Virtual Pen Pals

Virtual Pen Pal Google Doc Assignment

Local History Pen Pal Assignment

This assignment is for students in 5th grade, since Michigan benchmarks cover local history in 5th grade.  For this assignment, students will compare the history of their local city to the history of London, England.  They will do this by interacting with pen pals in London, England.

Each student within the group will be assigned a local city (Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Portage, Grand Rapids), which is to be determined at the beginning of the local history project by group members. After they have already completed a portion of their research for the local history of their assigned city, and have collaborated in their assigned discussion groups with group members, they will then compare knowledge on the local history of that city to the local history of their pen pals in London, England. Each student will e-mail their pen pal asking them a series of questions and sharing their own information about their city.

Students will contact their pen pals multiple times over the course of two weeks. Time will be provided in class for students to contact their pen pals.

Questions that students will ask their virtual penpals include:

1. What year was London established?
2. Who established London?
3. What famous people, inventions, or companies originated from London?
4. What holidays are part of London’s history?
5. What is London known for?
6. What key roles did London play historically?
7. How does having a royal family affect life in London?
8. Do students have to go to school on holidays  in London?
9. Do schools in London keep religion separate from school work?
10. Do you get to vote in London? If so, at what age can you start voting?
11. Student’s individual choice question
12. Discussion Group’s choice question
13. Discuss with pen pal’s museums in Southwestern Michigan (Kalamazoo Valley Museum, Public Museum of Grand Rapids, Historic Adventist Village in Battle Creek and the Celery Flats Interpretive Center in Portage)
14. Discuss local history museums in pen pal’s city.

With the information that students have gathered from their pen pals, they will create a venn diagram that compares and contrasts their local city with London. The venn diagram can be created on www.creately.com. After creating a venn diagram, students will then have to write a 5 paragraph essay summarizing their findings (Intro, similarities, differences, their thoughts about their findings/the project, and a conclusion paragraph).

The map of the museums that will be discussed with pen pals can be found here.