1. What's Important

Reading the words of good writers can improve your own writing. How others tell stories or report information can show you ways to do it in your papers or reports. Discuss as a class the importance of creating a good introductory paragraph. This is like the first paragraph (or two) of a news story. The reporter always wants to quickly tell the who, what, when, where and why of a story. Paragraphs that follow fill in details of these. Read a news story in the local section of the newspaper. Circle the who, what, when, where and why. Then mark information in following paragraphs to show how it provides more detail for one or more of these.

Learning Standards: Describing and using characteristics of various narrative genres and elements of narrative technique to convey ideas and perspectives; acquiring information from written, electronic and visual sources.

2. High Court History

When Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice on August 30, 1967, he became the first African American to serve on the nation's highest court. After graduating from Lincoln University in 1930, Marshall applied to the University of Maryland School of Law, but he didn't get in because the school had a policy against black students studying with white students (segregation). Instead, he went to Howard University Law School and graduated in 1933 with the honor of magna cum laude. As a lawyer, Marshall worked a lot with the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and then became the national group's chief counsel. As a Supreme Court justice for 24 years, Marshall left a legacy of protecting rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Read the newspaper to find an article about a person or group exercising a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, such as freedom of speech. If this right weren't guaranteed, how would life be different?

Learning Standards: Explaining how the U.S. Constitution is maintained as the supreme law of the land; responding to a variety of written, visual and electronic texts.

3. Weakening Mission

A new study shows that living six months on board the International Space Station can make astronauts become as weak as 80-year-olds. A Marquette University biologist led the study that is now raising serious health concerns for astronauts. America's NASA space agency has been considering longer space trips to asteroids and even the planet Mars. Although the study says the health effects are temporary and the muscles recover after astronauts have been back on Earth for a few months, there are concerns whether an astronaut who spends too long a time on a mission could be too weak for an emergency landing or for a spacewalk to make repairs. Find an article in the newspaper that draws a conclusion based on research. Write about the value of this research and why you believe it was or wasn't needed.

Learning Standards: Employing multiple strategies to construct meaning, such as generating questions, studying vocabulary, analyzing mood and tone, recognizing how authors use information, generalizing ideas, matching form to content and developing reference skills; writing fluently for multiple purposes.

4. No-Smoking, Please

Movies showing characters smoking are a lot less popular nowadays, according to new research from the University of California in San Francisco. Researchers looked at the most popular movies from 1991 to 2009 and found that tobacco use in films peaked in 2005, but then began dropping. In 2009, more than half of the top 145 movies released didn't show anyone smoking, which is a record low for the last two decades. And 61 percent of movies for children and teenagers didn't show tobacco use. The report is in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publication. Using today's newspaper or its archives, find an article about the dangers of smoking. Using information from the article, write a letter to your peers detailing why they shouldn't smoke.

Learning Standards: Demonstrating the ability to use different voices in oral and written communication to persuade, inform, entertain and inspire audiences; engaging peers in constructive conversation about matters of interest or importance; utilizing the persuasive power of text as an instrument of change in the community, the nation and the world.

5. Good News, Bad News

The good news for the U.S. economy is that the unemployment rate dropped in 18 states and Washington, D.C., in July. The bad news is that the jobless rate rose in 14 states and stayed the same in 18 others during the same time. Nationally, the unemployment rate in July was 9.5 percent. Private employers added 71,000 jobs in July, but that was at the same time 143,000 U.S. Census jobs ended. Nevada had the country's highest unemployment rate, at 14.3 percent. North Dakota, with a 3.6 unemployment rate, had the lowest. Look through the employment ads in the newspaper and find a job you would like after college. Come up with 10 ways you could start preparing for this job now, such as spending more time working on your math skills.

Learning Standards: Applying knowledge, ideas and issues drawn from texts to their lives and the lives of others; acquiring information from multiple sources.