Educators

How does a teacher integrate History Fair into the classroom? This History Fair Pacing Guide, developed by two veteran high school History Fair teachers, presents from a teacher’s vantage point.

Benchmarks

• Senior Division Benchmarks Model (Word, PDF)
• Junior Division Benchmarks Model coming soon
• How to Organize Your School Fair

• Step One: Asking Questions and Finding a Topic
• Step Two: The Research Journey
• Step Three: Analyzing sources
• Step Four: Developing an Argument
• Step Five: Telling a Story

Feel free to edit and present this information according to your classroom needs.

This pre-assessment, created in consultation with History Fair teachers, allows you to assess students’ historical thinking skills before the program gets underway.

A field trip to the Chicago History Museum can spark students’ curiosity and allow them to see history displayed in a tangible way. Take inspiration from the following field trip guides:

• History Fair Detectives Investigative Report
• Explore Breaking Barriers in the Facing Freedom exhibition
• History Fair Activity for the Crossroads Exhibition

Guiding students through topic selection is a foundational job for the History Fair teacher. Topics come from a student’s curiosity, interest, or passion—they cannot be imposed.  There are many tactics teachers can use to help students find topics they are passionate about.

• Our “History Fair and You” handout can help students find a topic that matches their interests
• Direct them to the History Fair Topics list on the current theme to look for ideas.
• Suggest they identify current issues and help them work backwards to find a similar topic from the past.
• Encourage students to talk to their elders, or flip through history books and popular history magazines, newsmagazines, or documentaries.
• Visit or museum or scan online digital collections. Scrolling through the Encyclopedia of Chicago can also spark interest.

Worksheets will help students to define and assess their topic to make sure it is doable.

• The Keys to Finding a Topic Worksheet
• Topic Development Worksheet

We highly recommend that schools take advantage of the free one-year trial version of NOODLE TOOLS, available through NHD. See significant improvement in student note-taking, citation and bibliography-making, tasking–and, for the teacher, feedback and management of student work.

These two notetaking guides can also be helpful:

• History Fair Note-Taking Guide with Fill-ins
• History Fair Notes Worksheet

Use this activity to discuss the differences between primary and secondary sources.

The SEARCH graphic organizer can guide students’ research and help formulate ideas.

Encourage your students to attend Palooza workshops (link to events page) at local libraries and universities to improve their research skills and obtain coaching. It is a great extra-credit opportunity for eager students.

When students analyze their sources, they build critical thinking skills and produce stronger projects. Encourage students to use primary sources as evidence—not illustration. Use the models below, or your favorite analysis worksheet, or the worksheets offered by the National Archives or Library of Congress.

After collecting and analyzing their sources, students will connect them to form claims for their argument.

The Connect-It graphic organizer encourages students to make connections among the sources for each segment of their project.

An additional way to prompt students to synthesize their research  is to have them do a “free-write” about everything they have found out.  A Free-write can then lead to more organized ways of developing an argument and is an effective formative assessment too.

The “DocsTeach” website by the National Archives also has great interactive tools to help students process and weigh evidence.

Use the How to Write a Thesis and History Fair Thesis: What’s it all About activities, and the Thesis PowerPoint, to direct students through this challenging process. The Thesis Development Worksheet provides a format for using the theme.

Teachers may find the Thesis Rubric a useful tool for evaluating students’ theses. Further reading about thesis statements can be found in this online writing guide by Patrick Rael of Bowdoin College.

Each History Fair category has its own strengths and weaknesses and might be right for different students in your classes.

• Documentary
• Exhibit
• Research Paper
• Performance
• Website

Click here to see examples of each type of History Fair project.

Students will appreciate a checklist of the basic expectations for their project submission. Find a separate checklist for each category

Use the You Be the Judge classroom activity to provide students with an authentic experience in evaluation and to prompt them to think critically about their own projects. We suggest you introduce this activity mid-way in the students’ own projects.

No matter the category, History Fair projects are judged based on their historical knowledge, analysis, sources, and presentation.

High School Division Scoring Rationale
High School Division Scorecard
Junior Division Scoring Rationale
Junior Division Scorecard

All students must have a summary statement form (PDF file, Word document, or Google Doc) and annotated bibliography.