Take a Position!
Many of the issues reported in the news have at least two
opposing viewpoints. For example, the question might be whether schools
should be allowed to enforce separate dress codes for boys and girls.
Sometimes the question might be posed in a way that requires students
to make a choice among a set of alternatives. For example, a news program
might describe health care programs in different countries. The discussion
question might ask students to take a position on which, if any, of these
programs would be effective in the United States.
Sponsoring Take a Position!
The sponsoring class identifies a feature program, a discussion
question and indicates how they would like the others in the Learning
Circle to participate.
One way would be to ask students from participating classes
to submit position papers on the identified topic. The sponsors would
select the best arguments for each of the positions or alternatives to
include in this section of the news magazine. They might draw on the remainder
of the papers to create a list of arguments for and against each position.
Another strategy would be to ask students in each of the
classes to take a quick poll of student attitudes on the issue directly
following the broadcast of the feature story. They could then ask each
partner class to complete a "pre-writing" activity to help generate a
list of arguments for and against the proposition or a list of the pros
and cons for each alternative. The sponsoring class could be divided into
groups which use the pre-writing suggestions from other classes to compose
a small number of position papers. When all of the position papers are
completed, they can be sent to the Learning Circle. After reading the
position papers, students in the Learning Circle can again be polled to
see if their attitudes have changed as a result of thinking and reading
more about the different positions.
The writer of a position paper tries to accomplish three
1. Demonstrate a good understanding of the topic.
2. Present a persuasive set of arguments to support the
3. Explain why other positions are not as reasonable or
Publishing Take a Position
The sponsoring class will be responsible for reporting any
"pro and con" polling information the collected from their partner schools
on issues. They will also be the editors of a section of the news magazine
that contains the position papers composed by students in any of the classrooms.
Local Faces and Places in the News
One aspect of understanding the news is learning about people
who make the news, around the world, as well as within your region and
community. As you watch your local news, you will see many of the people
who are making the news on the national and international stage. But there
are many people each day in all of our communities making news.
This project is designed to help students focus on the newsmakers
in their local community. The sponsoring class describes some of the newsmakers
on a national or global context and then asks each of the schools to send
an item about a local newsmaker that is related to the national figure.
For example, the story may be about Hillary Rodham Clinton and her role
in working on a health care plan for the nation. Students in one of more
of the schools may know about a local person who has been a strong advocate
for health care reform in their community. They could write a short biography
of this person and how his or her accomplishments have resulted in better
health care in their community.
The sponsoring class may also want to create a glossary
of people in the international and national spotlight with a brief biographical
sketch. They could ask students to write down names of important people
as they watch the evening local news programs. Then students could use
information from the program and library research to compose paragraph
descriptions of these people.
The sponsoring class might want to specify a category of
newsmakers. Perhaps, for example, the section could be about newsmakers
who acted in a courageous way or newsmakers in the field of education.
One of the ways others can learn
about a region or community is
through the people who contribute to it.
The sponsoring class will be publishing a section on Newsmakers
for the news magazine. It might be in the form a glossary of newsmakers
or it could be a set of essays about local newsmakers.
The News in
From the sonnets of Shakespeare to Hip Hop Rap, poetry is
a way for the writer to communicate the strong emotive feelings that he
or she associates with an idea, event, or concept. For this project, students
might want to look for stories about issues that have a special impact
on young people. Some of these stories may inspire students to express
their ideas in poetry.
Sponsoring The News in Poetry
The students in the sponsoring classroom ask their partners
in other classrooms to watch the programs for ideas that could be expressed
in poetry. Students might be touched by the civil unrest in Bosnia and
connections that were made to concentration camps of the past. Poetry
can be a powerful tool for expressing the feelings that students have
about the hopelessness of war or terror of confinement. Racial conflict
might highlight a student's personal experience with racism and these
feelings could be expressed in poetry.
The sponsoring classroom might want to identify a few topics
that they feel strongly about and request poetry dealing with these issues.
Or the sponsors may leave the choice open to the students in other classrooms
to write about any issue that was covered in the current news.
Publishing The News in Poetry
The Sponsoring classroom collects and reviews all of the
poems that were received and decides which ones to include in the news
magazine. They might want to write short summaries of some of the news
stories that inspired the poets. The poems could be arranged by topic
or illustrated by graphics.
Tala Girls Secondary School
Eastern Province, Kenya
The heavy cold wind blows over my skinny thin body
As I lay on my fiber sack in the cold floor
Shrrr! Shrrr! I shiver like a new born lamb
Yet I’m in what is so called a house
Mum! I cry out but all she can say is sleep my dear and wait for
tomorrow for there is nothing
All I can do. Grrr! Grrr! My stomach roars like an
Angry lion for I am hungry.
Everyday it’s the same routine,
I sleep on an empty stomach
Knowing that tomorrow
There will be nothing to eat
Oh! How I wish
We were rich like the others I see around me
I wake up from my sack and fold it
Then store for the next night
I wear my torn dress and head for school
Only to be chased back home
I go home only to find that there is nothing
Not even a piece of paper
Where is my father? I ask
Only to be answered in tears of sorrow
I cry! Why! Why! Why!
This is too much
How I wish we were rich
Like the others I see around me!
And to be saved from this life in poverty
All because of Climate Change that leads to extreme hunger and poverty
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