EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 3, Lesson 1
"True-crime stories, murder mysteries, up-to-the-minute online news reports, and (as always) rumor and innuendo grab our attention faster than any call for justice, human rights, or ceasefires." Or so says Walter Mosley in his Newsweek...
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A Long Way Home
Students examine the difference between hard news and editorial writing by considering several pieces written about the Elian Gonzalez custody battle. They then craft their own hard news and editorials on the case.
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Reliving History Through Writing
Students read a first hand account of John F. Kennedy's assassination. They write an essay describing how a world or national event affected them.
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Angling for a Story
Students explore different news angles relating to a local sporting event, then create a detailed treatment of the story prior to reporting it.
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Art to Zoo: India-Where Remarkable Differences Are Ordinary
Students "visit" India to learn about its culture and the lives of children in India. In this India activity, students conduct research and report on the lives of Indian children in the form of a mock interview between a journalist and...
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The Late Middle Ages (850 to 1492 A. D.)
Learners discuss what roles the clergy, nobles and peasants played during the late Middle Ages. They explain what led to the growth of trade and towns in Western Europe. Ultimately, students describe how kings in Western Europe built...
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Adjective? What's an Adjective?
Mount a variety of pictures (fantasy, rustic, portraits, action) on large sheets of paper and post them around the classroom. Groups rotate from poster to poster, adding adjectives to describe each of the pictures. Writers use these word...
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Emotive language
Students examine emotion-based language. Students read a news story to discover examples of emotive words. They develop a class list of examples of emotive language. As a class project, students select a news story and change it into...
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Writing Applications: Different Types of Writing and Their Characteristics
Twelfth graders rewrite a story in a different format to understand the effects of the author's style. In this writing style instructional activity, 12th graders read Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and...
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Fire Escape Plan
Students explore fire safety. In this fire prevention and safety lesson, students discuss and brainstorm ideas about what to do if there is a fire. Students practice stating information that should be given when calling 911. Students...
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Safe and Sound: Rock Concert Dangers
Students read attached articles and others they can find about dangers at rock concerts and also what bands, venue owners and others have done to increase safety. They conduct interviews and write a feature about concert safety in the...
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The Penny Press, Walt Whitman and the War
Students examine the Penny Press and how it began the era of mass circulated newspapers. They use the internet to research the writing style of the paper and write a short article using that style.
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Writing to Focus Reading and to Imagine Researching
Students examine several elements that would cue them into a newspaper article about community change without reading the main copy text. They discuss the details and write notes about the article. They first skim and then thoroughly...
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Ticker Text Parade
Students examine news headlines and create very brief news pieces in the style of news tickers. They write papers reflecting upon these experiences and on the value of concisely written news reports.
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Press-ing Freedom
Students consider how free speech applies to journalistic practices in light of a legal case involving two reporters. They participate in a fishbowl discussion about journalism codes of ethics and write response papers.
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Information Extra
Students create a paragraph about a subject of their chosing that is informative. In this paragraph writing lesson, students use graphic organizers and work together in groups to create a full, organized...
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It's Just a Game?
Students consider their attitudes toward concrete and abstract violence in the media before developing hypotheses that assess the effect of gender and age on people's attitudes toward such violence and designing a survey to test those...
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A Fresh Start?
Students examine the roles and responsibilities the Department of Defense holds. They read an article about the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. They develop questions to submit to the White House about the recent changes.
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Life in a Hurricane Zone
Young scholars study the nature of hurricanes and examine in detail the effect of Hurricane Georges upon the Dominican Republic. They explain the way in which physical systems (e.g., a hurricane) can affect human systems (e.g., the life...
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The Rainforest
Students consider the rainforest, its characteristics, its destruction, and its endangered species. In groups, student use the internet to gather information about the rainforest. They summarize the information and compile it into a...
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Words in the News Rabid Vampire Bats Attack Humans in Brazil 02 November 2005
Students participate in word work and vocabulary building before reading an online article. They complete worksheets or an online quiz the focuses on homographs. They write a diary entry.
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Activity 5: Creative Writing/Expression About Child Labor
Young scholars research child labor using Internet resources. They present the information in a creative writing piece and post it on Chalkboard.
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Baseball - America's Pastime
Students complete Internet research about baseball and baseball players. They complete a variety of activities including writing an epitaph for Jackie Robinson, a news article about him, and make graphs displaying salaries of a number of...
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Words In the News Carnival Celebrations
Students complete vocabulary building and verb tense activities before reading an online article. They complete worksheets and an online quiz before writing a story about a hypothetical situation in which they have money stolen.