News Journal Assignment

Objective:  Students will create a collection of newspaper articles that demonstrate present day examples of the concepts described in each chapter of the textbook.

Directions:

1.    Identify three major concepts / vocabulary associated with each chapter in the textbook.
2.    Locate a newspaper or news magazine article that provides an example of each concept as it relates to modern government and U.S. policy
        a.    Even if an article addresses more than one major concept, you must have three articles per chapter
3.    Formatting:
        a.    Include a copy of the article
            i.    Articles may be no older than January 2010
            ii.    Articles must be from a major national newspaper or news magazines – good sources:
                    1.    Washington Post, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Financial Times, the Economist, Time
                            magazine, Seattle Times, Los Angles Times, Chicago Tribune.
                            If you have questions regarding the suitability of a news source, please see me prior to using it.
            iii.    No blogs, editorials, opinion pieces, or letters may be used; articles must be actual news articles
        b.    Write a paragraph that:
                    1.  identifies and defines the concept(s) / vocabulary addressed by the article (if the article contains multiple concepts or vocabulary,
                         include all of them in your journal entry)
                    2. paraphrases the major points of the article
                    3. explains how the article demonstrates the concept(s) / explains the vocabulary term(s)
        c.    Include an APA citation of the article – if you do not know how to create APA citations, go to http://www.sourceaid.com
        d.    Paragraphs should be typed, spell checked and edited
      
4.    Presentation:  each student will give a 5-minute oral presentation on one article of the student’s choice each semester. 
        The presentation must include:
        •    3 min – information on the news event
        •    2 min –  tie into government unit being studied at the time of the presentation and provide the impact / implications of the news event
            (ie – why does this matter)

Project point value: 10 points per article; each oral presentation is worth 25 points

Project due date:  Article summaries are due on the test day for each unit; presentation dates TBD

Example Article Summary

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