Nancy B. Plaxico, Ben Eielson Jr/Sr High School, Fairbanks, AK

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Appropriate for grades 5-12.

OVERVIEW:  This activity can be adapted to any age group and can
be a class research project or a homework project.  It makes the
study of history more fun.

PURPOSE:  Students often dislike history because they do not see
it as relevant to their lives or necessary to know.  This activity
personalizes history for them.

OBJECTIVES:  Students will construct a newspaper that describes
local, state, national and international events on the day they
were born.

ACTIVITIES:

    Students will write one editorial concerning an event of their
    birth year.

    Students will research an issue and find a political cartoon
    on that issue and include it in the newspaper.

    Students will construct a visual from their birth year.  This
    can be a drawing, a poster, etc.  (You may choose to allow
    them to make a tape of music that was popular during that
    year.

    Students will interview a person concerning the year they (the
    student) were born.  Students must prepare the questions in
    advance and write out the answers or use a tape recorder for
    oral history.

    (Allow students class time to "show off" their work.)

RESOURCES/MATERIALS NEEDED:  All resources are available in most
libraries.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:  My students enjoy this activity.  It gives
them a sense of perspective and identifies this place in history. 
Since most students in the same grade were born about the same
year, an in depth study of a single year shows how history must be
condensed in history books.