Amy Steiger

Weekly Review of Current Issues

Grade level: 6

Length: 40 minutes once a week; ongoing throughout
the year

Performance Expectations:

The students will analyze why a newspaper article
is important and how it will impact their lives.

Materials:

subscriptions to a local newspaper (The Columbia
Daily News Tribune), a regional newspaper (The St. Louis Post
Dispatch), and a national newspaper (USA Today), construction
paper, glue or tape, pens

Procedures:

Introduction

Ask the students questions while they are in a large
group: Have you ever read a newspaper? What kinds of information
do you find in a newspaper? (headlines, weather, sports scores,
TV listings, local events, etc.) Are newspapers really necessary
now that we have all-day news channels on TV like CNN and MSNBC?
Why or why not?

Development

At the beginning of the year, discuss why newspapers
are so important even though most people do watch TV (not everyone
has a TV, the stories are more in-depth, you can read the stories
in the order they interest you). Also discuss which types of
news stories actually affect our lives. Sports scores and celebrity
divorces are interesting but probably are not directly affecting
you and me. Explain that once a week the students will use 40
minutes of social studies time to look through the classroom newspapers.
They should each pick one article from within the last week to
read, cut out, and paste onto a piece of construction paper.
After this, the student should write a short paragraph underneath
the article explaining how this information might affect his/her
life.

Closure

Each week the new articles can be posted on the "Current
Events" section of the wall. The old articles can be kept
in a folder. At the end of the year, discuss how what was once
a current event is now a part of history. Also discuss how each
student has made his/her own chronicle of history.

Assessment:

Read each article to make sure the article chosen
was a quality news story.

Read each paragraph looking for the student’s understanding
of how news events impact his/her life.

Adaptations/Considerations:

The school may not pay for three classroom news subscriptions.
Ask parents and friends to donate newspapers after they are done
with them.

Have a couple of students each week read the newspapers
on the internet. St. Louis Post Dispatch and The Columbia Daily
News Tribune are on the internet.

Some students may have a hard time determining between
quality jounalism and tabloid journalism. Spend one week talking
about the differences and similarities between the two.

References:

St. Louis Post Dispatch. (1997). [On-line]. Available:

Columbia Daily News Tribune. (1997). [On-line].
Available: http://www.trib.net/cgi-bin/newsindex.pl