Mr.

Mladnick

Current Events Journal

(adopted from Mr. Mladnick)

Due date: December 21st Total number of journal entries: 6 Total point value: 30 points (this is about a quiz grade)
In order to be a global citizen, you need to know what is happening in the world. Building your awareness of issues and events in our local, state, national, and international communities is a beginning to making a positive difference. Therefore, throughout the year, you will be required to read, summarize, and analyze many current events. You will also be sharing what you learn with your classmates. Assignment Steps 1. Once a week, select a newspaper article on a subject of local, state, national, or international concern. Your article may come from a printed newspaper or online news source. Make a concerted effort to select an article that is challenging for you and relates to the subject matter of this class. Unfortunately, many news sites now emphasize fluff articles, so you will need to sift through the news to find something of consequence. For example, avoid gossip about Hollywood celebrities, sports, or stories about random strange and gruesome acts. Instead, focus on stories that pertain to issues that affect our community, state, nation, or world.

2. Read the article you selected 2-3 times, and make sure that you have a good
understanding of the material. Look up new terms, and find the locations of any cities, countries, or regions that are referenced in the article.

3. Put the article aside, and write a one-paragraph summary of the article. Do this without
looking at the article. This will help you to put the information in your own words. Only look back at the article after you are finished with your one-paragraph summary, so you can make sure that your spelling is correct and double-check any facts that you are unclear about.

4. Write a one-paragraph analysis of the article. In this paragraph, focus on your opinions or
reactions to the article. Why is this an important story? What might be some impacts of this? What, if anything, do you think should be done about this issue?

5. Cite the source of your article. Underneath your second paragraph, list the citation for your
article in MLA format. You may use the Citation Machine website (http://citationmachine.net/) to help with this. Below are two examples of citations:
Richtel, Matt. "Driver Texting Now an Issue in Back Seat." New York Times 09 SEP 2009, late ed.: A1. Print. "Venezuela to Get Russian Missiles." BBC News. 12 Sep 2009. BBC News. 12 Sep 2009. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8251969.stm>.

6. Type and proofread to make sure that there are no grammar mistakes and all of your writing is in YOUR OWN WORDS . Any plagiarism will result in a zero. 7. I encourage you to share your journal with friends, parents, teachers etc. They can double-check for grammar mistakes and also write comments on the bottom of the article. You may earn extra credit for this if I can tell there is a substantial discussion taking place.

Mr. Mladnick Grading Rubric for each Current Events Journal

Quality of Current Events Assignme nt (A) 5 points Paragraph is typed First paragraph clearly and thoroughly summarizes the article Second paragraph clearly and thoroughly provides your analysis of the article/issue Paragraph has been perfectly proofread Source is cited in proper MLA format (B) 4 points First paragraph provides mostly clear & thorough summary Second paragraph provides mostly clear & thorough analysis Paragraph has been proofread but may have minor mistakes Source is cited, and I am able to locate it (D) 3 points First paragraph provides somewhat clear & thorough summary Second paragraph provides somewhat clear & thorough analysis Source is cited, and I am able to locate it (F) 2 points or below Summary or analysis paragraphs are very unclear or incomplete Citation of source does not allow me to locate it NOTE: Any plagiarism will result in an automatic zero