American Literature • M. Sierra-Perry
The curriculum for junior year is American literature with an emphasis on research. Through this assignment, students are introduced to basic and sophisticated research methods. This assignment provides the opportunity to discuss primary and secondary sources. Students can receive instruction in using online search engines and online data bases that our schools participate in through other agencies.
Directions: Your will commence research on something more important to "you" than anything else--Your birthday! You will discover TEN (10) things that happened on the day you were born. At least one of these ten items must be pre-twentieth century--that means before 1900.
In this unit you will learn:
Due Date ___
What to Do:
First: Discover where resource materials are in the media center which can help you with this project. We will visit the library as a class and determine what resources will help you with your project.
Second: Identify TEN (10) events which happened on your birthday (NOT ALL the SAME Year). At least one of the events must have happened before 1900. Use the resources in the library to find some of these items. Describe each event and indicate where you got the information.
Third: Pick ONE of the ten events identified and find FIVE resources which will provide detailed information about the event. Appropriate resources include books, encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, CD-ROMs and the Internet. Present this information in the form of a "works cited" page. Use your MLA style book as a guide.
Fourth: Read as many of the above resources as possible. Pick ONE resource and write a précis for the information presented. Be sure to indicate the source of the information.
Fifth: Read another source about the event you have chosen and compare it to the previous one. What type of additional information did the second source provide? Which article was more valuable to you in your research. Which presented the information more coherently?
Sixth: Gather as much information as possible about your chosen event. Discover What happened, WHY, WHERE, HOW, and TO Whom. Make notes. We will write in class about your event. Your will use your notes to create a PowerPoint presentation to inform us of other reasons YOUR birthday is very special!
I have found that I need to revise my rubric for the PowerPoint presentation that students completed for assessment purposes. The revised rubric will allow me to span the ability levels of my advanced and regular education students. As I said in my reflection last week. I find myself revisiting my assessments regularly.
This is the third semester that I have tried to use this assignment with all my American literature students. Generally, the lower ability grouped students did not complete it. This year, however, most completed the assignment in my American Literature 303 class. What I did find with this type of assessment is access to the lab is crucial. This group of students took a long time finding information. Few had had experience with the depth of research and evaluation of web sites that I expected. However, after the unit, I found them to be more critical of sources quoted in newspapers and in the book that we were reading. During parent conferences, one of the parents shared with me that her son was sharing his critical thinking with a younger sibling. He even spoke to them about things he read in the newspaper.