Final exams usually conjure up images of students sitting at their desks, pencils in hand, darkening bubbles or writing in a blue book. Students in Melissa Catarra’s 10th grade U.S. history course were instead given a final assignment which asked them to examine the events they studied from different perspectives.

Here is one part of the assignment:

• Write a one-page essay for each perspective on the event/conflict assigned to your group: 2 essays per event/conflict
  
• Provide evidence (examples) to validate your perspectives
• For each analysis of the event/conflict, make a connection with current events
  
• Each student is responsible for writing four of the one page essays
• Read, edit, and help your group members

One group of students decided to create their own online textbook to address these issues. They called it A New Perspective: Lessons From the Past for the Present and Future. Their work looks at events from the Compromise of 1877 up to the Iranian Hostage Crisis of the early 1980s.

We invite you to take a look at this exceptional work by clicking the link above or the image at right.