An Approach to Current Events. Submitted by: Connie Hudgeons, Albuquerque Public Schools, Albuquerque, NM Endorsed by: These lesson plans are the result of the work of the teachers who have attended the Columbia Education Center's Summer Workshop. CEC is a consortium of teachers from 14 western states dedicated to improving the quality of education in the rural, western United States, and particularly the quality of math and science Education. CEC uses Big Sky Telegraph as the hub of their telecommunications network that allows the participating teachers to stay in contact with their trainers and peers that they have met at the Workshops. Date: May 1994 Description: This is an activity that I use in Civics (Government), U.S. History (11th) and World History (12th). This activity is designed to encourage students to read newspapers and to watch network and local news reports. This increases critical thinking skills, encouraging analysis and criticism. Students are encouraged to express opinions with support. Grade Level: Appropriate for grades 5-12. Goal: Given above. Objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Analyze and critique newspaper articles and media news reports by comparison and contrast of content and presentation. 2. Identify key words and concepts in a given news article. 3. Identify words to add to a class vocabulary list. Materials: I use newspapers from Albuquerque, Santa Fe and other towns. A variety from different towns allows students to experience subjects from different viewpoints. Parents are a great source. Illinois students might use newspapers from Chicago, Springfield, Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign-Urbana, or Carbondale. Procedure: This is a year-long weekly activity. I start with having students clip complete articles from current newspapers. At first, we answer the who?, what?, why?, when? and implications? questions. As time goes on, I branch from this and have students do the following: 1. Students take question answers and rewrite the article from another viewpoint. 2. Students compare newspaper coverage to radio/television coverage of a story. I record television and radio broadcasts for classroom use. 3. Students create a cartoon on a current news topic. 4. Students can write editorials and letters to the editor. Also, encourage students to write letters to elected officials. Tying it All Together: This is an activity that can be varied and naturally evolves into many activities, some student suggested. This is a great homework activity. Evaluation criteria can be varied according to assignment difficulty.

*This lesson plan was found and adapted from the web site Lesson Plans and Resources for Social Studies [http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/plans.html]

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