Below, exercises that ask students to learn new vocabulary words (and understand how words get in dictionaries in the first place); argue their positions on an issue currently roiling some college campuses; and write short fiction that incorporates what they have read in science class.
This week, all three prompts focus on the common theme of life on a coastline — a topic of great importance to our classroom collaborators, who recently went through weeks of disruption because of Hurricane Sandy.
Even if you live nowhere near a coast, however, we hope you can find something here that interests your students, whether investigating the notion of “home,” learning about what life is like for those who are still refugees from the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, or reading about a dispute between the United States and Canada. Read more…
This week, the teachers, Jonathan Olsen and Sarah Gross, and their ninth graders were just as taken with Dining critic Pete Wells’s review of Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar as the adult readers who sent it to the top of the Most E-Mailed list and the social media universe that made it a viral sensation. “This is the best article we’ve read this year,” one student said.
Below, some ideas for talking and writing about a review that was called “already a legend” just a day after it was published — along with two more tasks based on additional Times articles we think students will enjoy.
Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesAT SEA: A roller coaster mangled by Hurricane Sandy in Seaside Heights, N.J. The state has embraced the practice of beach nourishment: bringing in sand to build up coastlines and barrier islands. Go to related article »
Though thanks to Hurricane Sandy our New Jersey classroom collaborators are still out of school, their teachers, Sarah Gross and Jonathan Olsen, came up with three new tasks this week for our series anyway — Mr. Olsen working mostly from a Starbucks since his own power has been out for days now.
If you’re just tuning in, each Friday we publish three short writing ideas that address Common Core Standards and that are grounded in New York Times content. On weeks when superstorms have not closed their school, these prompts are classroom-tested by Mr. Olsen and Ms. Gross’s ninth-grade humanities students.
Though Hurricane Sandy raged up the East Coast, it has become increasingly apparent that New Jersey took the brunt of it.
This article, these dramatic aerial photos and this graphic make it clear that, as David M. Halbfinger writes, Hurricane Sandy “destroyed entire neighborhoods across the state and wiped out iconic boardwalks in shore towns that had enchanted generations of vacationgoers.”
Here on The Learning Network, we’re thinking about the students and teachers at the New Jersey high school with whom we collaborate weekly for our Common Core Practice feature.
Victor J. Blue for The New York TimesThe Warren-St. Marks Community Garden in Park Slope brought in eight hens, causing some neighborhood residents to worry about noise, disease and rats. Go to related article »
Gretchen Ertl for The New York TimesEach campaign is using social media as another means to reach voters, particularly younger ones, who may not watch television or read the paper but spend plenty of time on the social Web. Go to related article »
Librado Romero/The New York TimesChang Jin-Lee’s inflatable Buddha sculpture, called “Floating Echo,” is anchored on the East River at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens. Go to related article »
Andrew Testa for The New York TimesA council worker fixed a camera at the parking lot in Leicester, England, where archaeologists unearthed a skeleton, very likely Richard III’s, amid the remains of an ancient priory. Go to related article »
Each Friday we post three short tasks that Sarah Gross and Jonathan Olsen, New Jersey team-teachers, tried that week with their ninth-grade humanities students.
In their classroom, The New York Times is part of every day’s lesson plan, and, as they described in our initial post, they begin most mornings with quick exercises like the ones you see below. This week, one of their students even suggested an extension activity since, Mr. Olsen tells us, the class loved the “Rebecca” prompt so much.
Of course, this feature is just one of many ways we suggest using The Times, a daily flood of “informational text,” to teach and learn.
The nutshell: We’re experimenting with the new standards by publishing three actual tasks these teachers and their 9th grade humanities students tried each week. Each entry uses Times content, targets one or more of the Common Core E.L.A. Anchor Standards and provides ideas for “scaffolding” the task and taking it further.
Tell us what you think. We hope to improve this feature in conversation with our readers as we go.
In this lesson, students examine the myriad issues surrounding immigration reform, including border security, the economic impact of foreign-born workers, and paths to citizenship for those who have entered illegally.