TASK:

After an introduction to research tools available in the Media Center you will choose a newsworthy event that occurred during your lifetime and which had a personal effect on you in some way. You will research the event and find the answers to the basic questions: who, what, when, where, why. You will relate the event to its importance in your own life.

PRODUCT:

• You will write an autobiographical essay for your student portfolio [note: an autobiographical essay is a requirement for the student writing portfolio] that contains these elements: 4 or 5 facts about the newsworthy event that occurred in your lifetime and the reason(s) why this event meant something to you, i.e., why this event was important in your life.
• You will design a graphic representation of the newsworthy event for a classroom display.
• You will orally present your essay to the class.

Step 1 Questioning

You ask: What do I want to know?

You will ask these questions:

• which newsworthy event that has happened during my lifetime has made an impression on me?
• how has it impacted my life?
• when did the event occur?
• who was involved in the event?
• what happened during the event; what was the outcome?
• where did the event occur?
• why did the event occur; what caused the event?

Step 2 Planning

You ask: How will I locate information on the event?

You need to use the available resources described during the orientation:

• Alexandria Researcher (online card catalog)
• general print encyclopedias
• ProQuest
• SIRS Researcher
• Grolier online

Note: If no information is available about the event in any of these resources you may [with teacher permission] use an Internet search engine, such as Lycos or Ask Jeeves, to look for information on the event.

Step 3 Gathering Resources

You will obtain information from the sources you found.

• you will take notes from print resources
• you will print out articles from any of the online computer sources

Step 4 Sort

You will record the information you found in an organized manner to answer the questions you proposed in Step 1.

Steps 5-6 Synthesis/ Evaluation

You will determine whether you have enough information to complete the task and answer the research questions. If not, you will revisit Step 2 and Step 3.

Step 7 Product

You will

• write the ECR containing the facts about the event and the reasons why the event is important in your life
• present your findings orally to the class
• create or find (may need to revisit Step 3) a graphic representation of your event

The class will

• create a classroom wall mural of the graphic representations of the events reported
• collect data on the events chosen and display the data in a spreadsheet/graph; data collected may be, for example, the number of times an individual event was chosen by students or which year(s) were the most eventful for the students in the class.

Following is a list of newsworthy events that may be used if you cannot think of an event on your own (1986 - present) --

Events

AIDS epidemic spreads

apartheid ends in South Africa [1991]

Auto news: SUV craze and creation of Saturn

Berlin Wall torn down [11-1989]

Blizzard of  1996/2003

body piercing/ tattoos popularity

cellular phone revolution

Clinton scandal/ impeachment [1-1999]

Columbine shootings [4-20-1999]

drought of '99

earthquake in California [1994]

Elian Gonzalez - Cuban refugee

Heaven's Gate cult in California [3-1997]

herbal/homeopathic remedies popularity

human genome mapping

Hurricane Andrew [8-1992]

Internet explosion

John F. Kennedy, jr. plane crash [7-1999]

John Glenn goes back into space [10-1998]

Jurassic Park movie (original) [6-1993]

Mark McGwire home run record [hit 70 in 1998]

O.J. Simpson trial [1995]

Oklahoma City bombing [4-19-1995]

Olympics

Persian Gulf War [1990-91]

Presidential elections: 1992 (Clinton/GHW Bush), 1996 (Clinton/Dole), 2000 (GW Bush/Gore), 2004 (GW Bush/Kerry)

Princess Diana's death  [8-31-1997]

pro wrestling popularity

rap music becomes mainstream

Rodney King & the L.A. riots [1992]

September 11, 2001 events

space shuttle program disasters: Challenger  [1-28-1986] and Columbia [2-1-2003]

talk shows popularity (Oprah, Montell, etc.)

USSR split [1991]

Waco, Texas/  Branch Davidians [4-19-1993]

war on terrorism: al-Qaeda/Osama bin Laden/ Saddam Hussein

World Trade Center bombing [2-26-1993]

X-Files television show [premiered 1994]

Y2K new millennium

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