INTRODUCTION

As part of a unit on Ancient Rome, I asked my students to study a famous Roman and then prepare a written report and oral presentation based on the research they did. There were several objectives that I wanted the students to accomplish. First, I wanted to be sure that they were comfortable with following the steps in a research project. Next, I wanted them to be able to take the information they had found and organize it so they could more easily write their two to three page report. Finally, I wanted each of them to extract the most relevant and interesting information from their research, so that they could "appear" as their assigned person to explain what their life was like. In all, the project would last four weeks, culminating in their oral presentations.

Our first step was to brainstorm questions that we would want to know about any famous Roman. Students did this in small groups first, then we made a class list of questions. Most students had about twenty questions by the time we were done. They each understood that these questions were just a starting point, for once they found an answer to one question, it might lead to another question

After compiling our list of questions, we headed to the school's library. For this project, I specifically wanted the students to use on-line encyclopedias and "real books". (Since students had already done work that allowed them to use the Internet, I wanted to limit them this time to specific sources. I especially wanted them to use books to gather the facts that they needed.) The school's librarians were waiting for my students and helped them access the necessary information.

Once my students felt that they had enough facts, we looked over the material that had been gathered. We looked for categories into which the information fell and filled out the organization sheet. I especially liked this phase of the project for it made the students take the step of outlining before each began writing their report. When I prepared this project, I didn't realize how valuable this step would be in helping students to prepare their oral presentations.

When I did this project last year (researching famous Greeks and Romans), my students prepared oral presentations. They dressed as "their person" and came to class to tell us about their accomplishments. As I explained this step of the project to students this year and told them that they could only use one 3" x 5" index card for notes, they all began to groan. "How can we remember all the information?" was the question I heard over and over. As each class met, the same fear was echoed. We started to talk about what aids each of them could use to facilitate their presentation, and it wasn't long before the idea of using a Power Point presentation emerged. They agreed that, though it might be more than a little anachronistic, they would dress in togas while using the Power Point presentation as the prompt they needed to remember information. It would up being a great combination.

We spent three class periods in our computer lab being instructed on the use of Power Point. As you will be able to see from some of the sample presentations, the students were very adept at using this powerful means of presentation. I e-mailed them a list of Web sites which had relevant pictures for their slide show. They searched the Internet for other sites and shared those with each other. The interest level was high, and I found the students heading to the computer lab whenever they had a free period.

The year ended with stellar presentations from many of my students. They were graded on both the oral and written parts of this project. (You can view the rubrics I used for both of these parts.)Many of my students liked the idea of being graded on both aspects of the project for it helped those with strengths in writing and in orating.

This project designed and implemented Emily Rubinfield, Chair of the Middle School History department, for Germantown Academy. Page design and project technical assistance furnished by Carol Siwinski, Curricular Technology Specialist.