Learning Objectives:
Students will write interview questions, conduct oral interviews, scan photos and documents, then create a multimedia timeline with four significant events that happened in the life of a family member.

This project enables students to create an electronic history book that can be burned on a CD, uploaded to the web or stored locally on a hard drive for other students to enjoy. Language arts, social studies and technology skills are incorporated in order for students to gain "media literacy."  This project is geared toward middle school students, but can be easily adapted for younger or older students.

Included in this curriculum unit are several downloadable pdf worksheets that will guide both teachers and students through planning each phase of the project.  A rubric is also included for evaluating the final presentation.

Standards addressed:
The students use general skills and strategies of the writing process by creating meaningful interview questions. They also use listening and speaking strategies in the interviewing session, utilizing strategies to edit the oral account into a narrative account. By creating a timeline students understand and know how to chronologically set up a historical map while using technology in new ways.

According to the National Education Technology Standards Project http://cnets.iste.org/index.shtml, social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ways human beings view themselves in and over time, so that the learner can: identify and use key concepts such as chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity to explain, analyze, and show connections among patterns of historical change and continuity.  By focusing on a family member of the student, learning these concepts becomes more meaningful as well as enjoyable.