History Day provides depth to learning
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers STUDENTS OF THE PAST- Above, eighth-grade students from A.C. Stelle Middle Schoocelebrate on campus after being recognized at the L.A. County History Day recently. Left, Lindero Canyon Middle School eighth graders show their stuff at the county and state levels in the recent California History Day competition. From left, Alaina Newmann, Lauren Diaz, Chris Schafer, Erin Gilmore and Sumin Lee. Lindero students have participated in History Day for the last 20 years.

Middle school students received a break from tedious historical memorization to choose and present a topic of their own for History Day L.A., a local, state and national competition.

Christopher Schaefer, an eighth-grade student at Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills, connected to his family's history through a documentary he produced for History Day L.A.

Christopher's individual documentary entitled, "We Were Interned Too; American Civilians in the Philippines" allowed him to make a powerful personal connection to a historical event.

"My grandfather's cousin was interned there, and I learned a lot about family history during this project," Christopher said.

Christopher was among 24 students whose California History Day projects were chosen to compete in History Day L.A. His and many other student projects from Lindero and Alice C. Stelle Middle School in Calabasas were chosen for the state level competition.

"(History Day) gives kids a little bit of competition and gets them out of the textbook, which makes learning a little bit more fun," said Shannon Adams, an eighth-grade English and social studies teacher at Lindero who headed the program.

Christopher attested to the passion factor of the mandatory eighth-grade project.

"I'd always be working on it until the last minute, making sure the DVD copied right, the sound was working right," Christopher said.

"The nice thing about History Day is they have a different theme every year," said Kevin Kane, the social studies teacher in charge of the program at A.C. Stelle.

This year's theme was Triumph and Tragedy: in history.

The broad theme allowed students to have a lot of latitude in the projects they chose, Kane said.

"The program allows students to learn about history and also about how to be a historian," he said. Students must gather information from primary and secondary sources, conduct interviews, understand historical context and the impact the historical event has had on today's society and write a thesis backed up with pertinent information.

"It's really high level work," Kane said. "The goal is to pick a topic they're interested in and delve into it in great depth."

Kane pointed out that the skills students learn through the history project are transferable to any subject. "It definitely helps them in high school," he said.

All eighth-grade students participate in the program, including special education students, Kane said.

Students have a choice of presentation formats. While some produced scholarly papers on their subject, others created a website or documentary. Some students performed their subject matter.

A.C. Stelle Middle

School winners

Junior paper, tied for first place

+Jason Shumacher: "Elie Weisel, Changing a Tragedy into a Triumph"

+Stephen Barkley-Yeung: "The Tragedy of Pickett's Charge: Lee's Greatest Blunder"

Junior group website, first place

+Saul Lincoln, Patrick Lincoln, Patrick Guimariais, Brandon Katz, Phillip Mirmov: "The Atomic Bomb"

Group documentary, first alternate

+Alyx Hogrewe, Lauren Hogrewe, Allison Schneider: "Let Darkness Be Broken by the Triumph of Braille"

Group website, first alternate

+Chloe Myaskovsky, Shira Grunfeld: "The Berlin Wall"

Ken Easum Award for best use of oral history within an individual presentation

+Seeba Bhatia, live performance: "The partition of India and Pakistan"

Constitutional Rights Foundation Award for overall achievement

+Tiffany Jadali and Katie Noonan, museum exhibit: "The London Fire"

+Danny Miller, Jason Schecter, Max Sobin and Rowell Dizon, museum exhibit: "Shays' Rebellion"

Lindero Canyon Middle

School winners:

Individual documentary

+Christopher Schaefer: "We Were Interned Too: American Civilians in the Philippines"

Junior group documentary

+Lauren Diaz, Erin Gilmore: "The Fight to Save the Mountain Gorillas: The Triumph and Tragedy of Dian Fossey"

Individual exhibit, first alternate

+Sumin Lee: "Calling for the Korean Independence"

Individual group documentary, first alternate

+Alaina Neumann: "Tragedy at Kent State University"

Individual exhibit, first alternate

+Sumin Lee: "Calling For the Korean Independence"

Ron Kaiser, Lindero Canyon Middle School principal, said eighth-graders at the school have been participating in History Day L.A. for 20 years. Over the years, Lindero students have won several times at the state level and even placed nationally.

"We've been the History Day school," he said. "It's one area where students really can explore anything they are interested in."

Lindero student Lauren Diaz said she had fun working on her project, but it was "a lot of hard work" to produce the documentary on mountain gorillas and Dian Fossey.

Her partner, Erin Gilmore, said they produced a nineminute film by gathering photographs, doing voiceovers and adding African music.

"Ilearnedal ot,"Erin said. "It was a really great experience."

History Day in California is a statewide program sponsored by Constitutional Rights Foundation and the California Department of Education i n conjunction with National History Day. The program is available for students from fourth to 12th grades.