One of the best ways to make history relevant and engaging is to analyze current events before they become history! Check out these project guidelines for a current event research paper, outlining the major required sections of the assignment (i.e. What happened? and So what?) and scoring criteria.

Concepts

primary source analysis, primary sources, news media

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Additional Tags

news, primary source analysis, social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Have learners tie the current event they choose to a historical topic they are currently studying or have studied in the past
• Include a list of useful news sites or newspapers that class members can reference
• Provide an alternative method for submission of online news articles and papers

Pros

• Nicely designed handout that can immediately be distributed (does not include any information that is specific to the author)
• Information is well organized
• Includes great tip on avoiding using the word "I" in formal written work based on fact

Cons

• None

Common Core

RI.7.1 RI.7.2 RI.7.6 RI.8.1 RI.8.2 RI.8.6 RI.9-10.1 RI.9-10.2 RI.9-10.6 RI.11-12.1 RI.11-12.2 RI.11-12.6 WHST.6-8.7 WHST.9-10.7 WHST.11-12.7