TITLE:  CURRENT EVENT JEOPARDY

AUTHOR:  Connie G. Ford, Eastgate Elementary,
         East Helena, MT

GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT:  4-12, current events

OVERVIEW:  Once a week our class is fortunate to receive a
current event newspaper written for our grade level.  It
contains interesting articles about recent happenings from
all around the world.  In the past we had usually read the
paper either together or silently and then discussed it as a
group.  Although the articles were of high interest, the
same old weekly pattern of reading and discussing had become
tiresome for the students as well as for me.

PURPOSE:  In order to create some variety and fun while
studying our weekly current event newsweek, we will create
questions and answers to use in a game similar to Jeopardy.
Cooperative skills will also be used as the students work
together in their groups of four.

OBJECTIVES:  Desired specific outcomes are:
1.   Students will read their current event newsweek with
     the purpose of highlighting possible questions and
     answers for the Jeopardy game.
2.   Students will use their cooperative learning skills to
     decide which questions are to be used, the price of
     each question according to it's difficulty, and who
     will be the group secretary.
3.   Students will develop study skills for finding the most
     important information in an article.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS NEEDED:
1)  one current event newspaper for each student, ie:
    Scholastic Newsweek or Weekly Reader
2)  paper and pencil for each student
3)  one light colored marker or highlighter for each
    student
4)  a chalkboard in front of the classroom
5)  a piece of red chalk, blue chalk, and white chalk.

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1.   Weekly current event newsweeks are to be passed out to
     each student.  Students are then to read the magazine
     silently and use a light colored marker to highlight
     any information they think may be used in the upcoming
     game.
2.   When the majority of the class is finished reading, I
     assign each cooperative group of four students one
     article.  (If there are extra articles, some groups may
     be assigned a second article if theirs was a short
     one.)
3.   Each student then decides on a question from their
     article to use in the Jeopardy Game.  He must also have
     the correct answer.
4.   Each group secretary uses one sheet of paper to record
     his group's article title, the names of the students in
     their group, and the four questions and answers that
     have been decided by the group members.
5.   Members of each group then give each of their four
     questions a price of $100-$400 according to it's level
     of difficulty.  The price should then be written next
     to each question.  Upon completion, the teacher will
     collect the papers from each group.
6.   While the groups are working, the teacher uses a
     chalkboard to make a Jeopardy Board as follows:
     across the top of a grid write, PUT ARTICLE TITLES IN
     THESE BOXES.  Going down, write $100, $200, $300, $400.
7.   I then divide the class into two large groups, making
     sure not to separate any members from their cooperate
     group.  The first group will be called the Blue Team
     and will use blue chalk on the Jeopardy board.  The
     second group will be called the Red Team and will use
     red chalk on the Jeopardy board.
8.   The Jeopardy Game begins with one student from the Blue
     Team.  He selects one of the six article categories and
     also a dollar amount.  (He may not choose the article
     that his group designed.)
9.   I then read his question.  He has fifteen seconds to
     come up with the correct answer.  During this fifteen
     seconds he may check back to his news magazine
     containing the article and highlighted information if
     he chooses to do so.
10.  If he answers correctly, he may go up to the Jeopardy
     board and write the dollar amount in the appropriate
     category box using blue chalk.
11.  If he does not answer correctly, the Red Team then has
     fifteen seconds to answer the question correctly.
12.  Only a student who did NOT help to design questions for
     that category may answer, and every member of a team
     must try to answer a question before any of his team
     members answers a second question.
13.  If neither team can correctly answer the question after
     two tries each then the dollar amount goes to me and I
     fill in the appropriate dollar amount for that category
     with my white chalk.
14.  The game continues as each team takes turns selecting
     categories until the entire Jeopardy board has been
     completed.  At this point the money earned for each
     team is added up to determine the winner of the game!
15.  During the course of the game, if a student believes
     his answer to be correct and the group's answer who
     originated the question to be incorrect, he may
     challenge the question and prove them wrong with his
     evidence from the article.  If he is successful, his
     team is then awarded the dollar amount for that
     question.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:  As a class, discuss strategies that
were used during the game.  Share ideas for ways to find
answers more quickly. Discuss why some answers were too
difficult and why some were too easy.  Were the main ideas
of the articles covered in the questions?  How could our
cooperative groups function more effectively?  Some students
may even want to take the newspaper home the night before
and begin reading and highlighting information early.  I
feel this is acceptable especially for slow learners.