to present your point of view on the subject. In order to create this essay you will be writing summaries of the two sources I am providing you with. These will not only compile the information present in the sources but will also compile your own personal thoughts and ideas on these sources. After this you will be finding at least two sources of your own choosing using the methods discussed in class earlier this semester and will be repeating the summarization process. After this you will have a period of 3 days, 5 including the weekend, to write a 5-8 page essay. Having an eye for detail and being able to condense what you have read in necessary as an adult, whether you choose to pursue history beyond what is required of you or not, as it allows you to avoid being scammed or manipulated and allows you to create your own beliefs based on well-researched evidence.

The quality of your writing will play little role in this essay, so focus on making the points of your sources and your own beliefs come across as well as possible, utilizing everything you have learned in class thus far. If you need to review how to take comprehensive notes, write summaries, find sources, or synthesize new ideas from old ones, take your free time over this weekend to do so, as Monday will be the beginning of this undertaking and we will not finish for two whole weeks. I will be doing brief reviews and guiding you as best I can, but this will ultimately be up to you, so make sure you are ready, you have a weekend to prepare and more than enough time to put this project together. This project will be worth a total of 200 points with a potential for 30 points of extra credit. I look forward to reading your essays.

Part 1.) Monday-Wednesday (in-class)

- Read [Given Source 1] and take notes on its arguments, the evidence provided, and the general themes of it as well as your opinions on it and what it’s talking about

- Write a summary of [Given Source 1] as previously practiced in class and afterwards write down your own thoughts and feelings about the source and its arguments. This should be 12 pt. Times New Roman or Lexend Deca (a smaller Lexend is acceptable) and double spaced. Your summary should be at least 1 page long and include APA or MLA citations depending on which you wish to write your final essay in. There is no need to include a citations page.

- Repeat the process for [Given Source 2]. Both of these summaries will be due Wednesday night at 11:59pm.

- Turn your completed summaries in on our class Canvas page.

Part 2.) Thursday-Tuesday (in-class)

- Locate at least one source that supports [Given Source 1]. This must be a primary source and must be reputable. Read it through thoroughly and take notes on its arguments, the evidence provided, and the general themes of it as well as your opinions on it and what it’s talking about; importantly do not forget to take notes on how it supports [Given Source 1].

- Write a summary of your supporting document just like your last two summaries and afterwards write down your own thoughts and feelings about the source and its arguments. This should be 12 pt. Times New Roman or Lexend Deca (a smaller Lexend is acceptable) and double spaced.

- Repeat the process, finding this time a primary source supporting [Given Source 2] and writing a summary of it. Both of these summaries will be due Tuesday night at 11:59pm.

- Turn your completed summaries in on our class Canvas page.

- If you are having difficulty finding primary sources, try using the links I provided on our class Canvas page at the beginning of the year. If you are still having trouble, ask me for help.

Part 3.) Wednesday-Sunday (in-class)

- Beginning Wednesday you will be tasked with writing an essay of at least 5 pages and at most 8 pages in either MLA or APA format with a citations page included (this should include all sources used including the sources I provided to you, if you need help creating citations, ask me). This essay must include all of the minimum 4 sources you should have by this time and is not to plagiarize your previous minimum 4 summaries. Remember to use in-text citations and proper formatting. This essay’s goal is to compare and contrast [Given Source 1] with [Given Source 2], explaining the claims and evidence of both, followed by you supporting both arguments with your supporting sources, and ending with your own personal takes on the arguments and evidence provided, deciding which side you believe and making a case for that side over the other using your evidence. This will be done in-class Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday but will not be due until 11:59 pm on Sunday, so you may continue working on it at home over the weekend.

- Turn your completed essay in on our class Canvas page.

Extra Credit.)

- If you add another source in defense of one of the sources I provided you, write a summary for it, and include it as evidence in your final essay, you will get 15 extra credit points. If you do this for both sources I provided you then it will be increased to 30 extra credit points. You will get no more extra credit points from adding more sources in support of either provided source.

Part 2

Part 3

The final assessment I have prepared is a traditional but valid one: an essay. The idea is that throughout the semester I will have taught my students how to do close-reading of primary and secondary sources as well as how to summarize them; this would also be in conjunction with comparing and contrasting assignments and essays to keep their reading and writing skills on par. So, this final cumulative project will be to create an essay based on two sources of my choosing, likely being directly related to a topic covered in class, particularly if there is more to be explored there or the students enjoyed the topic a lot. They would create summaries of these sources and then utilizing another skill I will have taught them, the locating of sources necessary to back up a point you are analyzing, they will find at least one supporting primary source for each of the sources I provided to them. They will summarize these and then create an essay explaining the concepts of all the minimum four sources, ending it with a synthesization portion where they will present their own take on the subject at hand and which argument they find more believable. I believe this will work best for grades 10-12 since they should have gotten familiar with some of the required skills by that point, and it will be an individual project since I want students to grow their own personal skills rather than possibly relying on others.

This assignment will always relate to a great number of Indiana State Standards, and even more depending on what the subject is, specifically however it will always or almost always hit on USH.10.1, USH.10.2, USH.10.3, USH.10.4, USH.10.5, all the historical thinking aspects of the state standards, which is really what I think is most important as they are the bedrock of everything else. Further these standards don’t just apply to historical thinking but thinking in general, encouraging a close examination of sources and a want to verify any new information with the source finding tools taught to students. In the modern world misinformation is everywhere so training students to think about the information they read and use it as the basis for their own ideas rather than simply regurgitating what is presented to them is a definite must as a teacher.