Overview Through the study of others’ lives we come to better understand our own; moreover, considering others’ lives makes us aware of all the possible lives we can choose to lead. Some lives offer profiles of success; others demonstrate a quiet courage or seem blessed with the chance to make a difference. People such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. lead lives that seem unavailable to us; King believed, however, that the seeds of greatness lay asleep in all of us and needed only the water of the right moment to make them grow. This project gives you the chance to wade into the deep waters of another’s life in order to learn from it and teach us what you learn and think we should know about that person’s life, era, and culture.

Standards This assignment develops or extends your ability to:

· Research a subject using a variety of tools and sources

· Formulate useful research questions to guide your investigation

· Create and maintain a properly formatted bibliography of all sources

· Read and gather useful details or examples from different sources and types of text

· Properly cite direct and indirect quotations according to the MLA style guide in Writer’s Inc.

· Write about another’s life in order to synthesize your ideas and create a profile of the person you studied

· Speak to the class about the person you investigate and write about

Requirements All students must do or present the following at the end of a unit:

q Read a book about the person, era, or culture you are studying. If, for example, you are studying jazz musician Charles Mingus, you could either read biographies about Mingus or read a book about the jazz era to better understand his place in it.

q Create and maintain an accurate, complete bibliography. This must include web sites, interviews, articles, movies, or books. It must follow the proper bibliographic format outlined in Writer’s Inc.

q Include in your bibliography at least five sources. No more than three of these sources can be from the Internet. Note: A magazine article found through the Newsbank database, for example, does not count as one of the three.

q Produce evidence of your learning and understanding. This is a significant piece of work; no little quick effort. This is the most important product of the project. This evidence might include one of the following:

o Written report

o Dramatic performance (through monologue, play, or spoken word)

o Video documentary

o Multimedia production that incorporates images, words, sounds, etc.

o Something else…which you must propose and get approved.

q Present your findings about your subject (and tell his or her story). This is one of the culminating aspects of the assignment.

q Synopsis for the TeenCyclopedia, an online encyclopedia of teenage culture. Must be submitted electronically.

q Write a proposal. In this proposal, you must explain the following:

o Who you want to study

o Why you want to study them (i.e., what makes their life worth studying?)

o What you will do---and why---during the course of your investigation

o Ten questions you would ask this person if you could interview them?

o What basic resources are available to you for this project

Suggestions Consider using the following resources to find your subject:

· www.biography.com

· http://www.time.com/time/time100/

· biographical dictionary

· www.nga.gov (for artists)

· http://www.nwhp.org/ (for women)

· www.eb.com

· www.african.com (for African-American lives)

· http://www.a-ten.com/a10_recommends/bios_latin.html (for Latino biographies)