In your research thus far, I have asked you to become an expert on your topic. To try to learn everything you can about about the leader(s) you are researching.
My goal is for you to start taking your project one step further...going "Beyond a Biography." Although its interesting to know where a person's from and when they were born, it's more important for this project for you to focus not so much on the leader, but the times in their life where they showed leadership and the difference it made in history. How is our world different today because of their leadership? In other words, his/her legacy. This is historical thinking!
This week your assignment was to create a multi-tiered timeline showing the main events related to your topic as well as major events happening in the country, world, or region during the same time span. My hope was that you would start to see the connections between your "leader(s)" and the world in which he/she/they lived. What I want you to really think about is: Do leaders shape history or does history shape leaders? My answer to that question is...a little bit of both. Leaders change the world in which they live, but they are fundamentally shaped by the world in which they live. How does the world and time period in which you live affect you? I want you to start thinking beyond the who? what? where? and when? and start thinking more about how? and why?
My inspiration for this post came from this great website I found through NHD. There may be some valuable information on here for your topic. Either way, check it out!
100 Leaders
For your Blog post today:
1. Write about how the leader you are researching was influenced by the time period and world in which he/she/they lived. This information should come from the work you have done on your historical context worksheet and your timeline in addition to sources you have read.
2. What was the most interesting thing you learned this week?
See you on Monday! Be good!
