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It’s Your Birthday! – Conventions: Revision and Proofreading
Happy birthday! Celebrate everyone's birthday with this writing activity, which prompts seventh graders to research historical events in a country at the time of their birth to create an essay. Working in pairs, they proofread each...
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When the News is the News
Students share opinions about the factors that influence their newspaper-reading decisions. They study the News Corporation's purchase of Dow Jones & Company by reading and discussing the article "Dow Jones Deal Gives Murdoch a...
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Why Do We Suffer From The Rights Of Others?
Learners examine how diversity within populations has caused problems. In groups, they develop their own definitions of racism and discrimination. They participate in role-plays in which they gather the appropriate techniques to deal...
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First Things First: Using the Newspaper to Teach the Freedoms of the First Amendment
Learners use the newspaper as a tool to make connections about what the five freedoms guarantee in the First Amendment. In this first amendment lesson plan, students analyze events in the newspaper to form conclusions about the freedoms...
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Activity #7 Recycling of Newsprint
Learners illustrate the paper recycling process. They collect and weigh all the newspapers that come to their house in a week's time. Pupils multiply this number by all the weeks in a yeat and again by an estimate of the number of...
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Changes in the Community
Third graders examine and describe a series of primary sources (mostly photographs) to observe and analyze changes over time. The focus is on the local community. The local community might be a city, township, county or surrounding area.
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Friends in the Community
Second graders build a classroom community by getting to know each other better. They ask classmates various questions and use graphic organizer software and Microsoft PowerPoint. Students practice their oral language skills while asking...
Media Smarts
Newspaper Ads
Just how free is the press? After examining the advertising and propaganda techniques used by advertisers, class members consider the influence advertisers may exert over newspaper content.
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Screen Play
High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a...
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Making Regolith
You may not be able to take a field trip to the moon, but that doesn't mean your class can't study moon rocks. Using graham crackers as the moon's bedrock and powdered donuts as micrometeorites, young scientists simulate...
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Careers
Learners discuss job choices, careers, and how they can affect lifestyles. They research a job they are interested in and write answers to questions about that job. They prepare a poster which includes information about the career they...
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The American Revolution: Moving West and South
Students examine several letters to the editor from both a local newspaper and national newspapers. After reviewing current letters, they write a letter to the editor of an 18th-century newspaper expressing their opinion about the...
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What's the Story?
Students explore how the same news story can be presented differently through various journalistic styles. They discuss the unique characteristics of each style and find articles on the same event in each of the different styles.
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Tabloid Tales
Students write news stories to accompany tabloid headlines. In this tabloid lesson plan, students learn the power of persuasion and exaggeration by writing stories based on actual tabloid headlines.
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Citizens Together
Students examine the bill of rights as it relates to founding documents and their significance today. In this bill of rights lesson plan, students use newspapers as sources to answer critical questions regarding democratic citizenship....
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Race to the Presses
Students explore how the news media relays information about race in the United States by creating collages from newspapers and magazines and by sharing their reflections about the responsibilities of the news media in covering...
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Covering the News
Learners compare the coverage of two crime stories Using local or national newspapers, news magazines and other reference materials, each group trace the "unfolding" of two crime stories: The Laci Peterson investigation plus one students
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Chinese Kite
Students create their own Chinese kite. For this multicultural art lesson, students use butcher paper, newspapers, string, pipe cleaners and paint to create a Chinese kite. Students follow the given steps and attempt to fly their kite.
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Slanted Sentences
Students examine biased words in news articles, suggest synonyms, then rewrite the sentences to demonstrate how word choice can alter meaning.
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Lesson 11: Printed Materials (Ads and Broadsides) 1780-1820
Students use primary resources (gazettes, broadsides, advertisements) to consider life at the turn of the 18th century in Deerfield, Massachusetts. They infer observations about life in the nascent United States.
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Bottle Dolls/Figurative Sculpture
Students use water bottles with sand in them (to give stability) They add heads made of crumpled newspaper with masking tape. They paper mache the entire figure and make them into people or animals. Students add paint and accessories...
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A Different World?
Students share their opinions in a brainstorming session on the factors that contribute to their quality of life. They read the article "Life Is Better; It Isn't Better. Which Is It?," from the NY Times and discuss the article as a...
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Right on Time?
Learners share their reactions to hearing a false rumor. After reading an article, they discover how a variety of newspapers responded to printing incorrect information. They prepare their own questions and contact sources for their...
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Creating Circles
Learners make a circle graph. In this graphing lesson, the teacher conducts a class survey, then demonstrates how to make a pie graph. When students are comfortable with the material, they use a worksheet to create their own graph.