Appropriate for grades 5-12.

 OVERVIEW:

This activity can be adapted to any age group and can be a class research project or a homework project. It makes the study of history more fun.

PURPOSE:

Students often dislike history because they do not see it as relevant to their lives or necessary to know. This activity personalizes history for them.

OBJECTIVES:

Students will construct a newspaper that describes local, state, national and international events on the day they were born.

ACTIVITIES:

• Students will write one editorial concerning an event of their birth year.
• Students will research an issue and find a political cartoon on that issue and include it in the newspaper.
• Students will construct a visual from their birth year. This can be a drawing, a poster, etc. (You may choose to allow them to make a tape of music that was popular during that year.
• Students will interview a person concerning the year they (the student) were born. Students must prepare the questions in advance and write out the answers or use a tape recorder for oral history.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS NEEDED:

All resources are available in most libraries.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:

Students should enjoy this activity. It gives them a sense of perspective and identifies their place in history.

Since most students in the same grade were born about the same year, an in depth study of a single year shows how history must be condensed in history books.