“You never really know a man until you take a walk in his shoes.” Said Atticus Finch to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s now your time to take a walk in another pair of shoes.

Using a combination of digital media, tell the story of a character who existed during one of the historical periods that you have studied this year. Your character could be fictitious, or someone whom you have studied. The time period needs to be the Civil Rights Era, the Holocaust, or the on-going events in Africa and Eastern Europe (Sudan, Darfur, Congo, Bosnia, etc.)

Minimum Requirements
In order to receive a passing grade, you must have the following. Remember, this is the absolute minimum.

  • One video clip
  • One digital copy of a historical document or periodical from the time period and/or location of your story (ex: digital copies of letters from the Library of Congress)
  • Six images
  • Transitions between “pages” and at least 4 pages

Online Starting Points
The websites below will help you get started. You are NOT to use Google, Google Video, or YouTube at this point. You should also NOT use a search engine until you have exhausted these resources.

  • United Streaming – as a school, we have a license to use over 40,000 video clips and photos from Discovery. I will give you the username and password for our account.
  • The Library of Congress – search for thousands of images, videos, audio files, and documents
  • Library of Congress American Memories – browse this collection for a variety of resources. Try searching by a broad topic such as “Civil Rights” and then try to narrow it down.
  • The National Archives – a great place for historical documents, various online exhibits, and WWII/ Holocaust information in particular. You can also access NARA videos from the National Archives at Google Video
  • United States Holocaust Museum – the online exhibitions include some of the footage that you saw in class. There are other good resources here as well.
  • The Smithsonian – the American History collection has a variety of resources.

Can't find what you're looking for? Try a search.