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.
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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org