Just got feedback on both my paper and presentation and I passed both! Officially declaring this project a success, even if education is of course an ongoing endeavor, it feels great to "win".
Added all of the current outline that I have, trying desperately to consolidate and post work for review.
My Lit. Review is due tomorrow so I'm gearing up to deliver that on time and in good quality. Over the next 24 hours there will be a bit of a flood of artifacts onto the site. More to come!
I've met with Mr. Finnegan twice since I last posted any of my notes, so here is the sum of our discussion:
While the essence of the project is being maintained as a high school level history curriculum based in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien both my research and field work will now take on a distinctly linguistic focus. Part of what I am trying to accomplish now, is to show how vitally important language is to society and how it changes over time and with history. In addition to this I'm using the works of Tolkien to gain a unique and hopefully more attractive approach to the subject matter - a catalyst for those who may not otherwise dive into the rich heritage that is their language. I have a lot of reading to do. This is what I have drafted so far as a topic/research question:
Topic: The History and Languages of Middle-Earth Research Question: How does a culture's language affect its history (and vice versa)? Met with my reader, Mr. Finnegan today. We set up a regular schedule and expectations but what was most useful was workshopping my research topic with him. After looking into The Great Vowel Shift for my IRT I've decided to add a linguistic focus to my research. This means the final curriculum may also turn out to be a full length academic paper instead - regardless linguistics will define the end result as much as history if not more so.
|