History
History Digital Storytelling Projects
Welcome to the collection of Meridian Stories History Digital Storytelling Projects that probe the corners of the earth through a historical lens. Here you will find activities that challenge students to re-imagine seminal court room dramas; explore a poignant WWII moment through a radio drama; or rap about immigration in your community, as based on interviews around town. HERE, students get to bring history alive, in their own words and stories, rendering a new perspective on people, events, and ideas: past and present.
In this collection you will find almost 50 different digital storytelling projects — Challenges, we call them — that demand that your students collaborate to:
- Research the content deeply;
- Create a story around that content, be it a comedy, PSA, dramatic scene, podcast, mockumentary, radio drama, photo essay, … the list goes on;
- Develop that story for digital production, which includes script writing, storyboarding, location scouting, casting, rehearsing, and planning, planning, and more planning; and
- Produce the digital story — always targeting a running time of under 4 minutes — adding music and sound effects to the final edited piece.
Digital Storytelling is the WRITING half of the evolving literacy that is Digital Literacy. It is Knowledge Creation. It is History internalized and then, collaboratively, externalized. And it is …FUN.
Two Free History Projects
Every Meridian Stories project follows the same curricular template. From detailed processes to evaluation rubrics to Standards correlations, take a look at how this all works with these two free projects.
Sister City Penpals
The Project: In this challenge, student teams will explore how two people, at the same time in history but on opposite sides of the world, could be so similar…or so very different. Here’s the plan: 1) Choose a town or city — your own or one nearby; 2) Choose one decade…any time before 1970. Research your town or city during that decade, selecting two events that helped to shape the identity of that town. Then, create a character who lives there; 3) NOW, choose a city on the other side of the world: anywhere but in Europe or North America. Using the same decade as above, research two significant events that shaped the future of that city. Then, invent a pen pal from that city; and 4) Create a video that documents four letters being exchanged between these two characters — along with pictures, cut-outs and knick-knacks (anything that you could put into an envelope) — that describe your chosen events within each city.
The Historical Road Less Travelled
This challenge asks you to create a digital story that focuses on two life-defining moments, or forks in the road, for a historical figure of your choice. Within each of these moments, students must create one alternative path which their historical figure could have taken and tell us that story of what might have been.
Sister City Penpals
The Project: In this challenge, student teams will explore how two people, at the same time in history but on opposite sides of the world, could be so similar…or so very different. Here’s the plan: 1) Choose a town or city — your own or one nearby; 2) Choose one decade…any time before 1970. Research your town or city during that decade, selecting two events that helped to shape the identity of that town. Then, create a character who lives there; 3) NOW, choose a city on the other side of the world: anywhere but in Europe or North America. Using the same decade as above, research two significant events that shaped the future of that city. Then, invent a pen pal from that city; and 4) Create a video that documents four letters being exchanged between these two characters — along with pictures, cut-outs and knick-knacks (anything that you could put into an envelope) — that describe your chosen events within each city.
Complete the form to access your free Digital Storytelling Project.
The Historical Road Less Travelled
This challenge asks you to create a digital story that focuses on two life-defining moments, or forks in the road, for a historical figure of your choice. Within each of these moments, students must create one alternative path which their historical figure could have taken and tell us that story of what might have been.
Complete the form to access your free Digital Storytelling Project.
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