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Veterans Day Newspaper
Students examine the reasons for and origins of the Veterans Day holiday. They define key vocabulary terms, read and discuss the article "The Origins of Veterans Day," conduct research and complete a worksheet, and create a class...
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High Profiles
Students research and write newspaper articles about current world leaders, using a New York Times International article as a model. They research a current world leader's personal background and political history.
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Striving for Success
Learners explore their own talents and create interview questions for a peer involved in a particular extracurricular activity. They write newspaper articles based on the interviews.
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Go For the Gold!
Middle schoolers are introduced to the history of Greece and the Olympic Games and then research the history and sports in order to write a research paper. They make connections between the 2004 Olympics and the past Olympic Games and...
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Harry Potter Debate
Students read a short article about the upcoming release of the new Harry Potter novel. They debate the issues surrounding the marketing of students's books and films after internet research to support or oppose the topic.
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A Rewarding Endeavor
Students develop a survey to find out if people would return an envelope of money they found. Include options for giving it to the police, advertising for the one who lost it. Students place their research in a feature article that...
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Contraceptives and conscience
Students read The New Republic article and/or watch the News Ohio streaming video package. They employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different...
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First Amendment and the Future
Students read the Knight report and discuss key findings before deciding what aspects of the findings students can replicate in their own school and conduct a survey. They write survey questions and test them on sample group before...
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Beyond Media Messages: Media Portrayal of Global Development
Students discuss global development and create a graphic representation of the discussion. In this media analysis lesson, students deconstruct disaster coverage by reading articles and identifying missing information. Students research...
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Introduction To Literary Analysis
Explore the fascinating ways in which authors use specific literary devices to create interesting and realistic texts. Using non-fiction articles with the subject of rogue waves, an excerpt from The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger,...
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Sunshine Week: Your right to know
Students read background material about accessing open records, including how to file a Freedom of Information request. Students choose a restaurant close to school they want to investigate and contact the county health inspection office...
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Family Sues Over Discipline That Stinks
Students read a brief explanation of a situation in which a family is suing a school district because a teacher made a child spray himself with Lysol in front of the class, saying this would take care of his body odor. Students write a...
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AIDS Child Activist Dies
Students read an article on AIDS child activist Nkosi Johnson, and examine the extraordinary difficulties faced by students who have AIDS. They write reflection papers on Nkosi Johnson and how his example can help people in their own lives.
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Sum It Up
After a review of the steps involved in writing a summary, class members read The Physics of Baseball by Sarah Ives and use a story web to identify the important details to include in their summary. Class members then choose an article...
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The Rule of Law
Young scholars continue their exploration of the concept of rule of law. As a class, they discuss how Civil Rights leaders followed the rule of law in their protests. After reading various articles, they participate in a discussion and...
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'Song of the South' a racist tune?
Students read the information about the movie "Song of the South" and watch some of the clips. They write their reaction to the proposal to re-release the movie. Students consider whether it would matter if the studio adds an...
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Do You Have a Blog?
Ask learners about their personal writing habits, such as whether they keep a journal or a blog, or if they'd ever want to. Though this is not a fully developed instructional activity, you can use this article and question to provoke...
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Commemorating a Tragedy
High schoolers read newspaper articles and watch segments on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. In groups, they discuss how each media outlet presented the material and decide which one was more productive. As a class, they...
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Summarization Superstars
How do you read when you know you're going to be summarizing a text? Summarize a nonfiction text with your upper elementary schoolers. Your pupils independently read a nonfiction article and write a summary paragraph using the six-step...
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Novel News
Students, working in groups create a newspaper based on the events that take place in a novel. Groups complete sections of the newsletter based on criteria and publish it using newsletter publishing software.
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Details
Third graders write journals, newspapers, and letters with details to enhance their main points. In this details lesson plan, 3rd graders retell an incident with details, create newspaper articles with details, and write letters with...
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Ancient Book Found in Ireland
Students discuss items archeologists search for during digs and read a news article about a 2200-year-old religious book found in Ireland. They examine the article for examples of the passive voice. They make lists of items for a time...
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Media Literacy Skills
Third graders watch a news story from three different networks in order to determine how the same story can be presented in three different ways. Next, working in small groups they create a newscast of a current event to share with the...
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Gorbachev Enters Software Piracy Argument
Students watch a news story about ex-President Gorbachev getting involved in a piracy case in Russia. After reading three statements about piracy, they choose the one that best fits their own views. In groups, they discuss each topic...