A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah and Sierra Leone – Research Project

Help students better understand the historical context of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah and facilitate the process of researching topics related to Sierra Leone with this low-prep, standards-based resource. Students will choose from thirty relevant subjects—the deposing of Siaka Stevens’ government, the Revolutionary United Front, illegal diamond mining, the West Side Boys, and All People’s Congress to name a few—and navigate credible sources with the goal of teaching others about their topic. A detailed scoring rubric is provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats. Ultimately, students will perform the following tasks:

• Articulate connections between a research topic and the assigned text
• Conduct research using available resources
• Collect and classify reliable sources
• Develop successful methods of recording information
• Evaluate the credibility of nonfiction texts, taking into consideration readability, date, relevance, expertise, and bias
• Apply conventions of MLA formatting
• Correctly site resources to avoid plagiarism
• Organize information in a cohesive manner, using a note-taking system that includes summary, paraphrasing, and quoted material
• Analyze, synthesize, and integrate information, generating a thoughtfully comprehensive report, free of generalities and redundancies
• Present information in a formal, coherent manner