This website gives a procedure and assistance for students to perform an Authentic task with real-world relevance. It is ill-defined in that there are multiple ways that students can come up with the individual story of the soldier they have chosen. It is a task that will require some effort, time and access to computers with internet connections. It is advisable to commence the task around 6 to 8 weeks before ANZAC Day, so that the published stories can be read at an appropriate time.

A wide variety of resources are available on WW1 and links are provided to the most useful of these. A sequence for research is suggested but the interpretation and use of these links is up to the student user.

This task is designed primarily to be an individual task, however there are great opportunities for it to be utilised as a collaborative project. It could be organised where each group researched a number of soldiers equal to the number of students in the group. They could share the writing of the stories as a group effort in order to make the best of the sometimes different aptitudes of the individual students.

It is important for the students to remember that these soldiers were not much older than they are now when they went to war. Students should use their imagination to put themselves in the position of the soldier so that they can gain perspective and empathy for the soldiers experiences.

This task should be modfied, or aspects of it used so that it complies with the syllabus the teacher is using. It is best used as part of an assessment task in order to provide motivation and justify the amount of time and effort that the task requires. The task may be usable in a range of subjects (such as English, History and Modern History) as well as the computer subjects IST and IPT. An example of such as task given to Year 11 Information Processing and Technology students can be downloaded in Word or Acrobat (pdf) format.

This website should make it easier for students to research individual soldiers from WW1, and help them to realise that the names on memorials represent real people. It is also intended to make it easier for teachers to set authentic assessment tasks related to this theme (in the case of computer students, the use of technology in a real world, useful situation). Please feel free to contact me at the email address below if you have used this site and/or have suggestions that will make it more useful to you. If you design an assessment task using this site and are happy to share it with others, please send me a link and I will add it to the site. Use the Feedback form to send me a message.