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Thank you

for supporting

History Day!

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Your Mission, Especially in These Interesting Times …

Foster a love of history
Constructive feedback for all
Respect every student
Be understanding

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HOW THE CONTEST WORKS

Five categories:

Paper (Individual only)
Website
Performance
Documentary
Exhibit

Individuals or groups of 2-5
Elementary (grades 4-5), Junior (grades 6-8), or Senior (grades 9-12) Division
Elementary eligible for Exhibit only (individual or group)
In total: 20 categories are judged

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CONTEST PROGRESSION

School

District

State

National

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JUDGE TEAMS

Three members
The Captain’s Role:

Lead/mentor fellow judges
Submit Rankings
Nominate Special Awards

Your Team’s Goal: Achieve Consensus

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JUDGING PROCESS

View

Evaluate

Team Meeting

Revise/ Finish Evals

Rank

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(Virtual) JUDGE FOLDER

ZFairs Basic Instructions
Category Judge Instructions
2021 Theme Narrative
NHD Rule Book
Summary of Rule Changes
General rules video
Category specific rules video
Eval Forms

http://bit.ly/VHDJudgeFolder2021

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(Virtual) JUDGE FOLDER: Category Judge Instructions

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TOPICS & THEME

Topics:

Student choice
Local, national, world history

Students must explain topic’s:

relationship to theme

and

significance in history

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PROCESS PAPER

Read BEFORE viewing the entry

Required for ALL categories

Answers these questions:

How they chose their topic and its relation to theme
How they conducted research
How they created project
Historical argument
Historical significance

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ANNOTATED* BIBLIOGRAPHY

Read BEFORE viewing the entry.

Attached to the process paper

Divided by primary and secondary sources

Annotations: 2-3 sentences

How source was used
How source helped to understand the topic
Explanation of source, if needed

*Elementary Division projects DO NOT need annotations.

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Our goal is to encourage kids to keep learning by providing constructive feedback in a positive environment. Your goal is to help us do this.

EVALUATION: WHY?

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EVALUATION: No Interviews

Directive from the NHD national leadership team
Not designed to influence judging, so should not impact results

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EVALUATION: Criteria

Clarity of Presentation: 20%

Audio/Visual (Documentary)
Written Material/Visual (Exhibit, Website)
Written Material (Paper)
Performance (Performance)
Technical (All)

Historical Quality (80%)

Historical Argument
Wide Research
Primary Sources
Historical Context
Multiple Perspectives
Historical Accuracy
Significance in History
Student Voice

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EVALUATION FORMS: Out With the Old

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EVALUATION FORM: In With the New

Entry Information
Historical Quality Criteria
Comment Space
Clarity of Presentation Criteria
Rules Compliance Checkboxes
Comment Space

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EVALUATION FORM: In With the New

Lists judging guidelines in each rating category, making it easier to evaluate an entry objectively.
Provides for consistency between judges by presenting specific evaluation guidelines.
Allows judges to select a different rating category for each element included in the criterion.

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EVALUATION FORMS: Historical Quality

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EVALUATION FORMS: Student Voice

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EVALUATION FORMS - How to Level the Criteria

Not Evident - No attempt at all
Fair - Tried, but weak
Good - Started, but didn’t execute all the way
Excellent - Close, but not quite perfect
Superior - Nailed it

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EXAMPLE - Leveled Use of Primary Sources

Student Thesis:

Leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement from the 1930s to 1960s used music to communicate their goals to the American public. The music helped bring awareness to the movement, draw in young activists from diverse backgrounds, and communicate ideas that the American people did not always want to hear.

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Level Use of Primary Sources: Not Evident The student does not use primary sources in the project.
Level Use of Primary Sources: Fair “Primary sources are present, but do not connect to the historical argument.”
Library of Congress (2016875409).	SNCC Digital Gateway.

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Level Use of Primary Sources: Good “Primary sources illustrate the historical argument.”
Marian Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday in Washington, D.C., April 9, 1939. Library of Congress (2016875409).	SNCC demonstrators at a pool in Cairo, Illinois, 1962. SNCC Digital Gateway.

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Level Use of Primary Sources: Excellent “Primary sources support the historical argument.”
When the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to rent Constitution Hall to a Black singer, Marian Anderson became the first African American woman to sing at the Lincoln Memorial to a national audience. Library of Congress (2016875409).	Demonstrators for civil rights often sang as part of their protests, Cairo, Illinois, 1962. SNCC Digital Gateway.

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Level Use of Primary Sources: Superior “Primary sources develop the historical argument.”
Marian Anderson brought awareness of the Civil Rights Movement in her 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. She began with songs that appealed to a general audience and then sang African American spirituals in front of leading government officials. Library of Congress (2016875409).	Music brought activists together. It gave them a common language and appealed to young people, the most likely to protest. These protestors show interracial solidarity while singing in Cairo, Illinois, in 1962 (SNCC Digital Gateway).

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EVALUATION FORMS: Clarity of Presentation - Paper

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EVALUATION FORMS: Clarity of Presentation - Docs

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EVALUATION FORMS: Clarity of Presentation - Exhibit

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EVALUATION FORMS: Clarity of Presentation - Performance

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EVALUATION FORMS: Clarity of Presentation - Website

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EVALUATION FORMS: Written Comments

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Keep in mind that in person, your body language would be able to convey friendliness/a positive attitude
Written words are anonymous, so be mindful to convey positiveness, even with criticism
Do not indicate the student’s potential rank on comment sheets

Overall …

Be Specific!

Be Kind!

EVALUATION: Comment Tips

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EVALUATION: Comment Tips

Use Terminology from Eval Forms ...

Integrates
Demonstrates
Identifies
Reflects
Distinct
Woven
Present
Develop
Provides

Other Helpful Terminology …

Would be strengthened ...
What about ...
I suggest ...
Be careful when ...
I suggest …
Think about ...

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EVALUATION: Comment Sandwich

Positive comment

Constructive

comments

Positive comment

Start and finish your comments with something purely positive. Place your constructive feedback in the middle. Students will find this to be a tasty combination.

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WHAT?

Rules for all entries
Specific rules for each category

WHY?

Apples to apples

How?

Be lenient, give the student the benefit of the doubt

CONTEST RULES

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CONTEST RULES: 2021 Updates

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	Minor Infraction	Major Infraction	Disqualification
Definition	A violation that does not provide a competitive advantage	Exceeding any of the equalizers(time, size, words), thus creating a competitive advantage by being able to provide more information	The ONLY grounds for this are: reusing an entry from a previous year; plagiarism; tampering with another entry.
Example	School name on process paper, exceeding word count by 10 words, etc.	Exceeding words by 10+, size by 1 inch+, time by more than 5-10 seconds.
Procedure	Note these in your comments. These violations should not prevent an entry from advancing. Consider them only to break a tie between two entries that are otherwise equal.	Note these in your comments. These entries should NOT advance. If they truly are the best, please consult with VHD staff.	Please do not act on your own. Bring this concern immediately to VHD staff, who will decide if the entry should be removed from competition.

RULES INFRACTIONS

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RULES INFRACTIONS: Alert Sam When ...

You suspect any of the disqualifying offenses:

Plagiarism
Reusing an entry or any part of an entry from a previous year
Tampering with another student’s entry

You do not think entries should advance to the next level.

DO NOT TELL THE STUDENT IN WRITING

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TOPIC BIAS

Non-traditional history topics
Oral sources
Favorite topics
Local history bias
Political bias

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Documentaries:

PDF of process paper and bibliography
Link to video

Performances:

PDF of companion worksheet, process paper, and bibliography
Link to video

Exhibits:

PDF of exhibit photos, exhibit text, process paper, and bibliography

Papers:

PDF of papers and bibliography

Websites:

URL to website, process paper and bibliography embedded

SUBMISSION FORMATS

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VIRTUAL CONTEST SPECIFIC

Exhibits

Will include photos of the board w/ copy of the exhibit text

May be in a digital format (Google Draw, etc.)

Performances

One-take recording of live performance, ie. no editing
Groups may be done through Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc. due to social distancing
Companion worksheet for additional details

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JUDGE TEAM MEETING

You must confer with your fellow judges to determine rankings

Phone, email, video conference, etc.

Can edit/finish evaluations during or after meeting, but must view all projects prior to meeting

Achieve Consensus

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JUDGING PROCESS

View

Evaluate

Team Meeting

Revise/ Finish Evals

Rank

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SPECIAL AWARDS

Judge captains can nominate
Do this AFTER you have evaluated all projects and decided rankings

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LAST WORD ...

Make sure your comments are positive, specific, and helpful
You have the power to make a difference in these challenging times!

… HAVE FUN!!

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CONTACT

Sam Florer

sflorer@virginiahistory.org

(804) 342–9672

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