Text by Mrs. Tribou's freshmen history class, GVHS
Images from the Thomaston Historical Society
Mrs. Tribou’s freshmen students worked with Civil War artifacts from the Thomaston Historical Society. Margaret McCrea, from the historical society, came into the classroom to introduce the artifacts and give the students a hands-on experience with these pieces of history. Once students had a grasp on the project, they helped to come up with the rubric in which they would be graded. They requested that the teacher assess the following: effort and use of time, layout and accuracy of the writing, annotated bibliography, answers to essential questions on research techniques, a group reflection on the project, and grammar/mechanics.
The essential questions that students focused on were attaining the skills to answer the following: What research method is appropriate for your inquiry? What are appropriate ways to gather, synthesize, and report research? What are the differences between primary and secondary sources?
Students worked in pairs to research an artifact that connected to Thomaston’s history during the Civil War. After doing some research through local texts and excerpts provided by the Historical Society, students wrote historical narratives connecting to the artifact. Once the narratives were complete along with annotated bibliographies, students used technology to create exhibit pages on the Maine Memory Network. These were later uploaded to Thomaston’s Website.