The Task

You and your partner are young journalists in the town of Gettysburg. You are there for the start and end of the vicious battle. Your task is to create the front page of the newspaper that captures the essence of what took place on this great battlefield between the Union and Confederate Armies. As the reporters for your hometown newspaper you must create the front page of the newspaper by writing one article that summarizes the battle from a Confederate perspective and one article that describes the battle from a Union perspective. Finally, your front page must have a political cartoon on it that reflects either perspective. In your articles that summarizes and describes the battle you must answer the following questions:

• What was the significance of Gettysburg? (Why did both armies want this town?)
• What were the actual dates (day, month,year) of this particular battle?
• Who were the 2 leading Generals in the battle?
• Describe the impact of a Condederate and Union officer who is not Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant.
• In the battle's aftermath describe what it must have been like by interviewing someone or through pictures.
• Why is this battle considered the turning point of the Civil War?

Resources

As a newspaper reporter, you are always in need of good sources of information. Fortunately for you and your partner, there is an abundance of resources concerning the Battle of Gettysburg. Of course, you may always refer to encyclopedias or social studies books. However, listed below are several internet sites that you must use in order to get the proper perspective that you will need to write the articles.

The Process

1. First, get into PAIRS! This will be your news team. (I will assign pairs if necessary)
2. As a news team, decide on the name of your newspaper.
3. Each person in the pair will write ONE article. You will both be responsible for editing the articles that make it to the frontpage of your newspaper.
4. As reportes/jounalists you will gather information and take notes from the various resources.
5. Either one of you may be the head of photography. This member will be in charge of making sure that the political cartoon has graphics, captions, figurative language, and presents a perspective.
6. Search the given and outside sources to find information about the Battle of Gettysburg. Make sure to find the answers to the specified task questions.
7. Decide on who will write the Confederate article and who will write the Union article.
8. Use MS Word or Publisher to create the frontpage of your newspaper. Be creative and use either hand-drawn or computer generated graphics to spice up your front page.
9. Your frontpage must be TYPED. Your political cartoon though can be handdrawn on a separate piece of paper.
10. **Remember! Always work together to create the best product.

Congratulations! You are finished!