You+Choose!+Final+Projects

=Final Project Options and Rubrics= The goal of the final project is to give you the opportunity to showcase some of what you have learned and thought about during this unit. We have asked you to consider three historical records in particular: those of Jews, Native Americans, and African Americans. We have also read several texts and considered the role of "text" as a way of passing down information. Now, we would like you to return to some of our original questions through your final project. What is history? What makes a certain story more valid than another? How does the concept of validity play out for suppressed or oppressed social groups? Are any voices lost? Keep these thoughts in mind as you work through your project!

===We have decided to give you the option of choosing what kind of final project you would like to do for this unit. All project choices are worth the same amount and will be graded on similar scales, so feel free to pick what you are most interested in! ===


 * Option One and Rubric :** Write a letter to a friend or family member as a Native American or Jewish person within some of the historical contexts we have read about and discussed. Follow the link to read the instructions. **[[file:AssessmentOne.doc]]**

The grading rubric for this activity is in the file below:

**Option Two and Rubric:** Dialogue Poem Assessment

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3) Each individual should have a minimum of ten lines of dialogue. Therefore, the poem should be no shorter than twenty lines in total. For the purposes of this assignment, a “line” is defined to contain a minimum of three words. ======

The grading rubric for this activity is in the file below:

**Option Three and Rubric:** Creative Text and Essay The goal of this activity is to ask you to delve a little deeper into your own conceptualization of historical records, as well as to analyze how you ultimately interpreted the historical and fictional aspects of both //Night// and //The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian//. During the course of this unit, we have considered the role storytelling plays in our own historical understanding. We have also discussed the problematic aspects of both autobiographies and fiction for readers who hope to gain an understanding of the "truth" from their reading.

For this option, I would like you to pick an event, person, year, or character that has come up sometime during the past three weeks of class and "tell its story"--it can be something from one of the books we have read, the lectures, the podcast, the readings. You will approach your selection from two different viewpoints, and construct a piece that approaches both sides "factually," but differently. While Option Two asks you to do something similar, here I am asking for more of a focus on the issues of storytelling as a way to pass on the historical record. Consider the implications of writing a "fiction" versus a "historical account."

I would like to you use your creative text to then write a one to two page essay on why the two "sides" view the same subject differently, and what significance and implications that has on the broader historical record. Think about our framing questions for the entire unit--how do they apply to your creative text? What differences do you see in your own approach to these same issues, from the start of the unit? I would ask you here to consider especially our discussions from Week Three of the unit, while still applying the information covered in the previous weeks. Additionally, please feel free to move away from a written text for this assignment--you may create a collage, short film, short story, skit, PowerPoint presentation, or anything else you may come up with (as long as you run it by me, first!). The two parts of this project are equally weighted in your grade, and I would encourage you to consider presenting your thoughts in class next week, as well!

The grading rubric for this activity is in the file below: