Writing Skills

A New York Times Newspaper in Education Curriculum Guide
WRITING SKILLS AND STRATEGIES

Teaching Language Arts With The New York Times
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Writing Skills and Strategies: Teaching Language Arts With The New York Times
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION Teaching Writing: A Challenge for Everyone Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Time Frame for the Lesson Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Using the Student Worksheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 New York Times Services For Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 CORRELATION OF LESSONS TO NATIONAL LANGUAGE ARTS STANDARDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 LESSONS Analyzing How The New York Times Is Written . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Developing Analytical Reading Skills With The Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Developing Your Vocabulary With The New York Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Personal Writing With The New York Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Article: A Death in the Family: In So Many Words, a Wonderful Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 LESSON 5 Linking The New York Times to Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 LESSON 6 Writing a Review in the Style of The New York Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 LESSON 7 Outlining a Biography Based on a New York Times Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 LESSON 8 Vivid Language, Grammar and Stylistic Devices in The Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 LESSON 9 Developing a Research Project Based on a Times Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 LESSON 10 The New York Times in the Drama Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 LESSON 11 New York Times Photos as Prompts for Creative Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 LESSON 1 LESSON 2 LESSON 3 LESSON 4
Written by Katherine Schulten. Based on original material by Robert S. Greenman. Additional material contributed by Ellen S. Doukoullos. This guide was developed by The New York Times Newspaper in Education program. It did not involve the reporting or editing staff of The New York Times.
Copyright 2010 The New York Times
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INTRODUCTION
TEACHING WRITING: A CHALLENGE FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED Teaching students to write clearly and stylishly can be as hard on the students as it is on their teachers. Many students have great difficulty writing. Putting words on paper (or a screen) often seems to mystify young writers. They struggle with a range of questions, both broad and specific, from What is an essay? and Where do I get ideas? to What is a topic sentence? and when theyve finished, How do I know if Ive been convincing? For teachers, reading their work can be frustrating, even painful, as the eyes blur and the head begins to ache after hours of grading papers. This curriculum guide can offer you help. Used in conjunction with The New York Times, the guide and the lesson plans it contains are designed to make the task easier even fun for you and your students. Vivid writing, stimulating opinion and clear presentation of information and ideas are hallmarks of Times reporting and editing. When your students are exposed to the rich variety of The Times on a regular basis, theyll find articles on a wide range of topics of interest to them that will stimulate their thinking and serve as models of good writing for them to follow in their assignments. The vocabulary in Times news reports, features and opinion pieces will show your students how to communicate their thoughts with style, even wit (as in Times headlines). Many teachers have told us that test scores show marked improvement when their students as young as fourth graders have The Times as part of their daily reading and writing experience. We invite you to have fun with these lessons and to use The New York Times to give your students the skills they need to write with style and confidence. TIME FRAME FOR THE LESSON PLANS Each lesson plan has a wealth of material that can be used during a number of class periods, as homework or for independent study. The lessons can be used in any order you like. We recommend that you review the lessons in advance to determine which activities to use and when; obviously, not every issue of The Times will include articles relevant to each lesson. USING THE STUDENT WORKSHEETS Each lesson has a Worksheet with questions for students to answer individually or in small groups. (Alternatives to making copies of the Worksheets are writing out the material on the board or displaying Worksheets with an overhead projector or interactive white board.)
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NEW YORK TIMES SERVICES FOR TEACHERS

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WEB SITE nytimes.com/nie

Visit our Web site to download order forms for the print edition or Electronic Edition for classroom use. You may also download a host of other free curriculum guides and activities to use with The Times.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES LEARNING NETWORK learning.blogs.nytimes.com

The New York Times Learning Network offers interactive classroom activities based on the Monday Friday editions of The Times. The wealth of features on the site includes lesson plans linked to specific Times articles, a lesson plan archive and search, an interactive daily news quiz, Word of the Day, On This Day in History feature that links to historical Times articles, 6 Qs About the News activity linked to a Times article, Times Fill-Ins sentence completion feature, Student Crossword and Student Opinion (for students age 13 and older).
TIMES TOPICS nytimes.com/topics

Times topics is an excellent starting point for research, providing quality information on thousands of topics. Each topic page contains featured Times articles, graphics, audio and video files, with additional links to other good sources.
THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ARCHIVE nytimes.com/archive

You can use the Search function on nytimes.com for access to the complete backfile of The New York Times from 1851 to the present.
THE NEW YORK TIMES IN COLLEGE nytimes.com/edu
Our Web site for college faculty offers services for higher education, including coursespecific instructional strategies using The New York Times.
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CORRELATION
CORRELATION OF LESSONS TO NATIONAL LANGUAGE ARTS STANDARDS
The lessons in this curriculum guide are correlated with relevant national standards from Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). These standards represent a compilation of most state standards. Each McREL standard has subcategories, or benchmarks, for different levels of instruction. For details, see www.mcrel.org/standards.
WRITING
1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process 2. Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing 3. Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions 4. Gathers and uses information for research purposes
LESSONS 5 6 7

10 11

READING
5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process 6. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary texts 7. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts
LESSONS 5 6 7

10 11

MEDIA
10. Understands the characteristics and components of the media
LESSONS 5 6 7

10 11

VIEWING
9. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
LESSONS 5 6 7

10 11

LISTENING AND SPEAKING

8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes
LESSONS 5 6 7

10 11

SOURCE: Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education, by John S. Kendall and Robert J. Marzano (2000, 3rd ed.); Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), Aurora, Colo. www.mcrel.org/standards/ Used by permission of McREL, 2550 S. Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, Colo. 80014; (303) 337-0990.
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LESSON PLAN 1
ANALYZING HOW THE NEW YORK TIMES IS WRITTEN
OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to: identify characteristics of the content, layout and organization of The New York Times. identify elements of the reporting style of The Times in specific articles.
PREPARATION: Assemble tools. Review possible questions and answers for the scavenger hunt. WARM UP: ASK YOUR STUDENTS: How many of you read, watch or listen to some form of news every day? What kinds of news are you interested in? From what source(s) do you get your news? How is getting news from newspapers different from getting it from TV, radio or the Internet?(Sometimes you get only the headlines, the Internet can give you just news you ask for, television is accompanied by images, newspapers often have more depth, etc.) NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY Say: You and your partner will be competing against other pairs of students in a scavenger hunt to answer questions using todays New York Times. You will have 30 minutes to record your answers on both copies of the Worksheet Ill hand out. Hold on to one copy for our class discussion, and trade your other copy with another pair so you can check each others answers. Dont look at the worksheet until I say, Go.
Form pairs of students. Distribute todays Times to each student. Distribute a copy of Worksheet 1 face-down to each student.
TOOLS NEEDED
The New York Times, one copy per student. Copies of the Lesson 1 Worksheet.
Students then complete as much of the scavenger hunt (page 7) as they can before the time is up. Paired students should have the same answers on their worksheets. Have each pair trade one copy of their completed worksheet for checking by another pair during the class discussion. ANSWERS Most of the answers will come from that days Times. Here are answers to two questions (see page 7): 2. The most important, or lead, article is on the front page, usually in the upper right-hand corner. 8. There are no comics in The New York Times. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS After reviewing the questions/answers from the Scavenger Hunt, follow up with these questions
What are the qualities of a great newspaper? (Objectivity, accuracy, comprehensiveness,
depth, courage, originality in reporting, lively writing, etc.) KNOWLEDGE NETWORK
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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 1

ANALYZING HOW THE NEW YORK TIMES IS WRITTEN
Which of these qualities does The Times have, based on what youve seen today and on other days? How could regular reading of The Times benefit you? (Improve your vocabulary; learn about the world; prepare for classes such as history, geography, science, etc.; use reviews to help you decide what movies to see, books to read, technology devices to buy, etc.) EXTENSION/HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Assign activities. Establish due dates.
Explain to the class that every day at 4:30 p.m. eastern time, the top editors of The
Times have a Page 1 meeting where they decide which articles planned for the next days newspaper are the most important, and should therefore start on the front page. Have your students review the articles on the front page of todays Times, and for each article, list the reasons they think these articles were important enough to make it onto Page 1.
Have your students assume the role of a Times reporter who covers a particular
beat, such as the White House, City Hall or a sports team, with students choosing their beats based on articles in that days Times. Have students create a dialogue between the reporter and his or her editor, with the reporter explaining why the article is important and should go in the next days newspaper maybe even on Page 1 and with questions the editor would ask the reporter about the article.
Have students create ads that will encourage their peers to read The Times, using
ads in The Times as models. Ask them to think about what types of articles would be of special interest to them and their peers, and to focus on those kinds of articles in their ads. Display the ads around the school.
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LESSON 1
WORKSHEET: ANALYZING HOW THE NEW YORK TIMES IS WRITTEN
NAME_______________________________________
With your partner, find answers for each of the questions below in todays New York Times. Write your answers on both copies of the Worksheet. You should have the same answer on both Worksheets. (One copy will be exchanged with another pair of students for checking.) Be prepared to explain your answers during our class discussion. 1. What is the title of each section of todays New York Times?___________________________________ 2. What is the headline of the most important news story today?________________________________ _________________________________________________Section/Page_____________________ 3. Write the headline of an article that deals with a controversial issue:____________________________ _________________________________________________Section/Page_____________________ 4. Find an innovation in science, the arts, business, technology or any other field reported in The Times today. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 5. Find a news report in todays New York Times focusing on: an international problem__________________________________________________________ a domestic problem______________________________________________________________ 6. What is the title of a movie or book reviewed today? _______________________________________ 7. Find an adjective used to describe the movie or book reviewed._______________________________ 8. What page are the comics on?________________________________________________________ 9. Describe the subject of an article in todays Times that in some way reflects the diversity of cultures in America.______________________________________________________________________ Section/Page___________________________Headline____________________________________ 10. Find a person profiled in any section of The Times today. Why is that person newsworthy now?_____ _________________________________________________Section/Page_____________________ 11. Find an article that you dont think will be covered in any half-hour TV news broadcasts today. Why do you think it is in the newspaper but would not be on TV?________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 12. Find at least one item from anywhere in todays Times that relates to something you are learning or have learned in any of your classes this year. Times item _______________________________________Section/Page_____________________ The class it relates to:_______________________________________________________________ Why?___________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________
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DEVELOPING ANALYTICAL READING SKILLS WITH THE TIMES
OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to: identify the main idea of a news article (who, what, when, where, why, how). analyze how details (quotations, statistics, etc.) in the article support the main idea.
PREPARATION: Assemble tools. Background information: Many of the articles on the front page and in the news columns of newspapers are known as hard news or breaking news that is, news of an immediate or urgent nature. Feature articles are sometimes called soft news in that they usually have less immediate bearing on readers lives. WARM-UP ASK YOUR STUDENTS: How do you think a reporter for The New York Times decides which facts come first in a news article? What comes next? And after that? Today were going to learn how reporters organize news articles they write. NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY
Distribute the Lesson 2 Worksheet to each student. Review the directions for Part A. Distribute todays New York Times to each student. Divide the class into pairs of students.
TOOLS NEEDED
Todays New York Times, one per student. Copies of the Lesson 2 Worksheet, one per student. Scissors, one per student. Small envelopes, one per student.
Have students complete Part A of the Worksheet exercise. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS How did you decide which paragraph came first? And how did you arrange the paragraphs that followed? (In most hard-news articles, the most important facts who, what, where, when, why and how usually come first, with the rest of the information in descending order of importance. Transition sentences and other clues help students decide which paragraphs fit where.)
Did the headline use information from near the beginning of the article? (In news
articles the headline usually captures at least part of the main idea of the article.)
Direct students to the instructions for Part B on the Worksheet. Allow time to
complete, then discuss the answers in class. ASK:

How do you think The Timess style of news reporting is different from that of
other news media? Give examples. (Students might say The Times is more serious or in depth than other newspapers, particularly tabloids; they might compare The Times to news on 24-hour radio or TV stations or Web sites, like The Timess Web site www.NYTimes.com, which updates news continuously.)
KNOWLEDGE NETWORK
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DEVELOPING ANALYTICAL READING SKILLS WITH THE TIMES
EXTENSION/HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Have students identify the five Ws and an H in each article on the front page of todays Times. (Most of the Ws and Hs will be in the first paragraph, or the first few paragraphs, of each article.)
Have students compare how The Times reports a news story with how it is reported
by other media such as magazines, radio, television, tabloid newspapers and the Internet. Have students create a chart that shows the similarities and differences, illustrating the chart with material from The Times and other media.
Arrange for your students to be freelance reporters for your school newspaper.
Select a current news subject reported in The Times. Have them interview other students about this topic and write up the report, using Times reporting style.
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LESSON 2
WORKSHEET: DEVELOPING ANALYTICAL READING SKILLS WITH THE TIMES
NAME_______________________________________
PART A.
Select a news article from the first section of todays New York Times.
(You and your partner should select different articles.) Cut up the story into paragraphs (without the headlines). Put the paragraphs in your envelope. Exchange envelopes with your partner. Empty the paragraphs onto your desk. Assemble the paragraphs in the order you think makes the most sense. Show your partner the article as it appears in the newspaper and discuss any differences in the arrangement of the paragraphs. Read the headline for the article you assembled. Which facts from which paragraphs were used in the headline? Reread the original printed article and, in the margin, label each paragraph with the appropriate letter from this list: a) provides background d) quotes sources b) adds facts e) explains an issue or problem. c) summarizes facts Answer the following questions about the article: 1. What is the significance of the event or issue discussed in this article: Why is it news?______________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Sometimes news articles have what is called a nut graph, or a paragraph that sums up a an articles wider significance; other times that information is spread throughout the article. Is there a nut graph in this article, and if yes, which one is it?_________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Sometimes reporters write sidebars for an article shorter articles on related topics. What additional topics might have worked as sidebars for this article?________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 4. How might this article be reported differently in another medium? Name another newspaper, television or radio program, magazine or Web site and describe how the news might be reported there._________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________
PART B.
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DEVELOPING YOUR VOCABULARY WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES
OBJECTIVE
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to define and use orally and in writing new words they have learned from todays New York Times.
PREPARATION: Assemble tools. Scan todays Times. Preselect an article of general interest to your students that contains powerful vocabulary words. WARM-UP ASK YOUR STUDENTS: When youre reading something and you come across a word you dont know, what do you do? List student answers on the board. (Skip it, try to figure it out from the context, ask someone, look it up, break it down into root parts, etc.) Tell students that they are going to learn 10 new words in class today, and that they will be using some of the techniques they just identified. NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY
Distribute todays New York Times to each student. Give students five minutes to read the preselected article and underline all the
TOOLS NEEDED
The New York Times, one copy per student. Copies of Lesson 3 Worksheet, one per student. Dictionaries and thesauruses.
words they dont know. Have students call out the underlined words and list them on the board. Distribute the Lesson 3 Worksheet. Go through Part A as a class using one of the words on the board. Divide the class into small groups, say, four students per group. Assign each group one of the words on the board to use with Parts A and B. Allow 10 minutes. Have each group teach their assigned word while other students take notes in Part C. Direct students to place their finished Worksheets face down. Call out the words that have been taught and have students write their meanings on the back of the Worksheet. Maintain the list of words from this and other similar exercises and periodically review these words, asking students to provide definitions or use them in a sentence. Discuss the techniques that make the words memorable and why. (Elementary classrooms often use Word Walls, where vocabulary words are posted prominently in big letters.) DISCUSSION QUESTIONS In general, what can you do to improve your vocabulary? (Read more; look up words; practice using them aloud and in writing; study lists of new words.) Why would you want to improve your vocabulary? (To express yourself better, sound more educated, be treated more seriously and with more respect in business, etc.) How do prefixes or suffixes help you break down the parts of new words and understand their meaning? What are some common prefixes and suffixes and their meanings? (Students might suggest prefixes like un- or suffixes like -ology.)
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DEVELOPING YOUR VOCABULARY WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES
EXTENSION/HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Have students write an essay in the style of the Op-Ed page of The Times, using some of the words studied today. Introduce the Op-Ed page as a model for essay writing.
Assign students a shades of meaning project in which they find synonyms in the
thesaurus for each of the words studied in a Times article and describe how the sentence and/or article would be different if the writer had used the synonyms. Have students list more everyday words the writer might have used, then ask how the word actually used in the article was more descriptive, meaningful, direct, etc.
Have students choose a review of a movie, book or TV program in The Times, then
evaluate the words used to positively or negatively describe the work. Have students write a review of a movie, book or TV program with vocabulary words that describe the work both positively and negatively.
Have students rewrite a Times article using language that would be understood by a
child in the third grade (an 8-year-old). Then have them explain what is lost (or gained) by using simpler vocabulary.
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LESSON 3
WORKSHEET: DEVELOPING YOUR VOCABULARY WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES
NAME_______________________________________
Investigate the meaning of a new vocabulary word from The New York Times so that you can teach this word to your classmates. Word:________________________________________________________________________ This word appeared in an article with the headline:_____________________________________ Date/Section/Page:______________________________________________________________ Your guess about the meaning of this word:___________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Context clues to the meaning of this word:____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Dictionary definition of this word:__________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________
B C
Think about how to teach the meaning of this word to your classmates in a way that will make it memorable. You may use drawings, drama, props, games or other word-association techniques.
Write down the words that your classmates teach you. Jot down how you will remember the meaning of each word.
WORD
_______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________
I WILL REMEMBER THIS WORD BECAUSE

________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________
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PERSONAL WRITING WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES
OBJECTIVE
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to write an essay based on articles in The New York Times that have personal meaning for them.
PREPARATION: Assemble tools. Scan todays New York Times, noting articles that might be of interest to your students. See The Times article at the end of this Lesson Plan, which may inspire students and which they can use as a model. WARM-UP ASK YOUR STUDENTS: When you pick up a newspaper, how do you know what sections and articles will interest you? (Discuss the sections people reach for first and why.) Would you rather write about a topic that interests you or about a topic that does not interest you? (It is often easier and more interesting to write about topics to which we have some personal connection.) Today well look at The New York Times to see what interests each of us. Be ready for some surprises! NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY Distribute todays Times and the Lesson 4 Worksheet. Assign Part A. Review instructions. Allow 20 minutes for students to find connections to three articles. Form small groups of, say, four students each. Have students share the articles they chose with the other members of their group and explain why they chose them. While the students are conferring, write headings for three columns on the board: Headline Why It Sounds Interesting Essay Topic Ideas
TOOLS NEEDED
Todays New York Times, one copy per student Copies of Lesson 4 Worksheet and article Binder paper.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Ask for volunteers to tell the class which articles they were drawn to and why they were of interest. Record responses in the first two columns on the board. Then say: Lets go one step further. Look at the columns on the board the headlines and why they were interesting. The next step is to write what you think about one of the topics that interests you. Thats what writers on the Editorial and Op-Ed pages of The Times do. They read or hear something that interests them, and then express their opinions in an essay on the Editorial or Op-Ed page. This form of writing allows you to explore the meaning an article had for you personally whether it inspired you, made you angry or made you laugh and express your opinion on the topic. Explore potential essay topics from the list of articles on the board and write them under the Essay Topic Ideas heading.
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Have students use their own Worksheets to come up with an essay topic from one of
the headlines of interest to them (Part B). Have them discuss the topics they come up with, either as a class or in their groups. Assign the rest of Part B on the Worksheet, with a due date. (You may want to have students do a quick free-write, i.e., jotting down some of their thoughts while the topic is fresh in their minds.) Encourage students to use the Editorial and Op-Ed pages of The Times as models for their writing. EXTENSION/HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Assign activities. Establish due dates.
How does who you are affect how you read the newspaper? Find articles in The
Times to which you have an especially strong response, based on your interests, age, race, religion, sex, geographical region or ethnicity, and describe how these factors affected your reaction to the article. Then imagine the response of someone quite different from you to this article. Describe this person and how he or she might respond to the article.
Cut out articles from your copy of The New York Times that you think friends
or family would enjoy or benefit from reading. Mail them to these people, with a note saying why you thought this particular article would be of interest to them.
Read the article, A Death in the Family: In So Many Words, a Wonderful Life.
Underline the key words that describe the writers father. Select someone you knew who died. Make a list of key words that describe what the person was like. Use with examples from his or her life to write a personal piece.
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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 4: ARTICLE

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LESSON 4
WORKSHEET: PERSONAL WRITING WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES
NAME_______________________________________
PART A.
Scan the pages of todays New York Times, and turn down the corners of pages that have
headlines that interest you. Read the articles that most interest you. Complete the exercise below for each article. Headline of Article:________________________________________________________________ Why this article interests me personally:________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ Headline of Article:________________________________________________________________ Why this article interests me personally:________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ Headline of Article:________________________________________________________________ Why this article interests me personally:________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________
Read the essays on the Editorial and Op-Ed pages of The New York Times. These essays are based
on topics that interested the writers, either in news articles in The Times or in things they read or heard elsewhere. Review the articles that you found interesting and the reasons why. List essays you could write expressing your opinion on topics covered in the articles you selected.
PART B.
On a sheet of binder paper: Select a topic for your essay. Write a topic sentence for your essay. List reasons and the details for your opinion (from the news articles you read and other sources). Write a summary statement of your opinion. Write your essay using these elements. (Read the Editorial and Op-Ed pages of The Times as models for your writing.)
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LINKING THE NEW YORK TIMES TO LITERATURE
OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to connect quotations and situations from literature with current events reported in The New York Times.
PREPARATION: Assemble tools. Review the literary quotations on the Lesson 5 Worksheet. Select quotations from literary works your students are currently reading or have recently read for class assignments. Write the following prompt on the board: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, 1859. WARM-UP Direct students to the prompt on the board. Say to the class, Though Dickens was referring to the time of the French Revolution, many people have said that this statement could apply to our own time as well. What do you think? Write your answer in your journal, with examples of current events that support your answer. Write two column headings on the board: Best of Times and Worst of Times. NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY
Ask for examples of current events to put under the two column headings. Distribute copies of todays New York Times. Have students scan the paper for additional Best of Times and Worst of Times
TOOLS NEEDED
The New York Times, one copy per student. Copies of Lesson 5 Worksheet, one per student.
examples in the news and add them to the lists on the board. TELL THE CLASS: Famous quotations from literature and history endure because they express something that applies as much to our world today as it did to another time and place. Can you think of other famous quotations, from literature or history youve read in school or on your own, that also seem timeless?
Have students scan The Times for examples of current events that might illustrate the
current relevance of the quotations the class came up with. Divide the class into small groups. Distribute the Lesson 5 Worksheet. Review with students. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Which quotations could you find connections for pretty easily? Which were more difficult to connect to events described in todays newspaper? Why? Have each group discuss the quotations and the articles they connected.
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LINKING THE NEW YORK TIMES TO LITERATURE
EXTENSION/ HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Assign activities. Establish due dates.

Choose a quotation from a favorite poem, short story, play or novel and collect clippings
from The Times that illustrate the quotations. Write an introduction to the clippings, explaining the quotation and how it relates to the current events reported in The Times. Date each clipping. Present the material in the form of a booklet or poster.
Choose a character from literature and read The Times as if you were that character.
Find a news article to which this character would have a strong response. Clip the article and write the characters response, in his or her voice and from his or her point of view.
Create a newspaper front page like that of The Times, but based on the time and place
of a work of literature the class is reading. News articles can report on key events in the novel and conflicts among characters. Also create inside pages that could include advertising, letters to the editor and other features from The Times, all written to reflect the perspective of the time and place of the novel.
Write a summary of an updated version of a classic work of literature in which the
basic conflicts, plot, characters and themes remain the same, but which is set in the contemporary world. Use The Times to find examples of current events that will make this new version both realistic and pointed in its commentary on our world.
Look through articles in The Times to find classic literary types: Who are the heroes of
our world? The villains? Why do you think we see them this way? Prepare a Heroes and Villains poster with Times articles illustrating our heroes and villains, and a list of similar heroes and villains from literature.
Create a poster with clippings from The Times in which classic literary conflicts (e.g.,
man vs. man, man vs. society, man vs. himself, man vs. nature, etc.) play out every day in news articles. Label the conflict illustrated by each article.
Select a news article that has elements of a major work of literature. Write an analysis
of the article examining elements like setting, characters, conflict, dialogue, description, etc. Write the opening paragraphs of a novel based on this news event.
Write a report about our nation or planet as an alien might write it if it had read a
week of The New York Times. Write in the style of a news report on the front page of The Times.
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LESSON 5
WORKSHEET: LINKING THE NEW YORK TIMES TO LITERATURE
NAME_______________________________________
ere going to test the assumption that many quotations from literature are still relevant today.
Find news or feature articles, photos, ads or other elements in todays Times that illustrate each of
the quotations below.

How well does each of the following quotations apply to our world today? Look for connections
between each quotation and current events reported in The Times, then explain the connection. A mans character is his fate (Heraclitus, On the Universe, fragment 121.) Article/element from The Times:____________________________________________________ Section/Page/Date:_______________________________________________________________ Explain the connection:___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. (Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermeres Fan, Act III, 1892.) Article/element from The Times:____________________________________________________ Section/Page/Date:_______________________________________________________________ Explain the connection:___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck. (Frederick Douglass, speech at Civil Rights Mass March, Washington, D.C., Oct. 22, 1883.) Article/element from The Times:____________________________________________________ Section/Page/Date:_______________________________________________________________ Explain the connection:___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Choose a quotation from literature: Author/Source__________________________________________________________________ Article/element from The Times:____________________________________________________ Section/Page/Date:_______________________________________________________________ Explain the connection:___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________
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WRITING A REVIEW IN THE STYLE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to: define the elements of a New York Times review. write a review that incorporates all these elements. (This lesson is based on a book review; book reviews appear daily in The Times, and can be adapted to fit any kind of review in The Times, e.g., movies, architecture, TV shows, restaurants, new software or technological devices, etc.)
PREPARATION Assemble tools. Scan todays Times and note the variety of reviews on any given day. (Book reviews are published daily; reviews of movies, art, architecture, theater and TV shows appear on different days of the week, but Friday has the most arts and culture reviews.) On the board, write the following prompt: What is the best book youve read recently, either in class or on your own? WARM-UP
Have students answer the question on the board by writing the title at the top of a
page in their journals.

Then say, Below the title, write what you would say if you were trying to convince a
friend to read this book. When theyve finished writing, divide the class into pairs and have students take turns convincing their partners to read the book they chose. ASK THE STUDENTS:
Were you convinced by your partner? Why or why not? How did your partners try to convince you? (They told me about the plot, the
TOOLS NEEDED
The New York Times, one copy per student. Copies of Lesson 6 Worksheet, one per student. Dictionaries and thesauruses.
characters, how real the story is, how absorbing the book is, etc.) Chart student responses on the board under the headings: Fact and Opinion. Ask whether students found facts or opinions more convincing. Define and discuss what constitutes a review. NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY Distribute todays New York Times. Have students scan the paper and mark all the reviews (books, television, theater, etc.). List the different kinds of reviews the class found on the board. How much do you rely on what your friends and family tell you in deciding what you read, watch and buy? Why are they good sources of information? How many of you rely on professional reviews, like those in the newspaper? How is that different from what your friends or family tell you? What are the criteria a writer must consider when reviewing a book and then conveying that opinion to an audience? (What does any review try to do? How is a book review similar to, and different from, say, a restaurant review?) Record the criteria on the board. Direct students to a particular review in todays Times. Read it aloud sentence by sentence.
Survey of the class. How many students think its a positive review? A negative review? Form pairs of students.
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WRITING A REVIEW IN THE STYLE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
Distribute the Lesson 6 Worksheets and review instructions. Discuss the questions on the Worksheet.
EXTENSION/HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Assign activities. Establish due dates.

Choose a work of fiction read in class or found in the school library, and write a
review for your classmates modeled on book reviews in The Times. Include all the essential elements the class listed on the board. These reviews can then be posted in the classroom or the school library, or compiled in a book to share with others. (The Times Web site features thousands of past book reviews at www.nytimes.com/books.)
Analyze other types of reviews (movie, dance, music, architecture, etc.) that appear in
The Times and write your own review of a movie, TV show, etc., for an audience of your peers. Submit the best reviews to the school newspaper.
Read a book and then see the movie based on the book. Write a review of both the
book and the movie, comparing them and advising readers/moviegoers on the merits of each, and whether they should read the book or see the movie first.
Clip reviews of current movies or TV shows from The Times, but dont read them
until you have seen the movies or shows and written your own reviews. Write a short report comparing the reviewers opinions with your own.
Write a review of a book, play, movie or other work from the past as if you lived at
that time. (For example, what might a critic have said about cubism when it first appeared, or 1984?) How does when and where we live influence our artistic and cultural taste? Explain how your review would be different if you were writing it today instead of in the past.
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LESSON 6
WORKSHEET: WRITING A REVIEW IN THE STYLE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
NAME_______________________________________ Discuss and answer the questions as they apply to a New York Times book review (or other type of review). 1. Is this review generally positive or generally negative? How soon into the review can you tell? Write the first sentence that conveys the reviewers opinion.___________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What other words, phrases or sentences are particularly effective in conveying what the reviewer thinks about this book?____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Label each sentence in the review with an F for fact or an O for opinion. Underline sentences where it isnt clear. Be prepared to explain your labels. 4. Circle a word or phrase that is particularly descriptive or interesting. What other words could the reviewer have used instead?____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 5. Describe the tone, or the reviewers attitude toward the subject, in the review. In which sentences does that tone come across most clearly?______________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 6. What does the reviewer tell you about the plot, characters, conflict, setting or themes of the book, if the book is fiction? What did you learn about the subject matter if the book is nonfiction?______________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 7. What context or background does the reviewer include to help the reader understand what the book is about and how good a book it is?_______________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 8. If you were the publisher of this book, is there anything in this review you would want to use as a blurb on the books jacket? Quotation:___________________________________________________________ Reason for choosing, or for not using anything from the review________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 9. Would you like to read this book? Why or why not? How much do you think this review has influenced your opinion? Did the critic use any techniques in this review that you could use when writing your next book report? What are they?___________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________
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OUTLINING A BIOGRAPHY BASED ON A NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
OBJECTIVE
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to write an outline for a biography of a person profiled in The New York Times.
PREPARATION Assemble tools. Scan todays Times for articles about specific individuals. Profiles appear throughout the newspaper: in news sections, the arts, sports, business, etc. And obituaries appear in The Times daily. WARM-UP TELL THE CLASS: When I say Go, write down the names of people who have been in the news recently locally, nationally or internationally.
Give them a few minutes, then list the names student came up with on the board,
TOOLS NEEDED
Todays New York Times, one copy per student. Copies of Lesson 7 Worksheets, one per student. Biographies of several living and deceased people of interest to students.
tallying which ones came up most often. Then discuss the following questions: How many of these people do you think will still be on our lists a year from now? What makes a person newsworthy? (An event brings someone into the public eye; the person has an important job or role; he or she is colorful; the person has just done something good or bad that attracted a lot of attention; interesting facts have just come to light about this person; the person has just died, gotten married, had a baby, etc.) NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY Distribute todays Times to each student. Then discuss the following questions: Where in The Times can you read articles that focus on individual people? Look through your newspapers and circle as many as you can find. In what sections did you find these articles? (Depending on the day, they can be found in all sections.) How are profiles different from obituaries? (A profile is about someone who is alive; obituaries are about people who have recently died; the style and tone of the writing is different in that obituaries try to summarize a persons entire life while profiles focus on why this person is in the news at the moment.) Direct students to the Times article you have preselected. Distribute Worksheet A for Lesson 11. Form pairs or small groups for discussion of the questions on the Worksheet. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What influence do you think a persons early years have on who he or she becomes?
(Encourage students to draw examples from current events, literature and people they know. Note that many Times profiles contain details about the subjects early life. Why?)
If this profile involved an interview with the subject, ask: What techniques do you
think this reporter used to get information from the person being interviewed?
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OUTLINING A BIOGRAPHY BASED ON A NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
What kind of questions do you think the reporter asked? (Making people comfortable,
asking open-ended questions, knowing something about the person beforehand, etc.)
Would you want to be the subject of a Times profile? Why or why not? (Students
might mention the advantages and disadvantages of this kind of fame.) BIOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT
Read aloud the titles of each chapter from a biography about someone of interest
to your students.
For each chapter title ask: What part of this persons life do you think
this chapter covers? Write the responses on the board (e.g., birth and early years, parents, etc.) Repeat for other chapter titles. Distribute Worksheet B for Lesson 7 and review with students. Assign a due date for the outlines. You can also have students write one or more chapters of the biography as term projects. EXTENSION/HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Assign activities. Establish due dates.
Have students choose someone they know who has had an interesting life, interview
him or her, then write a short profile (using Times profiles as models). Collect the profiles for discussion in class, or for submission to the school newspaper.
Interviewing an interviewer: Have students interview a reporter at your school or local
newspaper, asking him or her about the most interesting, difficult, funny, etc., interviews they have ever done. What tips would he or she give to help students improve their interviewing skills?
Have students choose someone profiled in todays Times whose life they think would
make an interesting TV show or movie. Have them develop the pitch they would give studio executives to convince them that the studio should green light the idea. In other words, they should explain why this persons story would be interesting; what form (movie, comedy series, drama, etc.) would best fit the story; who would play this person; who would be interested in seeing this movie or show; the general plot, setting, other characters, conflicts, etc. Students can take turns delivering their pitches to their classmates, who act as studio executives charged with choosing the best projects.
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LESSON 7
WORKSHEET A: OUTLINING A BIOGRAPHY BASED ON A NEW YORK TIMES PROFILE
NAME_______________________________________ Choose a Times profile or obituary and answer the following questions. 1. Do you think the person profiled would be happy with this article? Why? Find specific sentences that support your opinion.________________________________________________________________ 2. Is the person described physically? If yes, how? What does this description tell you about this person? _________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What adjectives are used to describe this person?___________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 4. If the subject was interviewed for the article, can you tell what the setting was? What does that tell you about the person?___________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 5. What does the profile reveal about the subjects background? How is that relevant?_________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 6. How is the subjects personality described in the article? If its a profile, how much of the subjects personality is revealed through his or her actions and statements, as opposed to narrative from the reporter? If its an obituary, can you make inferences about what kind of person the subject was? Find sentences that support your opinion._________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ 7. What do you think the reporter wants you to think or feel about this person? How much is implied rather than stated directly?____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 8. Does the reporter succeed in making the subject come alive for the reader? If yes, indicate sentences that are particularly evocative._____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 9. What else would you like to know about this person that the reporter, perhaps for space reasons, did not include? Make a list of questions you have about this person.__________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 10. Would a profile or obituary of this person have been newsworthy a year ago? Do you think he or she will be newsworthy five years from now? Why or why not?___________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________
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LESSON 7
WORKSHEET B: OUTLINING A BIOGRAPHY BASED ON A NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
NAME_______________________________________
Select a profile or an obituary from The New York Times. Using details from the article, create a list of chapter headings for a biography of this person. Select sentences from the article that each chapter would expand on. For example, a sentence about the
subjects birthplace and family would serve as the basis for the chapter on his or her early years. (Review the chapter headings from biographies of several people who interest you to get a sense of how biographies are organized.)
Headline of article from The New York Times:_______________________________________________ Name of the person profiled in the article:__________________________________________________ Date/Section/Page_____________________________________________________________________
SENTENCE FROM ARTICLE

________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________
CHAPTER TITLE
________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________
Due date for biography outline:_______________________________________
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VIVID LANGUAGE, GRAMMAR AND STYLISTIC DEVICES IN THE TIMES
OBJECTIVE
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to identify types of figurative language, stylistic devices, grammatical elements and punctuation used in The New York Times.
BACKGROUND New York Times articles and headlines are rich with figurative language. Here are some examples:

a Darth Vaderesque building Things are chugging along. Subway riders are like clever mice who had figured out the fastest way to the cheese. The earth might give up secrets.
TOOLS NEEDED
Todays New York Times, one copy per student. Copies of Lesson 8 Worksheet, one per student. Dictionaries, thesauruses and grammar or writing texts with glossaries, one set per small group. Optional: prizes for Language Arts Bingo winners
PREPARATION Assemble tools. Review the Lesson 8 Worksheet. Consider the different ways students could play the Language Arts Bingo game in small groups; for example, each group could handle a row or column. Scan todays New York Times for examples of figurative language and the use of specific grammatical devices. WARM-UP ASK YOUR STUDENTS: Why has Michael Jordan been called Air Jordan? (Students will most likely say he appeared to be in flight as he slam-dunked the ball.) Air Jordan is an example of figurative language (write on the board). Good writers use rich language like this. Great writers create these kinds of rich expressions. What other people in the news are described with this kind of figurative language? Were going to play a version of Bingo which will help you see how New York Times writers use rich or figurative language, stylistic devices, grammatical elements, even punctuation to enhance their articles. Everyone will get a copy of todays Times and a Bingo Worksheet. Everything you need to answer the Bingo questions can be found in one or more places in todays New York Times. NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY Form small groups. Distribute todays New York Times to each student. Distribute to each group a dictionary, thesaurus and grammar/writing texts. Distribute the Lesson 8 Worksheets face-down to each student. When I give the signal, turn over the Worksheet. Youll have 15 minutes to complete a row, column or diagonal. Find your answers anywhere in todays Times. The first group to finish, call out BINGO! (pause) Ready, GO!
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VIVID LANGUAGE, GRAMMAR AND STYLISTIC DEVICES IN THE TIMES
Game winners share their answers with the class, including the page and section where
they found each example. Award prizes to the winners. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Why do writers use figurative language and other stylistic devices? Why not just write everything as simply as possible? (The best writing often says something in a new or unexpected way that allows readers to see the topic from a new perspective; making connections between things, as metaphors or analogies do, can help make a point clear; writing would be dull and not as fun to read if it was all structured the same way.) Which of these techniques have you used in your own writing? Which would you like to try? (Have students look at the Bingo board and identify the types of figurative language, stylistic devices and grammatical elements they would like to use.)
EXTENSION/HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES:
Assign activities. Establish due dates.
Have students write new sentences using examples of figurative language, stylistic
devices and grammatical elements found for the Bingo game.

Identify a Times writer or reporter who you feel is a particularly gifted stylist. Collect
several examples of his or her writing, identifying components of the writers style with examples from his or her work.
Collect articles from The Times about a well-known person and write a description of
this individual, using figurative language, based on the facts in the articles.
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LESSON 8
WORKSHEET: LANGUAGE ARTS BINGO
NAME____________________________________
Find and circle one example of as many of the following types of figurative language, stylistic devices and
grammatical elements as you can in The New York Times.

When you have a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row completely filled in, call out Bingo! Be sure to
record the section and page of todays Times where you find each example.
NEW YORK TIMES LANGUAGE ARTS BINGO

Metaphor
Section/page:
Slang or colloquialism
Section/page:
Use of a persons title

Section/page:
Active voice
Section/page:
A sentence fragment
Section/page:
Simile
Section/page:
Use of a colon
Section/page:
Simple sentence
Section/page:
A clich
Section/page:
A complex sentence
Section/page:
Interesting quotation
Section/page:
Alliteration
Section/page:
Humor
Section/page:
An analogy
Section/page:
Personification
Section/page:
Allusion or pun
Section/page:
A compound sentence
Section/page:
Compoundcomplex sentence
Section/page:
An abbreviation
Section/page:
Metaphor
Section/page:
Hyphen or dash
Section/page:
Use of a semicolon
Section/page:
A comparison between two things

Section/page:
A transition sentence
Section/page:
Alliteration
Section/page:
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DEVELOPING A RESEARCH PROJECT BASED ON A TIMES ARTICLE
OBJECTIVE
At the conclusion of this lesson, each student will have developed a topic for a research project prompted by an article in The New York Times.
PREPARATION Assemble tools. Scan todays New York Times, noting articles that could be sources of good research topics. Write the following prompt on the board: If you could have a special edition of The Times delivered to your door that would include only news, features, profiles, reviews and ads that interest you, what would it contain? WARM-UP Have students list examples of what their special edition would contain. Discuss their responses the similarities and the differences. NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY This exercise will help students develop a manageable research topic based on an article in The Times. Point out examples of articles that focus on topics so broad that a single research paper could never begin to cover it. And point out what appear to be light articles that actually touch on significant issues. SAY TO YOUR CLASS: Today youll be using The New York Times to help you choose a research topic of interest to you. Youll then use The Times and other publications and resources to research your topic.
Distribute todays New York Times. Distribute the Lesson 9 Worksheet to each student. Give students 10 minutes to scan The Times and list articles and the ideas for research
TOOLS NEEDED
Todays New York Times, one copy per student. Copies of Lesson 9 Worksheet, one per student. Textbooks with guidance on writing a research paper.
topics prompted by the Worksheet. (Emphasize that this is brainstorming, and that they may not end up doing their project on any of these topics; and that topics can be as broad as, say, the Civil War or the 2004 presidential election, or as specific as the latest celebrity scandal.) Were going to practice planning a research project so you can see how to get from your general interest in a topic to a clear focus for a research paper. You made a list of Times articles that interest you. Lets take one article from todays Times for practice as a class. Guide students to the preselected article and give them time to read it.
What questions does this article raise in your mind? Begin your questions with
the word, Why. List all the questions on the board. As a class, rank the questions in order of importance.
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DEVELOPING A RESEARCH PROJECT BASED ON A TIMES ARTICLE
Ask the class if there are additional questions that should be answered through
research. (These questions need to be directly related to the research question, or the research topic will become too broad.) Summarize what the research paper would be about in this case. Now, youre going to develop your own research topic from the list of Times articles that interested you and the research ideas they gave you. Were going to split up into small groups, and classmates will help you come up with a list of Why questions to investigate in your research. PREPARATION FOR RESEARCH
Form small groups of up to three students. Review the steps on the Worksheet. Review standard research sources, places to conduct research and basic steps in
gathering research data. Establish due dates as indicated on the Worksheet. HOMEWORK/EXTENSION ACTIVITIES Assign activities. Establish due dates.
After theyve finished their papers, have students write an opinion piece (like those
on the Op-Ed page of The Times) about the topic they researched. Write a research paper that compares Times coverage of the same topic in different eras. (The Times began publishing in 1851. Microfilm archives are available in many libraries.) Have students research a change in society that began in their lifetime, continues today, and which they believe will continue in the future, e.g., the growth of the Internet. Have students create portfolios or posters with Times articles that show how this change in society has taken place.
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LESSON 9
WORKSHEET: DEVELOPING A RESEARCH PROJECT BASED ON A TIMES ARTICLE
NAME_______________________________________ 1) Scan The New York Times and mark all the articles that interest you. 2) Select the article that interests you the most, so much so that you want to find out more about the topic of the article. Headline of article ____________________________________________________________________ Topic of article:_______________________________________________________________________ Date/section/page_____________________________________________________________________ 3) Discuss the articles selected by each member of your group and develop a list of why questions each of you will investigate in your research.
WHY QUESTIONS RELATED TO THE ARTICLE IVE CHOSEN

___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ 4) Place a #1 before the why question that you think is most important. Discuss your choice with your group. This question will be the primary focus of your research. 5) Are any of the other questions related to researching the #1 question? If so, number them but take care not to add questions that enlarge your research topic. Add only questions that are subtopics of your #1 question. Assigned length of research paper:__________________________________________ Due date for list of newspapers, books, magazines, Web sites, people, etc., from which I will gather research data and information:_____________________________________________ Due date for first draft of research paper: _____________________________________ Plan to write as many drafts of your paper as necessary to produce an A-quality paper. Due date for final research paper: _________________________________________
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THE NEW YORK TIMES IN THE DRAMA CLASSROOM
OBJECTIVE
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will perform an original readers theater dramatic piece based on an article from The New York Times.
PREPARATION Assemble tools Scan todays New York Times for potential readers theater dramatic material. Preselect an article to use as a model. Write the headline on the board, leaving space around it to write in material discussed during the Warm-up. Establish a time frame for students to develop, rehearse and perform their pieces. Write the dates on the board. Prepare the space for the day of performances. WARM-UP After reading this headline from todays Times, what words, phrases, and images come to mind? (For example, if the headline uses the word war, encourage students to think about what war looks like, sounds like, etc.) Write their responses on the board surrounding the headline. Ask students to answer the following question in their journals: If you were a performer and had three minutes to deliver a dramatic piece on this subject, what would you do? Students then share answers; volunteers might even perform their ideas for the class. NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY Distribute todays New York Times. Have students read the headline and article used in the Warm-Up. Compare the responses on the board with the facts in the article. What would you change about the performance you just described, now that you know more of the facts? Explain the Worksheet to the class: You will be creating and performing a three-to-fiveminute dramatic piece based on an article you choose from The New York Times.
Distribute the Lesson 10 Worksheet. Review the instructions and discuss the concept
TOOLS NEEDED
Todays New York Times, one copy per student. Copies of Lesson 10 Worksheet, one per student. Highlighters or colored pens, at least one per student. Optional: several index cards for each student, rehearsal space for each group, performance space.
of readers theater. Have students work on Part A individually. Form students into small groups and assign Part B. (Circulate while the groups are working.) Allow the rest of this class period for the groups to plan their performances, offering rehearsal space to one or two groups at a time (if it is needed and available). Set a date on which all groups must be ready to perform (suggested time period: a week). Tell students that if they have any special needs for their performances (a tape player, desks in a circle, etc.), they must let you know beforehand. Each group must set up its own rehearsal time outside of class, unless you are willing to set aside class time.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES IN THE DRAMA CLASSROOM
CLASS DISCUSSION Each group briefly describes the article they have chosen as the basis for their performance. (All students in the group should have read the article.) Have students talk about how doing a dramatic interpretation of this topic is different from reading about it. (It is more hands-on and allows for different interpretations by those performing.) PERFORMANCE OF READERS THEATER
Establish the order in which each group will perform (possibly based on each groups
physical set-up requirements).

Tell students to be ready to take notes after each groups performance. Have student groups perform in the established order. After each performance, have students write down their reactions for later discussion.
EXTENSION/HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Assign activities. Establish due dates.

Write a review of this series of group performances. Use theater reviews from The
Times as models for your writing. Write and perform an interior monologue of a character in a news article at the time the events described in the article are taking place. Have students tell the story of an event in The Times from a first-person point of view. Write and perform dialogues between people in news articles, or between figures in the news or characters in literature.
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LESSON 10
WORKSHEET (PAGE 1 OF 2): THE NEW YORK TIMES IN THE DRAMA CLASSROOM
NAME_______________________________________ Readers theater is a dramatic form in which the words of a written text or texts are combined with elements of a performance like acting, staging, costumes, props and music, to emphasize a theme, idea or message in the text(s).
PART A.
Selecting an article as the basis of a dramatic performance.
Select an article from The New York Times. Read silently, highlighting any words, phrases,
sentences or paragraphs that seem especially rich or telling about whatever the topic is. Bring the article to your group meeting.
PART B.
Evaluating the potential for a performance.
Each group member gives a one-minute pitch for the article he or she selected. Your group should
then choose one article that it will use as the basis of its performance piece and discuss the following questions as guidance for scripting and rehearsing a readers theater piece of about five minutes. 1) What are the most important sentences in the article? Why? Are there sentences or pieces of information that everyone in the group agrees should be included in the theater piece? 2) What is the most important thing to say about this topic in your dramatic piece? Why? 3) Your group may want to write its lines on index cards so that you can move them around and look for words or phrases that might be important to repeat. 4) Do the lines youve chosen suggest ways to perform them? Your piece can be tightly scripted (for example, a skit based on the topic with actual characters who use words from the article), or loose and abstract (a poem created with words from the text). 5) What kind of physical space would you like to have to present your piece? 6) What sound effects would help your performance? Is there music you could use? How? Could the performers themselves or the classroom audience create sounds for you? 7) What simple costumes and props might make your performance more compelling?
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LESSON 10
WORKSHEET (PAGE 2 OF 2): THE NEW YORK TIMES IN THE DRAMA CLASSROOM
NAME_______________________________________
PART C.
Preparing the performance.
Put the entire piece together and rehearse it until it feels, looks
and sounds right. Make sure each group member has a role on stage, and time yourselves so that your performance is no longer than five minutes. Though you may add your own words to the script, take as much as possible directly from the text of the article, moving sentences, words or paragraphs around in any way that will help you make your dramatic piece stronger. IMPORTANT: Hold on to the original article on which the performance is based. You will need this for the post-performance discussion with the class.
Rehearsal Date(s)_____________________________________________
Performance Date ____________________________________________
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NEW YORK TIMES PHOTOS AS PROMPTS FOR CREATIVE WRITING
OBJECTIVE
At the conclusion of this lesson, each student will have written a creative piece inspired by a photograph in a recent issue of The New York Times.
PREPARATION Assemble tools. Write these questions on the board: What are the characteristics of a great photograph? What makes a great news photograph? What famous news images can you think of? Why do you think they became so famous? WARM-UP Have students answer the questions on the board in their journals. As they write, tape the 10 photos around the classroom in places where there is room for small groups of students to stand in front of each photo. Have small groups of students view each photo closely. Have each group share their interpretations of the photos. After each group has spoken, read the appropriate photo caption aloud. Discuss the differences between each groups interpretation and the actual description of the photograph in the caption. Explain to students that they have just exercised their visual imagination. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ASK YOUR STUDENTS: How much of what you wrote captured something noted in the caption? How much do you think these pictures told you about their stories, even without words (captions) below them? How did they do that? (A picture is worth a thousand words, etc.) Return to the question asked at the beginning of class: What makes a good news photo? Do you have any new insights after writing about one? How can photos have the same elements as good literature conflict, characters, symbols, setting, etc.? Do you think the photographer sets these up pictures up in advance or just shoots what he or she sees? NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY
Distribute todays New York Times to each student. (Tell them to save this issue of
TOOLS NEEDED
Todays New York Times, one copy per student. At least 10 different photographs clipped from recent issues of The Times, with their captions removed and saved separately. Copies of Lesson 11 Worksheet, one per student. Masking tape.
The Times for future class discussion.)

Distribute the Lesson 11 Worksheet and review the directions.
DISCUSSION Post students creative work around the room in a photo gallery. Give students time to view each photograph and their classmates creative writing projects and write their reactions. As a class, discuss their responses.
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LESSON 11
WORKSHEET: NEW YORK TIMES PHOTOS AS PROMPTS FOR CREATIVE WRITING
NAME_______________________________________
A B C
Choose a photo that interests you from todays New York Times. Save the entire page on which it appears.
In 30 minutes, write a rough draft of a piece that responds to or offers insight in some way to the photo. You may write in any form: a poem, description, dialogue for a play, a diary, a eulogy, etc. Use details from the photo so it is clear that what you write has been inspired by the photo. Follow the Before Writing prompts below as needed to help brainstorm creative writing ideas. When youve finished, check your work with the After Writing prompts.
BEFORE WRITING
1) Study your photograph carefully, and think about the following questions: What do you think is happening in the photo? If there are people in the photo, what are they doing, and what might they be thinking? What do you think happened before the photo was taken? What do you think might have happened after it was taken? 2) Look closely at the photo and free-write, on a separate page, your thoughts about the photo. 3) Read over your free-writing. What in it could be the seed on which to build a creative piece of some kind? What words or phrases suggest an idea to you? What ideas, no matter how outlandish, occur to you? Underline key words and phrases. 4) Decide what kind of piece you will write as your interpretation of the photo. It might relate to the same general theme as the photo, or it might focus on something inspired by the people, setting, objects, emotions or events shown in the photo. Maybe the photo sparked a memory that you would like to write about, or it gave you an idea for piece of fictional writing or poem. 5) Write your piece.
AFTER WRITING
1) Read over your work. Underline the most important words. 2) What are the strongest aspects of your piece? The weakest? 3) Circle anything you would like to change in a second draft. 4) Are any parts unclear? What could you do to make them more understandable? 5) What could you add to this draft? What could you take away? Would either make the piece stronger? How? 6) What part do you think other readers will like best? Why? 7) Did you learn anything about the topic from writing this piece? What? 8) Can you think of another way to say what you said here? Would that make the piece stronger? 9) What problems, if any, are you having with this piece? How can you get help? 10 Does your writing have any grammar, punctuation or spelling errors that need correcting? 11) Tape your final, revised piece below the photo and its caption, on the page of The Times where the photo was published.
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A New York Times Newspaper in Education Curriculum Guide

WRITING SKILLS AND STRATEGIES

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NEW YORK TIMES SERVICES FOR TEACHERS

WEB SITE nytimes.com/nie

HOME DELIVERY AT THE EDUCATOR RATE AND SCHOOL LIBRARY RATE

THE NEW YORK TIMES LEARNING NETWORK learning.blogs.nytimes.com

TIMES TOPICS nytimes.com/topics

THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ARCHIVE nytimes.com/archive

THE NEW YORK TIMES IN COLLEGE nytimes.com/edu

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LISTENING AND SPEAKING

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depth, courage, originality in reporting, lively writing, etc.) KNOWLEDGE NETWORK

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 1

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 2

complete, then discuss the answers in class. ASK:

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 2

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 3

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 3

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I WILL REMEMBER THIS WORD BECAUSE

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 4

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 4

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 4: ARTICLE

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 5

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 5

EXTENSION/ HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Assign activities. Establish due dates.

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the quotations below.

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 6

page in their journals.

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 6

EXTENSION/HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES Assign activities. Establish due dates.

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 7

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TEACHER LESSON PLAN 7