Family & Neighborhood History Project

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Kathryn Shaughnessy

NHPRC QIH Assignment Title:

Family & Neighborhood History Project 

NOTE:  This assignment was created by the participant educator named below as part of the Queens Immigration History curriculum development project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission division of the National Archives (grant #DH-50022-16).  For more information on this grant project, please visit the Queens Immigration History website  at https://queensimmigrationhistory.wordpress.com     

NHPRC QIH Assignment Creator

Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator Judith Jeremie (C2, July 2018 – June 2019). Dr. Jeremie is a teacher at Brooklyn Technical High School. She has taught in New York City for 8 years and is currently teaching Advanced Placement World History. She is a curriculum writer for the New York City Department of Education and is a member of the New York State Social Studies Content Advisory Panel. She has her Bachelor’s Degrees in History and French from The College of New Rochelle, her Master’s Degree in History from Minnesota State University, Mankato, her Master’s in Secondary Education from Long Island University, Brooklyn and her Doctorate in Education from St. John’s University.

 

Summary/ Description Overview:

Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator Judith Jeremie for her AP World History course; Adaptable to other grades.  This assignment asks students to make meaningful connections between the past and their family/neighborhood history by conducting an interview of / researching a relative, gathering and organizing evidence of a historical moment / theme that has impacted that relative, and presenting their findings through art (graphic novel/ comic strips) or writing (narrative/poem).

 

Purpose/Learning Goal

  • To apply historical thinking: Gathering, Using & Interpreting Evidence; Chronological Reasoning & Causation; Comparison & Contextualization. 

  • To create a project that connects world history to family/neighborhood history.

 

Task/Assignment/Activity

You can choose to do either Family Project or a Neighborhood project; in either case your project will have 4 Component parts:

 ·         Component 1: Interview of relative/ Conduct research on neighborhood

·         Component 2: Researching a historical event or theme that has impacted your relative/neighborhood

·         Component 3: Making connections between your relative/neighborhood and the researched historical event / theme

·         Component 4: Create a visual or written report on your research paying attention to the following

    • Historical Context

    • Historical Accuracy

    • Geography

    • Perspectives

    • Changes and / or Continuities

    • Causation

Use the Project Planning sheet to help you plan your tasks.  Regardless of report format, your report should have a logical and clear plan of organization; Narratives should have main idea that is well supported with details. There should be no spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors in any text. Your report should reflect a sophisticated understanding of complex issues you raise in your research. See rubric for grading guidelines.

After the projects are completed, we will have a “gallery walk” to review all of our work, and reflect on the process and the project. 

Family Project:

The following are required elements for the Family Project:

  •  Conduct Interview  and reflection on interview   --   Use the Sample Interview Questions sheet to choose questions to use, you may want to create some questions of your own that are specific to your family history.

  •  Family Connect to Historical Moment(s) / Theme (s) --   Connections made to historic events/themes; historically accurate facts

  •  Family – Geographic Map & Research   -  Detailed maps accurately trace immigration routes. All points on the map are clearly labeled

  •  Summary on Historical Moment / Theme --   Be sure to establish Specific times and places are in detail. You should also address at the Political, economic and social climate of the city/country of origin in great detail.

  •  Draw on your interviews/research to present your findings through art (graphic novel/ comic strips) or writing (narrative/poem).

  •  Project Reflection

Neighborhood Project:

The following are required elements for the Neighborhood Project:

  • Neighborhood –Demographic research is expansive and demographics are explained in great detail.
  • Connect Neighborhood  to Historical Moment(s) / Theme (s)  -- Connections made to historic events/themes; historically accurate facts

  • Historical Neighborhood Research  -- Specific times and places are established in detail. Political, economic and social climate of the neighborhood are discussed in great detail.

  • Neighborhood Geographic component --  Map, Demographic Info Collection, and creation of a Continuity/Change over time Chart; Detailed maps accurately depict neighborhood. All points on the map are clearly labeled. 

  • Presentation: Draw on your interviews/research to present your findings through art (graphic novel/ comic strips) or writing (narrative/poem).

  • Project Reflection

 

Resources from the NHPRCQIH LibGuide:

  •  NYC Resources Tab – for demographic data, neighborhood information, NYC historical newspapers 

  •  Queens Memory Project Tab – assistance with conducting open ended Interviews, and local NYC interviews

  •  Oral History Tab –  links to local NYC Oral History Projects for reviewing, for compare/contrast or for contributing to the projects.

  •  Mink/GeoLiteracy – for connecting maps to history, spatial and historical thinking

  •  Google Maps Tab – to assist you with creating an online map 

Assessment/Rubric

Attribution

This NHPRC Teacher Participant assignment was created by Judith Jeremie

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States


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