History in the Making: Exploring History with Cardboard Costumes

Students will:

• Research a style of armour, historical clothing or a historical figure 

• Explore the concept of identity by creating a cardboard costume or prop that represents the impact on society

• Develop communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creative thinking skills and work as a group to solve a challenge

Students can:

• Explain and discuss their understanding of what they have read, and how their cardboard costume reflects this understanding

• Organise non-narrative writing around a theme

• Respond to the prompt and challenges that arise throughout the activity using critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills

• Work collaboratively with classmates to effectively communicate group responsibilities in the planning and making stages

Diversity, culture, ethnicity, armour, history-specific language, research plan, keywords, note-taking, evaluating sources

Forming a Research Question

When students use the design thinking process, it helps to form a research question with a “How Might We” statement. This line of brainstorming questions aligns with the process shared by the Stanford d.school. A ‘How Might We’ question evokes an actionable outcome. Work with students to take the idea of researching history to create a costume and turn it into a “How Might We” question. Ensure the HMW question is based on learning about history and has an outcome focus.  Here are two examples:

• How might we foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of history by researching and recreating a historical figure?

• How might we effectively transform a classmate into a recognisable figure from another time using only a cardboard costume?
  
  

Research Plan

Discuss the research plan to help students understand the research process. Form a question to guide research, plan where to look for information, read and take notes, and document or cite the sources where information is found.

Keywords

The key to effective research depends on a student’s ability to brainstorm and choose specific keywords. Help students with this concept by brainstorming keywords and search terms for this project, and emphasise that keyword searches are essential, whether they are searching in a book or a database. Share how to use these keywords on their note-taking organiser and how to search a book’s index or table of contents.

Note-Taking/Evidence

Share your preferred note-taking method and tell students they need to back up their design with evidence from their research.

Comprehension/Synthesising information

Students will read information from different sources to learn about a historical figure or historical costume. They will then need to combine all of these pieces of information to understand the whole story or idea and create their costume. Think of comprehension as reading the different parts of a recipe, and synthesis as the final dish. In this case, they will read to comprehend history and synthesise that learning to make their final cardboard costume!

Evaluating Sources

Discuss evaluating sources for authority, relevance, accuracy, and purpose. 

• Who made this information? Do they know what they're talking about?

• When was this information made? Is it still up-to-date?

• Does this information make sense and seem correct?

• Why was this information made? Are they trying to teach me or sell me something?

• Is it about what I need? Does this information help me answer my research question?