This Day in History

(Student Handout)

A language arts/cross disciplinary exercise in reading, research,
writing, evaluation and speaking

• You will each be assigned a date to research and present to the class for This Day in History.
• First—go to the web site “History.com” and click on the menu item, “This Day in History.”
• Next, click on the “View Calendar” link on the daily calendar on the left side of the page.
• Next, find the date you have been assigned and click on that to find all of the information about that day in history.
• Next, skim through the Lead Story and many of the articles summarized in the column labeled, “Also on This Day” on the left side of the page.
• Choose an event that occurred before the year 2001that you find interesting.
• Research the date to find at least one additional source beyond the website “This Day in History,” using online or print resources. Document both the resources as if you were doing a research paper.
• Cut out the article from the newspaper, or make a copy from the print source, or print out a copy of the online source you find.
• Turn your research into a full paragraph, summarizing the facts of the event and including at least two sentences of commentary about the significance of the event and its relevance to today’s world. NOTE: do NOT copy the articles word for word—that is plagiarism and it will result in a fail. Summarize the articles in your own words.
• Each day, one student will present his/her date orally as a short speech. The speech will be followed by a brief Question and Answer period.
  (When you make your presentation you will be graded on oral language skills such as making eye contact with your audience, speaking clearly to the back of the room, pausing for emphasis and speaking without stuttering).
• Students will take notes using a Cornell Notes-style format or dialectical journal.
• Following the presentation, students in the audience will write three levels of questions: one factual question that can be easily answered from the notes on the presentation, one question that requires an inference, and one open-ended question that requires thought beyond the presentation, but is inspired by something in the presentation.

Assessment:

Presenter: As the presenter, you will turn in your written paragraph, your resource card(s) and a copy of the article or web page.

Oral presentation.............................................................. 20 points

Written paragraph............................................................ 20 points

Article/resource cards....................................................... 10 points

Total for the assignment................................................. 50 points possible for the presentation

The audience will turn their notes and questions once every two weeks. If you were the presenter sometime during the two-week period, just put a piece of paper in with your notes saying which date you made your presentation – that will earn you the maximum points for that day.

Notes on each presentation................................................ 2 points

3 Levels of questions per presentation................................. 3 points

Total points per presentation.............................................. 5 points

Turn in every two weeks (5 presentations)....................... 25 points possible for 2-week total