The learner will:

• create a Venn diagram comparing their community today with the early 1900's.
• identify philanthropic efforts in the community in the early 1900's and today.
• create an historical fiction story, using facts they have learned about their community at the turn of the century.
• use technology (word processing and inserting pictures).

• Review definitions for the following terms:
  
  transportation: what people use to travel from one place to another
  
  history: the story of the past
  
  settlers: persons who move to a new place to make a home
  
  philanthropy: private action for the public good
  
  
• Read a social studies text or resource describing communities in the early 1900s.
• Provide photographs or pictures and read early accounts of life in their own community. (Visit a local museum to see what your community was like at the turn of the century.)
• Discuss the following:
  • What might life have been like for the people of the community?
  • In what ways might people have had to depend on one another?
  • What needs did the people have at the turn of the century?
  • How might those needs have been met?
  • What types of volunteer organizations were there?
• As a class, create a Venn diagram comparing students' community at the turn of the century to what it is like today.
• This whole-group activity works well if it is broken up into categories. One or two categories can be covered for one lesson. You may spend two to three lessons on the Venn diagrams, comparing several things. Suggested categories are: jobs, transportation, clothing, food, technology or entertainment.
• Begin by writing on the chalkboard or overhead the name of your city and 1900 (e.g., Grand Rapids, MI-1900s). Next, list one category, such as Transportation. After reviewing photos, visiting the local museum, etc., list items under the category. Next to this list, create a similar list, describing your city today, using the same category. Students will see a clear comparison / contrast between then and now. Continue using several categories (recreation, jobs, clothing, etc.)
• After each category is compared, discuss the connection to philanthropy and how people helping people is as important today as it was at the turn of the century. Finally, after each category is diagrammed and discussed, have students stop and write a paragraph comparing "Then and Now." Students should write a paragraph for each category.

Students write an historical fiction story. Students will use their comparison/contrast paragraphs of factual information to write a story. Time machine travels work well. Stories could be made into a slide show or just word processed in the computer lab using pictures from the computer program.