Historical Journal

Students will create a historical journal from a fictional character's point of view.

Engage

Students often perceive history as a disconnected set of facts without relevance to their lives. However, studying history allows them to delve into essential topics like leadership, equality, interdependence, and movement, fostering deep thinking and nurturing engaged and active citizenship.

Using journal writing as a learning method in the classroom promotes empathy and aids learners in terms of personal growth, synthesis, reflection on the new information that is acquired, and promotes critical self-reflection when dilemmas, contradictions, and evolving worldviews are questioned or challenged.

Explore a specific time period or events using primary sources, field trips, discussions, and other instructional resources. Let students know they will share their understanding through fictional journal entries.

Introduce examples of diaries and journals, leveraging students' familiarity with works like The Diary of Anne Frank and Diary of a Wimpy Kid to discuss engaging content and writing strategies.

Create

As they work to complete their historical research, ask students to think about the different perspectives of people affected. Have them choose a specific person, or create a fictional character they will use, to share a first-person perspective of that time.

Have students create a list of character traits for this person and create a character analysis focusing on the events they are studying. Students can start with the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, and how), but should also brainstorm ideas and research information that supports their analysis of:

• The character’s actions in response to the outcome of an event.
• The character’s emotional state during this time of oppression.
• Effects of the character’s behavior on other individuals (family, friends, community members, etc.) during this time.
• The character’s fears of what might happen if things do not go according to plan.

Character Trait Template

Once the character analysis is complete, students should begin writing. They should create outlines and rough drafts that include:

• At least three events that take place during this time period,
• Vivid descriptions of each of these events,
• Narration of these events from the perspective of their character,
• An interesting hook, and descriptive details, that connect the reader to the character writing the journal.

Students can take these resources and combine them into a historical journal using one of the book templates.

Journal Book Template

Share

Have students present their journals to the rest of the class. Invite other teachers or local historians to help evaluate their final products.

Share student writing with other students and community members to help raise awareness about a movement or issue. You can share them in the library by printing the journals or creating an interactive page on your classroom website that connects to each student's work.

Standards

Common Core

Standards for the English Language Arts

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

Explain how information and experiences may be interpreted by people from diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference.

Analyze and explain the ways groups, societies, and cultures address human needs and concerns.