Contemporary History 1-3-11

Students will work in partners to create an I-movie newscast about stories that took place over break 
12-22-11 / 1-3-12.
Newscast must include but not limited to this information:
World news 
Local News
Sports
Economics/Technology
Entertainment

Contemporary History 11-8-11

What if the Secret to Success is FAILURE?

Read the article.
Write your own editorial on the article.
Create two questions or concerns you might have regarding the article.

11-3-11 Contemporary History Class

Write a 600-800 word position paper on any of the particular topics


Essay Topics

Current Events 10-31-11

Students will create a newspaper about the news that took place over the last month.
October 2011, 
Group #1-Front Page Headline News
Group #2-World News
Group #3-Midlands/Local
Group #4-Sports
Group #5-Finance/Technology
Group #6-Entertainment

Minimum of four articles per group

Contemporary History Assignment 9-29-11

Why is it news? Each day, newspaper editors around the world must make decisions about which stories they will publish. Stories make it into newspapers for many different reasons. Invite students to look at the stories that have made the front page of a local newspaper during the last few days and to talk about why each of those stories made headlines. Among the reasons students might come up with are these:

• Timeliness -- News that is happening right now, news of interest to readers right now.
• Relevance -- The story happened nearby or is about a concern of local interest.
• Magnitude -- The story is great in size or number; for example, a tornado that destroys a couple houses might not make the news but a story about a tornado that devastates a community would be very newsworthy.
• Unexpectedness -- Something unusual, or something that occurs without warning.
• Impact -- News that will affect a large number of readers.
• Reference to someone famous or important -- News about a prominent person or personality.
• Oddity -- A unique or unusual situation.
• Conflict -- A major struggle in the news.
• Reference to something negative -- Bad news often "sells" better than good news.
• Continuity -- A follow-up or continuation to a story that has been in the news or is familiar.
• Emotions -- Emotions (such as fear, jealousy, love, or hate) increase interest in a story.
• Progress -- News of new hope, new achievement, new improvements.

American History Assignment 9-15-11

Students imagine they are reporters for a northern newspaper who have been sent to the South to write a blog post about the effects of the war. Each blog should include the physical changes in the South along with the emotional responses to these changes.Civil war website

World History Assignment 4-18-11

Teaching freshmen to use blogger as academic tool!