Engage students with news, events and anniversaries for the week of Nov.
3-7, 2014
Language Arts
1. November is National Inspirational Role Models Month. It’s a great time to ask
students to skim the news and to find candidates for a Role Model Hall of Fame
and for a Not A Role Model Hall of Shame. Which is easier for them to find in the
news? Why do they think that is so? As a follow-up activity, you may want to ask
students to write a letter of thanks to someone in their personal lives who serves
as a role model.
Indiana Academic Standard: Use appropriate language, vocabulary, and
sentence variety to convey meaning; for effect; and to support a tone and
formality appropriate to the topic and audience.
2. Tell students that these expressions are called “idioms.” An idiom is a
combination of words, that, when put together, have a different meaning that the
words by themselves. They are not to be taken literally. In other words, if
someone has “ants in their pants,” it means they are restless, not that actual ants
are crawling in their pants. Using idioms makes writing more interesting and
colorful. Have students look through the news to find any idioms and identify
those they find, along with their meaning. Then, they should choose one
paragraph from today’s news and rewrite it using any idioms that will work.
Indiana Academic Standard: Analyze the meanings of proverbs, adages,
and idioms in context.
3. On November 7, 1837, Elijah Parish Lovejoy was killed by a pro-slavery mob
while defending the site of his anti-slavery newspaper, The Saint Louis Observer.
He had written anti-slavery editorials that angered some people. But, at the same
time, the editorials attracted lots of attention and the circulation of the newspaper
rose. Invite students to choose the story in today’s newspaper that they believe
would be most likely to attract the most attention. They should write about the
story they chose and explain why they think it’s the grabber. Students can read
about Lovejoy here.
Indiana Academic Standard: Determine how words and phrases provide
meaning to works of literature, including imagery, symbolism, and
figurative language
4. This week marks the six-year anniversary of the first election of Barack
Obama. How do your students think life has changed in the last six years? Have
them write an editorial offering their point of view. They should support their
opinions with facts they find in today’s news about Obama or current events. You
may want to have them read some editorials before they write in order to see
how an editorial is constructed.
Indiana Academic Standard: Write routinely over a variety of time frames
and for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences;
apply reading standards to support reflection and response to literature
and nonfiction texts
Math
1. Have your students find some ads in the Help Wanted section of the Classified
ads that include annual salary. Based on a forty-hour week, fifty-two weeks per
year, have them compute the hourly wage. Which are the jobs that are most
lucrative on an hourly basis? What is the difference between the jobs that require
a college education and those that can be done with only a high school diploma?
Indiana Academic Standard: Solve real-world problems involving
multiplication and division of whole numbers
2. Send students on a Scavenger Hunt for in the Classified ads. Ask students to
use the classified ads of the newspaper to do the following:
• calculate the average price of a 1985 Cadillac
• find what fraction of the newspaper’s total pages is composed of classified ads
• figure out the cost of running a 30-word ad for one week
• estimate the total number of classified ads (based on ads per column and
columns per page)
• compare bank interest rates and determine the most and least interest $100
would earn in one year in your area
• find what percentage of job openings start with T. As a follow-up to this activity,
ask each student to create a classified ad and exchange it with a classmate. Ask:
Was all the necessary information included? If not, what was missing?
Indiana Academic Standard: Solve real-world problems involving addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division
3. Tell students to imagine that a rich aunt just died and left them $8000 to buy a
car. But, in order to get the money, they must prove they are able to handle the
responsibilities of car ownership. They can prove that by making the best deal.
Have them look through the automobile ads to find the car they want to buy.
They should indicate which options they wish to include. They will need to find
out how much the basic model of the car costs and then how much the options
will add. Then they’ll have to decide how to pay for the car. Will they find a car
that costs less than $8000 and pay for it in cash or will they use the money as
down payment and borrow the rest through financing? They can go online to find
out how much it costs for insurance on a teenage driver. Finally, they should
write a detailed report about the true cost of buying a car.
Indiana Academic Standard: Solve real-world problems involving
multiplication and division of whole numbers (e.g. by using equations to
represent the problem).
Science Literacy
1. Mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Banneker was born on November 9,
1731. His father and grandfather had been slaves. Largely self-taught, Banneker
was one of the first African Americans to gain distinction in science. He taught
himself astronomy by studying the night sky and he learned math from borrowing
textbook. He carved the first wooden clock. He corresponded with Thomas
Jefferson and urged him to come out against slavery. Banneker published a
treatise on bees and did a mathematical study on the cycle of the seventeen-year
locust. His life is inspirational. Benjamin Banneker 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, D.C. and inventing a clock that strikes every
hour. Use the newspaper as a resource and find an article that reflects each of
Banneker’s main interests — astronomy, math, city planning and inventing.
Indiana Academic Standard: apply reading standards to support reflection
and response to literature and nonfiction texts.
2. November is Native American or American Indian Heritage Month. Among the
many contributions Indians have made to American culture are their beliefs about
healing. Indians come from a variety of backgrounds—there are 500 different
tribes -- and not all share the same beliefs, but, overall, their beliefs about
sickness and healing are similar. In general, American Indian medicine focuses
on healing the “whole person,” not just making the specific symptom disappear.
They believed that illness was more likely to happen in a person who was
imbalanced in some way. They also believed that there was a strong connection
between body, mind and spirit. Their healing rituals involved all three. Today,
modern medicine has adopted many of these same beliefs. Ads for health care
products include many that might serve the mind and spirit as well as the body.
Have students skim the newspaper for health-care products or services. Can
they find any that, like the Indians’ rituals, promote healing through the
mind/body/spirit connection?
Indiana Academic Standard: Write persuasive compositions in a variety of
forms
Social Studies
1. Election Day is November 4. Have students find and skim any articles in
today’s newspaper that are about elections or election issues. Which are the
hottest races in your area and what can your students learn about those from the
newspaper? Do they think people should vote? Why or why not?
Indiana Academic Standard: Students identify, define, compare and
contrast ideas regarding the nature of government, politics and civic life,
and explain how these ideas have influenced contemporary political and
legal systems.
2. The German word Kristallnacht translates to Night of Crystal but Night of
Broken Glass would be a more accurate description. Ask students if they are
familiar with the term. Explain that on Nov. 9, 1938, Nazi leaders gave the order
for demonstrations against Jews to begin with destruction of Jewish homes and
businesses and detention of Jewish men in prisons or concentration camps. As a
result, the windows of 7500 Jewish-owned stores were broken and the streets
flowed with broken glass. In addition, 91 Jews were murdered and about 30,000
Jewish men were arrested for no reason. The night is considered the unofficial
beginning of the watershed event known as the Holocaust. Challenge students to
skim today’s news and to draw a conclusion about the mood of the country right
now. Allow time for a debate about whether such a horrific event could happen
here.
Students can read about Kristallnacht here.
Indiana Academic Standard: Analyze the physical and human factors
involved in conflicts and violence related to nationalist, racial, ethnic,
religious, economic, political, and/or resource issues in various parts of the
world, over time
3. “Meet the Press” debuted on U.S. TV in 1947 so it’s the oldest show still on.
Your students may never have seen the show so you can explain to them that
each week a journalist, now Chuck Todd, interviews someone who is making
news. Ask students to imagine that they are the journalist in charge of
programming this week’s show. They have only today’s newspaper to use as a
source. Whom would they interview and what five questions would they ask?
Indiana Academic Standard: Use a variety of information resources* to
identify and evaluate contemporary issues
Write the News Lesson
Topic: Journaling
A journal is a record of your life. In it you can keep track of what you are doing,
whom you are with, and even what you are thinking. You can write about your
hopes and dreams, and your plans for the next day or the rest of your life. It’s fun
to look back and read it later to see what was happening at an earlier time.
Journals aren’t just for fun; they can help you put your life in perspective and
enable you to understand yourself better. Journaling builds confidence as you
think about what you are good at and what makes you happy. It can also make
you a better writer. Many professional writers must write even when they are not
in the mood. They simply get in the habit of writing, often every day. Daily writing
in your journal strengthens your writing skills. It’s a healthy habit that doesn’t
have to take a great deal of time. You can write for just a few minutes each day.
Journals are also a terrific way to deal with your worries. Writing about the things
that worry you helps you see that they’re not so bad. You may even realize that
most of what you worry about never actually happens.
Here’s a quick writing assignment to get you started with journaling. Look for an
interesting article in today’s news. Read or skim it to get the main idea. Then,
summarize it in six words. For your journal entry, write about why you chose that
article and what makes it interesting.