Seventh and eighth graders are taking hold of a piece of history of their interest, researching it using credible sources, and presenting it in the form of a museum exhibit, dramatic presentation, interactive website, documentary, or paper. Mrs. Naghib is modeling her class project after the National History Project, and students will be working on their project one day a week during history class from October until March, when students have the option of submitting their finished work to the NHD Regional competition at University of Virginia.

The theme of this year’s competition is “Conflict and Compromise in History”. The over-arching goal of this project is to “provide for students to push past the antiquated view of history as mere facts and dates and drill down into historical content to develop perspective.

Mrs. Naghib learned about this project at the National Conference for the teaching of Social Studies, which she attended last fall. Just like her students, she is trying something new – a new way of teaching as a facilitator rather than a lecturer. Once a week, she lets her students take responsibility for their own learning as she steps back to let the ideas flow. She did provide the guidelines for presenting the project which included writing a good thesis, conducting authentic research, and developing an annotated bibliography. But the students are taking it from there, and the excitement they are demonstrating for this project is palpable.

Innovation – alive and well in science labs and the halls of history at Powhatan. Join me for my podcast at the top of the page with Mrs. Naghib and her students Louisa Craig, Gillian Banks, and Nathaniel Thompson as they share their history innovation story.