Newscaster+Project

NEWSCASTER PROJECT //Today’s news is tomorrow’s history//.

**Overview:** Current events are central to the freshman history curriculum. As part of this focus, all students are required to make a presentation as a “Newscaster” at least once during the course of the year. Most of this work will be completed outside of class.

**Procedure:** Nearly every week one student will be the “Newscaster” and lead the class discussion on one or more of important events or issues that have been in the news. This discussion will be based on the story or stories the student has chosen and added to the class Newscaster wiki.

Beginning the week before your turn comes up, you should:
 * Use the linked "Resources" listed at the bottom of this page or any other credible news source to help you choose 1 or 2 major news stories.
 * Meet with your teacher to go over the story you've chosen and get set up for editing the wiki.
 * Write a brief (approx. 100-150 words) summary of the story’s main points.
 * Post your summary to the class Newscaster wiki, along with a link to the full article.
 * Add a relevant image (photograph, map, graph, etc.) for the story.
 * Find 2 political cartoons about the event or issue and add them to the wiki. If possible, the cartoons should show different points of view. Use the resources listed at the bottom of the page to find cartoons.
 * Prepare to explain the story to the full class in a 5-10 minute time frame at the beginning of class.

= = =RESOURCES: =

= = Yahoo News

NPR

BBC News

CNN

New York Times

CBS

[|Online news feeds] This site collects current stories from a variety of online news sources, with organizing tabs for domestic, international, economic, and scientific stories.

[|Editorial cartoonists index] This site may take a minute to load. You can find cartoons there in any of 3 ways:
 * Your story may be one of the topics that are indexed together and featured on the page.
 * You can use the "Search for a Cartoon" feature and enter the keyword and date range that help locate cartoons on your topic.
 * You can browse though the "Daily Editorial Cartoons" collection to see the most recent cartoons. [Note: These are not organized by topic.]

[//**SAMPLE NEWSCASTER STORY**//]

Images from yahoo.com

OBAMA DEFENDS MUSLIMS' RIGHT TO BUILD A MOSQUE NEAR GROUND ZERO


 * Speaking from the White House on August 13, President Obama expressed support for the right of a Muslim group to construct a mosque and community center in lower Manhattan, just two blocks from Ground Zero. The President stated that "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country." The proposed mosque has generated controversy and opposition from many Americans who argue that building an Islamic place of worship so close to the spot where over 3000 people were killed by Islamic terrorists is insensitive and offensive. Obama's expression of support was immediately criticized by several prominent Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, but Obama insisted that "in this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion." **

Full story at yahoo.com

Cartoons from http://www.cagle.com