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ERIC Number: EJ864076
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Sep
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0037-7724
EISSN: N/A
Creating Biography Webs to Investigate Individuals' Historical Contexts
Fertig, Gary; Silverman, Rick
Social Education, v73 n5 p244-246 Sep 2009
Biographies, which are popular among young people, can stimulate interest in the past when students investigate the historical contexts in which individuals lived. Creating biography webs offers students structured opportunities to investigate how other people and groups influenced the personal development of specific individuals (NCSS Strands II, III, IV, and V). Students work in pairs to complete five activities that require active problem solving and decision making. They work as partners to determine the most effective means for displaying their learning while also educating their peers. The five products students create during these activities are mounted on standard-sized foam board. Although pairs collaborate to learn about the same individual in history, each student creates his or her own biography web to ensure individual accountability, promote deliberation, and provide opportunities for all students to interpret and make use of historical evidence. As a culminating activity, partners present their biography webs to the class and combine them to create a classroom timeline. Creating biography webs helps students recognize that individuals do have the agency to make history, particularly when they worked with others who had similar goals. However, the values, beliefs, and attitudes that individuals acquired were given form and substance by the times in which they lived and by the specific institutions and events they experienced. (Contains 4 notes.)
National Council for the Social Studies. 8555 Sixteenth Street #500, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Tel: 800-683-0812; Tel: 301-588-1800; Fax: 301-588-2049; e-mail: membership@ncss.org; Web site: http://www.socialstudies.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A