Here are assignments you can use to engage your students with this week's news, events, and anniversaries.These lessons will help your students to interact with The Wichita Eagle while meeting state standards.

For many more activities, visit the student pages.

Feb. 8-12, 2010

Language Arts

1. Argument mapping. This activity is terrific for helping students build an “argument” with supporting details. Assign them an issue from today’s news to debate. They should draw facts and details from the news to support their side. If students have computer access, you may want them to go online to use this fantastic free tool for creating an “amap,” or argument map. Take a look at this sample amap for a debate about which comic strip is funniest. The tool enables students to take a position and to fill in supporting details to create the map. It’s very cool and easy to use. You can choose a simple topic like the comic strips or a more weighty one like whether President Obama will succeed in working in a bipartisan manner to pass a health care bill. Here is a sample argument map about which comic is the funniest.

2. The Olympics start in Vancouver, Canada this week. Since it's a competition, there will be winners and there will be losers. Invite your students to look through the Sports section of the digital or print newspaper to find an article about one of the events. Have them write either a letter of congratulations to the winner or a letter of consolation to a loser, using facts from the story.

3. Black History continues. This week, invite your students to enjoy the work of Langston Hughes. Here is one of his most well-known works:
Mother to Son
By Langston Hughes (1902- 1967)

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s
had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
Ise still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
From Memory of Kin
edited by Mary Helen Washington,
published by Doubleday in 1991

Read the poem aloud as students listen. Hughes uses the image of a "crystal stair." What do your students think he means? Have them write a poetic description of an
ordinary object from today’s newspaper. Allow time for them to read their descriptions aloud while the other students page through the paper (they can use the thumbnails tool if they are working with an e-edition.) to see if they can guess what object is being described.

Math

1. Because sports are especially big news this week, it's a great time to have students skim the Sports section of the newspaper and list all
   the sports covered. They should count how many stories there are about each sport. Then they should make a graph that shows that information. They can write three observations about their graph. If you prefer, they can use this cool online tool to create a graph.

2. Here’s a great way to have students practice estimation. The mission is to estimate how many words are in the lead story on the front page. Before they begin, have them brainstorm methods they could use to get the most accurate estimation. Utilizing one of the methods discussed, have them estimate. You may want to create a graph showing the guesses of everyone in the class. Then assign several students to do an exact count of the words to see which estimation method worked best.



Science

1. . It may be fun to have students use the weather information in the newspaper to compare your local weather to the weather in Vancouver, Canada. What news coming out of Vancouver is related to the weather? Also, click here for a series of videos from NBC, explaining the science behind the Olympic events.

2. In honor of Black History Month, introduce students to Benjamin Banneker. He was the first African American astronomer, mathematician, and surveyor. He was
also an inventor. Among his accomplishments were writing an almanac about the stars, helping to plan the streets and buildings of Washington DC, and
inventing a clock that strikes every hour. Students can look in the newspaper for an article that would fit each of Banneker’s main interests - astronomy, math,
city planning and inventing.

Social Studies

1. Explain to students that on February 9, 1861, Jefferson Davis was chosen to be president of the Confederate States of America. That was a group of seven states, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, that had seceded or separated from the Untied States of America. As students already know, that Confederacy ceased to exist with the end of the Civil War in 1865. Ask students to think about how today’s newspaper might be different if the Confederacy still existed. Which stories do they think they wouldn’t see? They should choose two and write about why those stories wouldn’t exist if America had split in two permanently.

2. On February 10, 1897, The New York Times newspaper began using a slogan, “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” What do your students think that means? Is there any news in the newspaper that they don’t think is “fit to print?” Have them find out if your local newspaper has a slogan and compare and contrast the two.

3. In honor of Lincoln’s 201th birthday this week on February 12, invite students to listen to the words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, spoken by actor Jeff Daniels. They should take note of the last sentence where he speaks about the government we should have. Do students believe we have that type of government? Have them look through the newspaper for proof that the government Lincoln described did or did not “perish from the Earth.” They should write an essay giving their opinion and their proof.


Teachers! Got a newspaper lesson you'd like to share? Please click the discussion tab above and post your lesson.

Lessons written by Deborah Drezon Carroll. Carroll taught for ten years in Philadelphia, PA and is the author of two parenting books and is currently working on a new one. (Check out her blog at http://raisingamazingdaughters.wordpress.com.) She also coordinated the Newspaper in Education department of the Philadelphia Inquirer for 16 years.
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