The Decades Project began in 1998 as the brainchild of a Dalton faculty member to address a challenge faced by the 8th grade Core teachers: how to teach 200+ years of American history in a single school year.
As an end-of-year assignment, 8th grade Dalton students must name a decade in the “Post-WWII” period of American history and use a multimedia presentation tool, such as PowerPoint, to develop a presentation that supports their choice of name. Throughout the development of this assignment, students are called upon to ultilize and celebrate their skills and talents they have acquired throughout Middle School and apply them in a variety of ways.
Over the years, the directions and requirements of the Decades Project have changed. The project has grown to include such things as: storage space on the Dalton network, being held accountable for work, as well as presentation and public speaking skills. However, the purpose of the Decades Project remains the same: to add a greater level of depth and meaning to 8th grade studies.
The Decades Project continues to be refined (in the early versions the students were trying to do too much and this proved stressful – for them as well as the faculty). Since then the project has grown to address things like: storage space on our network, being held accountable for work, presentation/public speaking skills (the English classes now hold an annual Public Speaking Contest earlier in the year), and so forth. Throughout the development of this assignment they have held to the idea that the end of the year should be a time for students to celebrate the skills and talents they have acquired in Middle School (8th grade being the final year of MS).