During the year 1998 I noticed that Time Magazine was devoting a number of issues to influencial people who helped shape the twentieth century. These issues contained two-page articles on a wide variety of movers and shakers from Mao to Mandela, James Joyce to Jim Henson.

I selected about thirty of these articles, placed them in plastic folders and created a project for my students at the Mae Boyar High School, Jerusalem. My students are in the middle of the project at the moment.

The project requires the student to choose one of the influential personalities, read the article, deal with vocabulary, select quotations from the article, explain terms and concepts, do further research, give an oral presentation, reflect on their learning process and finally evaluate their own achievement.

Recently I discovered that these Time Magazine essays are available on-line and this will enable others to use the project. The articles can be printed, put into folders and given to the students.

If your students have internet access, they can go directly to the site and choose their essays on their own.

It might be a good idea to  introduce the whole subject of the millenium by presenting you students with a  reading passage. Below is a link  something that I used and it proved to be very successful. It serves  as an introduction. You might see it as a "pre-project activity".

The project can certainly be changed and adapted to suit your needs. (Forfeit the oral presentation, require a powerpoint presentation, add more personal and less academic tasks etc.) Sue Kerman, a fellow teacher at Boyar, has adapted and changed the project slightly. She simplified the task page, created a separate reflection page and allocated points differently. Click on the link below.
She will share her experience with you. E-mail Sue at skerman@netvision.net.il
 
 

Please write to me and tell me what you have done with the Millenium project. I will gladly add this information to the page so others can learn from your experience too.
E-mail me at jackpil@jackpil@barak-online.net
 
 

     Jack Pillemer
 
Go to "pre-project reading passage" - OUR CENTURY  - a good way to introduce the subject.

Go to the Time essays - source material for project.

Go to the task page for students - detailed instructions for students.

Go to Sue Kerman's task page  - a slight variation on above.

Go to students' reaction to the project - gleaned from their reflection pages.

Go to A work page on a project called "People of Vision" - Iris Elish has contributed a research project for which the TIME essays could be useful.

Go to Jack Pillemer's Home page - look at other projects and ideas for English teaching