In an attempt to develop your ability to interpret scientific articles and historical/literary articles, you will be assigned to read and report on a selection of scientific/historical literature throughout the year. Sometimes you will be given the article to analyze or you may be asked to select one on a particular topic. After thoroughly reading and discussing each article, prepare a critical analysis using the following guidelines:

1. Using bibliographic style, provide the name of the author, publication, title, and date of the article.  I highly recommend Discovery, Natural History, Smithsonian, Time, Newsweek  and the Science Section (Tuesday) and The Week in Review Section (Sunday) of the New York Times .
2. In four sentences or less: What do you think the author's purpose was for writing this article?
3. What are any pertinent and unique facts that you have learned?  A good suggestion is to jot down on index cards the main ideas, new information, or questions you might have for each paragraph or section that you read.
4. What questions are raised by the article?
5. How did this information affect your attitude and perspective on the subject? Is there anything that you did not understand?  Is there a need for further research?
6. List and define all new vocabulary words.  There should be a minimum of three words.

All articles and their analyses will be kept in a marble notebook that you will also use for your Glossary.  Your name and class should appear on the front cover.  On the next page start a table of contents, which lists the name of each article in the order it appears in your journal.  Each week you will attach your article to its own page and write your analysis on the page facing it.  It is important that you limit your writing to a single page!

At the end of each marking period, we will collect your journals and grade them out of a total of 40 points.  We will check it for completeness and then select 1 of the articles to grade.  (You will not know which one in advance - so be prepared!)  You may be able to get extra credit for extra articles that have been approved. This is the rubric we will be using:     
                                                                                                 Your Grade

Joyce Kent