Assignment: Look at articles about an important event or issue from several newspapers. (You may specify an event or issue such as stem cell research or education lottery.) Compare how the event is covered in different newspapers and try to explain discrepancies you found.
Purpose: Become familiar with an important type of primary resource. Gain a better understanding of the contexts in which primary resources need to be understood to take account of perspective and bias.
Assignment: Identify opposing viewpoints on a controversial issue and select one to work with. Compare popular and scholarly works supporting your chosen viewpoint.
Purpose: (1) Determine the questions suggested by the problem/assignment. How do the scholarly and popular works differ? What sort of argument and evidence does each type of work offer? Is it clear which works are popular and which are scholarly? (2) Learn about the differences between popular and scholarly resources; learn how to support arguments with statistics, factual information, etc. (And have students think about and determine what is “controversial.”)
Assignment: For your topic find one of each: newspaper article, magazine article, scholarly article, book, reference book, web site, government document. Complete and submit for approval an annotated bibliography of sources that are highly relevant to your topic and be sure to explain why each resource is both relevant to and appropriate for your topic.
Purpose: Learn how to locate different types (formats) of information; to assess that information, and provide a short summary in students' own words.
Assignment: Provide a precise statement of the search topic, a list of keywords or thesaurus terms (as appropriate), and an outline of search logic. Justify the choice of databases. Carry out the search.
Purpose: Show the background research necessary for a successful search; teach the mechanics of searching, and allow students to “concept map”-give a diagram of their thinking about the topic (was it logical?).
Assignment: “What happened on my birthday?” is a good assignment if your students have no topic to research. Find a newspaper for the day you were born; select a story and locate information on the event or person in the story. (You may want to specify the types of sources you want students to use.) Cite your resources appropriately using the recommended style format.
Purpose: Examine different formats of information and cite information responsibly.
Assignment: Ask students to provide a critical response to two journal articles you have placed on reserve or linked on Blackboard. Provide general or specific criteria for the response. (The attached worksheet for another activity may provide criteria you can use.)
Purpose: To assess information; learn to analyze content, and put summary in own words.
Note: If you use a worksheet, have tangible goals and provide a step-by-step assignment. Be sure to have someone else do the assignment first.
Assignment: You may work in small groups with information on an index card that provides a brief description of an event and the date of this event. Working together, find the earliest citation to information about that event in a newspaper, a magazine, a scholarly journal, and a book. Write the complete citation on the worksheet. (Some topics to think about: Three Mile Island accident on March 28, 1979; Chernobyl nuclear accident on April 26, 1986; 1969 Woodstock Festival on August 15, 16, and 17, 1969; Integration of University of South Carolina on September 11, 1963; Kurk Cobain April 8, 1994)
Purpose: Learn more about the information cycle; how information spreads; look at information and time, and develop good research methods.
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