JAMESTOWN LETTER ASSIGNMENT - Bellefonte Area School …



CURRENT EVENTS

Bellefonte Area Middle School

8th Grade - Social Studies

2011-2012 School Year

GOAL: The goal of the current event assignment is for students to become aware of what is happening in their local, state, and federal governments. In doing this assignment, students will apply what they have learned in the classroom along with what is happening in the real world of government and politics.

DIRECTIONS:

1. At the beginning of each marking period, each student will be assigned a current event (local, state, national, or global). Some suggestions are listed below.

Local – news dealing with any municipalities (townships, boroughs, school boards) within Centre County or any parts of our county government. I prefer that this level does not go beyond Centre County.

State – news dealing with our state level government (ie. our governor, our state legislature – PA House of Representatives, PA Senate, our state level courts, etc.)

National – news dealing with our federal government (ie. the President, Federal government agencies, Congress – the Senate and House of Representatives, Federal courts like the Supreme Court)

Global – news dealing with governments from around the world or news about the United States and its interactions with foreign governments.

2. Student will be assigned a day in the nine weeks in which their current event is due. If a student is absent on their assigned day they will present their current event immediately when they return to class.

3. Current events need to be selected from media resources within a TWO WEEK time frame from which their presentation will occur. Students need to avoid repeating current events that have already been chosen by other students.

4. Current events needed to chosen from a credible online or print resource. Acceptable forms of resources would include: newspapers, news magazines, publications of news agencies, or official news agency websites. There are internet links to many sources on my school website.

5. A black and white copy of the article needs to be submitted.

6. The written portion of this assignment will include a summary of the article in your own words concluding with why you feel this particular article is relevant to the class. A template can be found on the back of this sheet to assist you in the writing process. The summary should not be less than a half of page in length but not more than a full page. (Please use a standard 12 point font)

7. Words that are unfamiliar to students in the article need to be identified and defined at the end of the written summary. (No less than 2 terms, no more than 5)

8. Students will need to be prepared to answer follow up questions and write a written response to current events that were presented that day.

GRADING CRITERIA – TOTAL OF 20 POINTS

The following will be considered when grading this project:

Written Summary – 10 Points

Relevance – 5 Points

Oral Presentation – 5 Points

Current Event Template

(This is to be used when developing your written summary. You should follow this template to make sure you meet all the requirements. It is not to be turned in.)

Heading

Title of Article:

Author:

Date:

Source: (Link to Source)

Body

Summary of Article in own words:

Relevance of the Article (How does this news relate to government?):

Vocabulary

Difficult words with definitions:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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