Current Events Assignment
Article Selection
Consider the following when choosing a news story:
The article should come from a reputable news source. Examples of reputable
news sites include but are not limited to: CNN.com; BBC.com; NYT.com (New
York Times); WashingtonPost.com.
 Your article should be at least 200 words in length. Short articles may not provide
enough details for you to summarize and analyze.
 Try to choose an article that interests you and that you can understand. Many
articles will deal with on-going issues, like the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and may be
difficult to follow.
 The news story should be of major national or international importance. Avoid
stories about isolated murders, car crashes, etc.
 Chose an article that strongly applies to our class. Avoid articles that focus too
heavily on science, technology, fashion, celebrities or sports unless they have
broad appeal.
 Avoid editorials or other articles that express strong opinions. Sometimes it is
hard to separate fact from opinion.
 Try finding “feature” stories that describe an issue, rather than an isolated event.
Reading Article
While reading the article:
 Highlight or underline key information.
 Write your thoughts and ideas in the margin/separate word document.
Step 1) Choose an article that is not related to sports or entertainment. If you are
unsure whether the article you chose is newsworthy, please check with Mr. Hobdell.
INCLUDE THE LINK TO THE ARTICLE IN YOUR DOCUMENT.
Step 2) Read the article; Look up any words you do not know using dictionary.com.
Step 3) In a GoogleDoc, Microsoft Word Document, or in an e-mail do the following:
A) Choose one word from the article that you looked-up and define it in your
document.
B) Summarize the article (100 words)
C) Explain how the article relates to something we have learned in class (50100 words)
D) React to the article/Reflect on the article. Questions you might consider
are: (what did you learn? What is your opinion on the topic? What would
you like to know more about?) – this can be a sentence or two.
E) E-MAIL your document to Mr. Hobdell at shobdell@rtmsd.net