Freshman Trip Assignment: Tour Guides

Note: What follows is the assignment sheet from 2010.  Specifics may change for 2011, but it is left here as a preview of what is to come:

Ancient sites can be tremendously powerful. They connect us to our human heritage, linking us to those who preceded us hundreds or thousands of years ago and whose influence lives on today. In those ruins, we can see the successful manifestation of the human desire to create something bigger than ourselves, something that can defy our own mortality, something permanent. By visiting and preserving those sites, we reinforce that timeless human mission.

However meaningful ancient sites may be on an existential level, though, they can lack meaning on a practical one. They are skeletons, providing the barest of outlines of what once existed, and only the informed and the creative can begin to restore meat to those bones.

Your job as tour guides is to make one ancient site reveal its secrets to us. Be story tellers - describe what life was like in this place during its height. Who visited this place? What did they do here? Were there any famous events that occurred here? Be informative - identify important buildings and structures for us. Provide critical background details to us. Be selective - decide what we need to know to appreciate what we see without getting bogged down in unnecessary details. Think about how hard it can be to absorb new names, dates, and facts, and focus on only the critical ones.

You will work in pairs or trios. The expectation is that all group members will participate equally in all stages of the assignment. In other words, one person can't do all of the prep while the other does all of the speaking at the historical site. That said, you should consider the strengths of each person and take advantage of those in your work.

Tour Guide Project, Part I - Research

The first part of the project requires you to learn about your assigned site in great detail. As a starting point, I will provide you with some background materials, pulled primarily from the Blue Guide to your specific site, the Archaeological Guide to Rome, and the Companion Guide to Rome. In some cases, these materials are quite extensive; in others, they're a little more sparse. Regardless, let me stress that they are intended as a starting point and the expectation is that you will pull material from a number of sources. In addition to print materials, look for DVDs or videos on the subject (I've acquired a handful of these that are available to you); it will help you a great deal to have a visual sense of the place. Specific expectations for your Research portion of the project are:

• Organize notes by source (in other words, list all of the useful details you have found from the Blue Guide, followed by notes from the next source, then the next one, etc.)
• Use a minimum of five sources - each of which provides a number of useful facts
• Notes in your own words or brief direct quotes
• Cover all important parts of your site as well as historical background
• Include maps/pictures as needed
• Highlight / mark the details that strike you as necessary for your presentation
• Turn in one document (combine all group members' work)

Tour Guide Project, Part II - Handout

In support of your presentation, you are required to prepare a handout (minimum one page) for the group. While you may tailor this to fit your presentation plans, all handouts are required to cover three areas:

• Historical Overview: A one-paragraph summary of the site's origins and peak
• Description of Key Buildings/Features: What are the 4-6 things at the historical site that all visitors must see and understand to fully appreciate the site? List and briefly describe them here
• Map: Include a map of the site and, if possible, the planned route we will follow through it

The handout should be easy to read, carefully edited, and properly formatted. It can be a single sheet of paper, a tri-fold brochure, or whatever other style that makes sense for your site. Most importantly, it needs to mirror your presentation, providing the group with a handy overview of what you've planned for us and an even more useful reminder of it afterward. As such, you will find that the design of this handout requires you to begin planning your presentation. The handout should serve, essentially, as an outline of your tour guide plans.

Tour Guide Project, Part III - Presentation

Over the month of March, your presentation plans should gradually come into focus. In the final week before departure, you will be required to submit detailed plans. These plans should include the following:

• Itinerary for the visit (what will we see, in what order)
• Speeches for each major site and historical overview
• Plans for self-guided parts of the visit
• All necessary supporting materials

In addition to submitting print copies of all of these plans, you will be required to make a "practice run" of your presentation for at least two of the trip leaders. Obviously, we can't actually visit the site in advance of our trip, but we will simulate conditions to the greatest extent possible.

As you begin planning, consider just what kind of tour you want to run. Does it make the most sense to keep the whole group of 21 people together, guiding it from one important spot to the next, with one or both of you speaking in each place? Does it make more sense to split into small groups? Could you and your partner prepare interpretive skits that recreate what would have happened at your site? Are there activities you could create that would help the audience to better connect with the site (for example, a "Scavenger Hunt" that requires them to find different buildings or images)? Start your planning from these question: What kind of tour do you wish you could be on? What do you think is the best way to connect with a historical site?

Also consider what your site allows for. A place like the Colosseum is more restricted - you don't have a ton of space to work with, the tourists will be packed in there, and there will be a lot of background noise. A place like Hadrian's Villa is more open, with acres and acres of space to maneuver. It's also important to be prepared for sub-optimal conditions. For example, what will you do if it rains? We're not canceling the tour; you have to be ready.

Have fun with this. Your work as a tour guide will shape the experiences that your peers have at these sites, the most important ones we visit on our trip. A great tour leader can produce life-long memories.