Clash of the Titans, Grade 11
5. INTERVIEWS OF FAMOUS AMERICANS
Objective: Students will research famous Americans who lived and influenced the era 1865-1915.
Subject: Social Studies
Materials: Research materials, internet, video camera, dress of the times (optional), paper, pencil.
Procedure:
- Divide the class into four to six groups, whatever is workable.
- Have each group be responsible for knowing the historical background of the time frame 1877-1915, especially the important events that affected African Americans.
- Have each group research one of the following: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Theodore Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass, William Monroe Trotter, William McKinley, Andrew Carnegie, William Howard Taft, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Oswald Garrison Villard, or Mary Church Terrell. How did these people impact American history?
- Have each group decide on a range of questions that they would ask this famous person in an interview. For example, they might ask the interviewees about their memories of a particular period or event, the tone of the period, or the impact of the period on their lives.
- Have each group select a student to be the interviewer and one to be the famous person. Others in the group can video tape or help get costumes, etc.
- Have each group use the questions that they made up previously to interview their famous person.
- Have each group video tape their interview.
- Optional - Have the interviewer and interviewee dressed in clothes of the period.
- After viewing the interviews, have a class discussion. Include the following questions:
B. From your interviews, what have you learned about different points of view of different people? What have you learned about hearing one perspective?
C. What would happen to your self-identity if you allowed others to totally define who you are?
Booker T. Washington National Monument
12130 Booker T. Washington Highway
Hardy, Virginia 24101
12130 Booker T. Washington Highway
Hardy, Virginia 24101