Due Date: December 6th!
The fifth grade classes at Colony are participating in a History Alive Day at
school on December 6, 2011. The classes will have students appearing as
“historical characters coming real and alive” on this day.
The project consists of:
Part 1: Your child will choose a biography book from our library to read.
Teachers will approve the historical person.
Part 2: Your child will write a written report upon their chosen historical
person who has had an impact on our country. (See rough draft outline to
use as a guideline for the report). Rough draft outline needs to be
handwritten and you can use additional pages if you need to.
Part 3: Your child will write a final draft which can be typed or written.
The report should be readable and neat with 4-5 sentences per
paragraph. Make sure you stick to the main idea in each paragraph.
Part 4: Your child will also give an oral biography presentation report in
front of the class, where they will dress and act as though they are the
character. Their character will “come alive” on this day.
The project (written report and outline) is due December 6, 2011,
approximately 2 weeks from today. This project is a requirement for 5th
grade! If you miss on this day, you have to make this up!
Please encourage your child to learn about his or her “character”. The more
familiar one becomes with the character, the easier it will be to make the
character “alive”.
Some ways that parents/guardians/families can help on this activity are:
1. Assist in any additional research on the internet or using other
reference books such as encyclopedias, picture books, or other
educational books.
2. Help assist with your child in editing the reports by checking for
spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Parents can be great
editors.
3. Assist in helping your child “dress up” as their character. I do not
want you to spend money on this project. Use creativity in dressing
up as your character. Remember this is a fun and inexpensive project.
You can use clothing from your very own closet. Since Halloween is
over, some great buys can be found during this time on costumes that
might apply to a character your child is reading about.
Written Report Rubric
Category
Organization
Mechanics
Quality of
information
Sources:
(books,
websites)
4
Information is
very organized
with wellconstructed
paragraphs and
subheadings.
No
grammatical,
spelling, or
punctuation
errors.
Information
clearly relates
to the main
topic. It
includes several
supporting
details and/or
examples.
All sources
(information
and graphics)
are accurately
documented in
the desired
format.
3
Information is
organized with
wellconstructed
paragraphs.
2
Information is
organized, but
paragraphs are
not wellconstructed.
1
The
information
appears to be
disorganized.
Almost no
grammatical,
spelling, or
punctuation
errors.
Information
clearly relates
to the main
topic. It
provides 1-2
supporting
details and/or
examples.
All sources
(information
and graphics)
are accurately
documented,
but a few are
not in the
desired format.
Few
grammatical,
spelling, or
punctuation
errors.
Information
relates to the
main topic. No
supporting
details and/or
examples.
Many
grammatical,
spelling, or
punctuation
errors.
Information has
little to do with
the main topic.
All sources
(information
and graphics)
are accurately
documented,
but many are
not in the
desired format.
Some sources
are not
accurately
documented.
Rough draft/Outline:
Paragraph 1: Background information
-Tell who the person is-give their full name and nickname if he/she
has one
-Tell where the person was born-give city and state
-Tell the birthdate-month, day and year
-Give family background-tell how many brothers and sisters did
he/she have
-Tell the date their death
-Tell where and how the person died (if the historical person is dead)
-Tell what era the person lived in or lives in
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Era:
Land and People Before Columbus (before 1492)
Age of Exploration (1492-early 1700s)
Colonization (early 1700s-late 1700s)
War for Independence (late 1700s-early 1800s)
The Young Republic (late 1700s-1840s)
Westward Expansion (1840s-1860)
Industrialization (1860-early 1900s)
The Twentieth Century (1900-2000)
The Twenty-First Century (2000-present)
Paragraph 2: Interesting facts
Tell any interesting facts about your person such as their hobbies,
education, etc.
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Paragraph 3: Accomplishments
-Tell about their accomplishments as an adult-what goals did they -reach, any accomplishments they had
-Tell how they reached their goals or accomplishments
-Tell what impact the person had on history
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Paragraph 4: Character traits
-Describe at least 3 character traits about the individual person;
explain by using examples from the person’s life why he/she fits each
character trait using facts you learned about this person
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Paragraph 5: Your opinion
-Tell what you liked best of all about the things that happened to this
person or the things he/she accomplished; tell why you liked these
things
-Tell any weaknesses, failures, or disappointments this person had and
tell why you thought these were
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Oral Report Biography Presentation/Speech Form
*Use this form!!! (Use your information from your report to add to this!!!)
Due on December 6th!
1. Start with a lead. Ask an interesting question to the audience for them
to get thinking of who you are.
_____________________________________________________________
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2. What did you accomplish that impacted our country?
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3. Name at least 2 character traits of you (the character) Give evidence
of how you fit the character trait.
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4. What is your favorite/most interesting thing about being you (the
character)?
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5. Tell what era or time period you are from.
Oral Biography Report Rubric
Category
4
3
All historical
Almost all
Historical
information
historical
accuracy
appeared to be
information
accurate and in appeared to be
chronological
accurate and in
order.
chronological
order.
Student uses
Student uses 1Props/
several props
2 props that
costume
(include
accurately fit
costume) that
the period. Uses
accurately fit
some creativity.
the period,
show
considerable
work/creativity
Point-of-view
Point-of-view
Perspective
proposed was
proposed was
consistently in
often in
character.
character.
TOTAL:
2
Most of the
historical
information
was accurate
and in
chronological
order.
Student uses 1
prop that
accurately fit
the period.
1
Very little of
the historical
information
was accurate
and in
chronological
order.
Student uses no
props OR the
props chosen
inaccurately fit
the period.
Point-of-view
proposed was
sometimes in
character.
Point-of-view
proposed was
rarely in
character.