Why Use AwesomeStories? - Teaching Students to Do Authentic Research

Most answers to traditional questions are easily found on the Internet. But when presented with well-crafted, open-ended assignments, students have the impetus to go beyond easy answers.

A traditional assignment might look like this:

Locate and interpret the meaning of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

An AwesomeStories assignment, in contrast, might look like this: 

Using the AwesomeStories archive and the linked libraries, read the Gettysburg address and research the events surrounding its writing. Given the massive loss of life in this battle, whose outcome led to the successful advancement of the war process for the North; what thoughts may Lincoln have had while writing this important speech; how are these thoughts reflected in the words of the address?

Making open-ended, thought-provoking assignments is, however, only part of the teacher’s job. Teachers play an essential role in preparing students to be web-literate as well as intellectually capable.  Integrated, technology-rich learning cannot be achieved in a 40-minute session in the Media Center. An on-going, intensive process needs to be:

• introduced with Elementary students;
• expanded and strengthened thereafter; and
• reinforced when assigning every research and writing project.

This is part and parcel of 21st-century teaching and learning.