You and your partner are free lance book authors and have been hired by a large publisher to write a reference book for elementary aged children. Your job is to research your president and answer the questions on the sheet provided. You were immediately excited about this topic as there have been only 42 men that have served as president. The editor editor wants you and your partner to use your reference skills to uncover some unusual facts on the president that you are researching. It is very important that you have a complete and accurate bibliography at the end of your project.

The group will need to use at least 4 reference sources (web pages, books, and reference books) when searching for your information. This is your chance to prove your abilities and knowledge of reference sources. This could be a big break to get a permanent job with the publisher.

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TASK

Your task is to create a one page report that will tell interesting and unusual facts about an American President. Your writing, research, and product will be from the viewpoint of an elementary school student. You will 'be' the author.

Your presentation will have one hand drawn picture of your President and an interesting report. Each report will be typed on the Alpha Smarts. The report will be formated and put on the Internet for you to report to the class. You will be graded on your report and your presentation.

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Your group will create a 1 page report on your President using the Alpha Smarts.

Step 1:

Choose an assignment with the name of your President. On your activity sheet will be the following questions for you to answer.

Name of President

• Date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Place of birth
• Name of wife or wives
• He belonged to which political party?
• Which college or university did he attend?
• What was his occupation before he became president?
• What years did he serve as President?
• What was his nickname?
• List three interesting facts about his presidency.

All of your work will be done in the library.

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Step 2:

Search the Internet for information on the sites supplied in this Web Quest. Be sure to include all of the information on your assignment sheet for later reference. You bibliography will be graded.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/

http://www.americanpresident.org/history/h_home.shtml

http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/3_frame.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/

President Truman's Library

Presidnet Franklin D. Roosevelt

George H. W. Bush Library

Ronald Reagan Library

Richard Nixon Library

Lyndon B. Johnson Library

James E. Carter Library

Dwight Eisenhower Library

John F. Kennedy Library

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Step 3:

Search two reference sources in the library. You can use encyclopedias, biographical dictionary, and/or books in the history or biography section. Keep all of your notes on your handout for easy reference. (Remember: When using history books you need to search in index for your President.)

Step 4:

Be sure that you have answered all the questions on the worksheet before beginning to write your report.

Step 5

Begin organizing and writing your report, Remember that it only has to be 1 page long with a picture included. You will draw your picture after your report has been printed.

Your report will be presented by you to the class and will be evaluated using the following rubric by the teacher. Please go to that site and print it out so that you KNOW what I am expecting.

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When you have finished this project you will have proved your ability to do research in several different mediums and display your final project. You will also have proved your ability to do a bibliography witch will also be graded. I hope that you have enjoyed this project!

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