MemoryCatcher / Pixabay

 

My ELL U.S. History students will be completing a Final this coming week.

They will be creating a pretty long slideshow sharing their choices for the most important five people and the most important five events in U.S. History, along with what they think are the five most important events that may take place over the next twenty years.

I was inspired to add that last part by this article:

Once completed, students will do “speed-dating,” presenting only one of the three sections of their slideshow (their choice).

Here are the instructions I posted in Google Classroom:

 

U.S. History Final: The Past & The Future

You need to answer three questions:

What you think have been the most important five events in the history of the United States. Which events most influenced the United States that we live in today?

Who you think have been the most important five individuals in the history of the United States. Which people most influenced the United States that we live in today?

Based on what we have learned, and what you know about the world today, what are the five most important events affecting the United States that you think will happen over the next twenty years?

You may do this project alone or work with one partner.

You will create a slideshow and present it.

The title of the slideshow will be “The Most Important Events & People Project.”

Then, you will have one slide describing one event, followed by a slide explaining why you think it was so important in making the United States what it is today.

After you have done that with ten slides, you would do this:

One slide describing the person, followed by a slide explaining why you think he/she was so important to how the United States is today.

After you have done that with another ten slides, you would do this:

One slide describing the event affecting life in the United States that you think will happen over the next twenty years, followed by a slide explaining why you think the event will happen and how you think it will affect our lives.

Please use images. You do not have to put everything on the slide that you are going to say.

Your final slide would list sources (the books or urls of websites where you got your information.

Here is one example of what you might say in two slides about an important event:

The Louisiana Purchase: The United States bought a huge portion of land west of the Mississippi River from France in 1803.

It was important because it made the United States much bigger. Now, many states and millions of Americans live on that land.

Here is an example of what you might say in two slides about an important person:

George Washington

He was important because the Americans might not have won the Revolutionary War without his military leadership, and because he led the U.S. as the first President after it first became a country.

Here is an example of what you might in two slides about future events:

The climate will get hotter.

Climate change is making our world hotter, especially here in California. I think it will affect our lives because there will less water for all of us, and less food will be able to be grown. It will make life harder for us.

 

Suggestions on how to improve it are always welcome!

ADDENDUM:

I’m going to make a slight change based on this tweet: