Poor kid. He thought he had me.
Here’s the post I had on the class’s website:
• For homework tonight, please:
* begin your primary research for your paper and start work on your annotated bibliography. I’ve attached a sample annotated bibliography for you at the bottom of this post.
* re-read the first five chapters of The Handmaid’s Tale, taking careful notes. Please write a short – 2-3 sentence – summary of the chapters as you go.
* re-read the article I handed out in class (I’ve attached a PDF to the bottom of this forum post). Write a brief summary of the article, making note of the elements that stood out for you, confused you, frustrated or angered you. You’ll use this to help guide your participation in our class discussion tomorrow.
Sample Annotated Bibliography:
• “Kristallnacht; A Nationwide Pogrom.” (Citation: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom.” Holocaust Encyclopedia.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005201
(accessed October 27, 2009).
Summary: The article is about the pogrom and covers both the events leading up to it and what happened afterward. The article goes into detail about who was targeted, what organizations and people were behind the riots, and what effect the riots had on German policy toward Jewish citizens.
Evaluation: The article is fact-based and does not offer opinions or arguments. I have good reason to trust that the article is accurate because it is posted on the U.S. Holocaust Museum’s web page, and I know that the USHM is a reputable source for information about the Holocaust.
Connection to research: This article will be incredibly helpful for my research. In fact, it answers just about all of my guiding questions. In addition to having a lot of useful information, the article also includes suggestions for further research, and these are sources which I can also trust to be reliable. These other sources may have more – or a different kind of – information that I will find helpful.
One of my kids left this as a comment:
“The article is about the pogrom and covers both the events leading up to it and what happened afterward.”
Spell checker here! proof reading is a good thing 
To which I replied:
Jess, a “pogrom” (not “program”) is an organized massacre or race riot, specifically of Jews. It’s not a spelling error; it’s just a word you haven’t encountered yet.
