Social Studies: Mining Town Newspaper Assignment

In Social Studies, your student has been assigned a group effort project in which they will be creating a newspaper about an 1800's mining town. We've been studying the Arizona Silver Rush and the California Gold Rush in class, as well as newspaper article writing and reading, and the students seem really excited to get started. This will be an opportunity for them to learn more as they research the topic they've chosen for their article (ex: Mine Accident Claims 12 Lives; New Stagecoach Line Begins Service in Town; etc.) and to work in a group to create a finished product.

The topics they choose to write their articles about may be based on factual happenings or completely made up, so long as they are things that reasonably could have happened in an 1800’s mining town. The more creative, the better! The example that I wrote an article about was of a man who had a lost bag of silver returned to him after he left it on the stagecoach he was riding from Tucson to the town that I made up. I continued that the man and the lady that found and returned his bag had begun courting. I included a picture that I had Googled "1800 Wedding Pictures" to find. I've attached a copy of it below as well. Hopefully this will be a chance for them to have some fun!

Each student's final grade will be an average of two grades: A group grade from their work together and the finished product, and an individual grade based on their individual pieces of the newspaper. Please see the attached file for a breakdown of what an 'A' grade requires. This paper was handed out in class the day when students chose the group they wanted to be in and divided up the articles and wanted ad assignments, as well as chose their newspaper title and date. Ask your student what they are assigned to do via their group and feel free to help them get started. :)

Assignment Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o7nMOftIiN4g_7UfytKFidXZZxANM919wA463TgJtC4/edit

Article and Title Example:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QvsuiQY4yCtFMYu7UyBd_GHpnTtQlXUtp43p4f_-w_U/edit

The final products are due as follows:
PATTON: by the end of class Wednesday, January 18
WASHBURN: by the beginning of class Thursday, January 19