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The Long and Short of It
Young scholars take a look back at the week's news by exploring the news summaries article offered in The New York Times' Week in Review section each week. They look further into ongoing news stories of interest to them in order to...
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It's a Draw!
Students assess the ways in which editorial cartoons, both current and historic, offer insight into events that shape our world. They create a poster that includes a current editorial cartoon and their explanation of the details of the...
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National Security; The Rosenbergs, Espionage
Students research the history of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as a lens through which to consider that cases involving a breach of national security tend to be very complicated. They reflect that problems with national security have...
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A Civil Action
Students explore the roles of law enforcement officials, the news media, and civilians in crime prevention and criminal apprehension. They envision ways to build and strengthen community partnerships to address concerns about crime.
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The "Ad" Survey-What Makes a Print Ad Convincing?
Students develop opinions from a variety of materials, recognize and analyze bias, propaganda and stereotypes, and evaluate effectiveness of print advertisements.
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Soccer Fever Gets Hot
Students examine rules of soccer, focusing on basic skills necessary to play, create imaginary team, match players with positions that best fit their skill levels and personalities, and practice new skills with classmates.
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Oil Spill!
Young scholars examine how oil spills are cleaned through an interactive program. They review the facts of oil spills and how the oil spreads. They discuss the short and long term effects of a spill and how they can be avoided.
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9-1-1: Response, Rescue and Recovery
Students discover the many types of emergency management teams through an interactive program. They review the history of FEMA and the Red Cross. They focus on terrorist attacks and how different groups are trained to respond to the...
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Get Ready to Rumble
Students use the Internet to examine earthquakes. They discover the theory of tectonic plates and analyze faults throughout the world. They also examine the science of seismology to explain how earthquakes are measured.
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Heroes and Role Models
Students identify heroes and role models they are familiar with. They write a paper about people they know or celebrities they admire. They research people using the Internet and other research materials.
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Real Life Or Broken Mirror? Examining Media Representations of Teenagers
Students analyze representation of teenagers in the news and other media, discuss importance of media literacy in interpreting media portrayals of reality, and discuss and write about accuracy, or lack thereof, of media images of young...
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Exit to the Left
Students share their own thoughts about the United States' involvement in Iraq. They read an article about what the Democrats would do if they were in charge. They develop a poll for members of their community to take and analyze the...
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Your Angle on the Story
Students review several articles on same current event, and then cover news issues themselves while assuming secret identities of various individuals who have vested interests in issue. Students write newspaper articles from these...
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Advertising
Students explore the advantages/disadvantages of advertising and all it entails for the consumer. Public relations is examined in depth. In addition, media, slogans, promotion and elements of print and color are examined in detail.
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Tectonic Plates, Earthquakes, and Volcanoes
Challenge geography classes to locate the major volcanoes and earthquake faults on a world map. In groups, they identify the pattern made and examine the relationship between the locations of the faults and volcanoes and tectonic...
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Temperature in a Cultural Context
Fourth graders investigate the effects of temperature on Native American lifestyle and culture. In small groups they conduct research on cultural practices showing a connection to the climate and create a poster displaying their...
National First Ladies' Library
All the News That's Fit to Draw: Political Cartooning and the Presidency
Students research, analyze and study the history of political cartooning in the United States. They recognize a political cartoon, be able to identify the main idea, the symbols and the exaggeration and caricature in political cartoons....
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Opinionnaire Worksheet -- Folk and Family Heroes
In this opinion worksheet, students think about heroes they know and reveal what they think about them by marking responses to the questions and completing the statements.
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Political Parties and Election Results, 1997 and 2000
Students become familiar with the results of the Canadian Federal Election by analyzing data on the number of valid votes by political affiliation. In this civics lesson plan, students integrate data and knowledge with other research...
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Reporting Live from the 20th Century!
Students read and write newspaper articles. For this newspaper article writing lesson, students collect and share current news articles, examine how they are written, then choose an event from the 20th century and write their own news...
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Make a Tray for Mother's Day
Students create a Mother's Day gift. In this arts and crafts lesson, students use paper mache to make a tray.
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The Battle Over Reconstruction: The Aftermath of War
Students explore public sentiment regarding Reconstruction. In this Reconstruction lesson, students analyze primary sources for evidence of the political, social and economic stability of the U.S. following the Civil War. Students...
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Problems with our Food System: Hunger
Students understand that hunger causes many deaths a year and many children are trapped as slaves through watching a video. In this hunger and child slavery activity, students write letters to call attention to the problems of hunger and...
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The Basics of Journalism: A Little Preview
Students define journalism and identify the basic components of a news story. In this journalism basics lesson, students define the word journalism, read a new story, and break it into parts with two major characteristics for each...