Lesson 12: National Archives Research Task

Hi everyone!

Welcome to class. This lesson you have three tasks to complete.

1) Online "Find a Soldier" research using The National Archives of Australia website.
Your task is to select a soldier who fought in World War One from the list shown to you by your teacher and to use the National Archives website to locate records that will allow you to read about your soldier and determine what happened to him while he was involved in the conflict.

You may also opt to research a soldier in your family who fought in WWI in the Australian or New Zealand forces.

Got to National Archives of Australia. Follow the instructions for a name search. You may need to try variants of the same first name, but always check dates of birth to make sure you are researching the same person!

Try to answer all of the following questions:

* when and where he was born
* when and where he enlisted
* where and when he served
* any notable incident during his service term (imprisonment, disciplined etc)
* if he was wounded
* the names of his next of kin
* any promotions or demotions in rank
* what happened to him (killed, wounded and demobbed, returned safely etc)

Your answers must be word processed and posted as a comment to this thread. Don't forget to put the names of your group at the bottom of the comment. You must also print your answers and hand them in as a hard-copy.

2) Use your research and the work we did on diaries and letters as primary sources a couple of weks ago to complete an empathy task (500-700 words).

You must take on the role of your soldier and compose a text from his point of view. This text may be in the form of a letter, diary entry, poem or newspaper article- almost anything you wish.

Your empathy task must incorporate historical knowledge that you have gained from this unit so far and is to be word processed and then posted as a comment on this message. You must also print your piece and hand it in to your teacher in hard copy.

-----Both these tasks count towards your assessment grade. You only have this period to complete them. Good luck!------