MISS GRASSER'S SOCIAL STUDIES GRADE 6

This coming year in sixth grade social studies will be an exciting expedition into ancient cultures like the mummies and pyramids of ancient Egypt or Hammurabi's Code in ancient Mesopotamia or the gladiators of ancient Rome! What do you already know about these ancient people?

ALL students in the middle school must take the responsibility to gain an understanding of current events. To keep this assignment as simple as possible but useful to understanding the world around them, the following will be required:

1. On assigned dates, students will bring in one article, which they should be prepared to discuss. Having the article in class on the appropriate day will count as part of their current event grade. Students must write or type (and attach) a 5-10 line summary of the article (in his/her own words). The summary should include who, what, when, where, why, and how. Then students must write a 5-10 sentence explanation of how this event affects his or her life. The article must be from the assigned week and must be from a newspaper or magazine (not online). Articles that deal with inappropriate topics will not be accepted.

The following dates have been assigned:
Friday, September 19
Friday, October 3
Thursday, October 16
Friday, October 31

2. Students should be prepared to discuss the article and will be randomly called one time during the marking period to discuss the article. They will be graded on their presentation using the following criteria:

i. Showing an understanding of the event(s) in the article. [including who, what, when, where, why, how] (10 points)

ii. Explaining why they chose a particular article. (10 points)

iii. Giving an opinion about the information in the article and using information from the article to make their points. (10 points)

iv. Explaining how this article affects his or her life. (10 points)

v. Using proper speech etiquette, including making eye contact with the audience, speaking in a loud, clear voice, standing in a comfortable position, and not reading from notes. (10 points)

vi. Being prepared when called upon. (10 points)

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