Hoover Museum - Digital Archives

This is a problem-solving, project-oriented unit which would be appropriate for small-group, cooperative learning activities. The time parameters could be as short as three class periods (introduction, development, evaluation) with students also working independently, or several weeks at the discretion of the teacher and his/her students.

The readability level of the materials available through the "Hot Links" suggests that this unit is a senior-high school level task although accommodations could be made for junior-high or middle school. The unit could also be used as an initiating activity for the research paper which many schools require in eleventh grade. The materials and tasks would be appropriate for social studies or inter-disciplinary classes.

After a whole - class introduction (see the following section on suggested unit procedures) the students acquire a project. Each project has a "Hot Links" reference which are primary resource documents from the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa. I should emphasize

that these resources are a spring-board for research for the projects and not the project's sole resources. The student should be encouraged to seek other primary resources in their own public libraries collections -- and, perhaps their attics at home!

The primary task, then, is for the students to answer the project's questions through their research. How well they answer those questions should be evaluated by the teacher based on his/her specific objectives for this unit. I always tell my students how they will be evaluated before the assignment begins, as part of the introduction. In addition to an oral statement of objectives, I also hand them a rubric based on those objectives.

Note that I have included a "Hot Links" on how to document primary resources. This is from the Hoover Library's guidebook to materials and is based on NARA standards.

Finally, I must give proper credit for this unit's framework. I chose Dr. Donna Ogle's metacognitive strategy KWL: What do you Know? What do you Want to learn? What did you Learn?