Decade Days and Research Afternoons

Hello,

Mr. McGill's class has begun our research into the long-ago decade known as the 1990's.  Since our students were born during this decade, they have some familiarity with its events.  We have spent some time in class since the first days of May reviewing the presentations from last year as well as finding information through the Garrison Mill Web Links Notebook about the '90's.  Ms. Schulman has posted helpful links directly related to our decade, but there are also links which can be found in the Online Resources and section as well. 

Students have selected their areas of interest and have begun groupwork related to the presentation.  Your child should be able to name the content area in which they are working, and they know the other members of their group.  They have had time today in which to work with these classmates to identify key facts and areas of interest within their topics. 

Some cautionary statements have been shared with students relating to the presentations and their research:

1.  Students are expected to do nightly research for the presentations.  They need to also stay in close communication with their group members in order to organize any meetings to complete their research.  Likewise, they will need to work together outside regular class time to complete presentations.  These will be shared and filmed during the final week of school (May 19-23). 

2.  Material to be researched and presented needs to be school appropriate.  Some of the events of the 1990's were unfortunate for all who experienced them.  We need to remain respectful in our presentations.  Parent supervision and involvement is strongly encouraged.

3.  It is important to avoid reporting on events or trends which actually are from a different decade.  Though some fads have a period of nostalgic re-emergeance, students need to keep to the true '90's information.  Forcing a current trend or concept into the '90's as a way of simplifying the research process is intellectually dishonest. 

4.  Students need to use search engines with Safe Search technology turned on to alleviate unnecessary links.  Likewise, blogs, chat rooms, and other questionable sources are to be avoided.  The use of appropriate print media is still encouraged. 

It is a positive exercise to review your memories of the decade with your child as he or she searches for interesting facts and stories to relate to classmates.   You may find that "the rest of the story" (apologies to Paul Harvey) was not familiar to you or that time has revised appraisals of an event's significance. 

This should be fun and informative for both researchers and those they teach with their findings.  Of course, if there are any problems, please contact me.  Thank you for your continued help!
Sincerely,

Alex McGill