#1629.

Fun with Newspapers #2

Language, level: Senior
Posted Mon Mar 13 16:39:16 PST 2000 by Thad Schmenk
(thadsensei@hotmail.com).
Matsuyama Board of Education, Japan
Materials Required: newspapers in the target language
Activity Time: full lesson (45 min)
Concepts Taught: skimming texts

Sections of a newspaper.

I did this in high school when I was studying German. I loved it. Thought I
would share it with you. I just wish I could remember the name of my
teacher so I could give her the credit.

Objectives:
1. The student wil l be able to name the different sections of the newspaper
in the target language.
2. The students will skim the content of an article written in the target
language.
3. Given an article from a newspaper, the students will extrapolate which
section of the newspaper the article came from after skimming the article.

Procedure:
1. Divide the class into small groups.
2. Give each group one or two newspapers (make sure the newspapers are
from different days or at least different newspaper companies.).
3. Have the students search through the newspaper and write on a separate
sheet of paper the tittles of the sections of the newspaper as a group.
4. After the groups think they have found the tittles to all the major sections
of the newspaper, have some of the students list the different sections on

the board. Go over the categories and make sure that the students
understand the vocabulary by asking a few students to translate the words
on the board
5. Check the board to make sure that all of the sections have been listed
and all unnecessary words have been erased.

(At this point, you can stop and explain each section a little more in depth, if
not, follow with step 6.)

6. Next, explain how to skim an article the students.

1. look for a tittle
2. pay attention to bold print
3. read the first line and last line of every paragraph
4. your eyes should never stop moving
5. do not try to understand everything.

7. Next, hand all of the students a copy of an article taken from the
newspaper. (You can decide the degree of difficulty by choosing a difficult or
easy article.) When passing out the articles, have the student place the
papers face down. After all papers have been passed out, tell the students
to flip the papers over as skim as quickly as possible.
8.After ten seconds, ask the students to stop and flip their papers back over.
9. Call on a few students and have them tell you what they think the article
is about in a few words.
10. Next, have the student turn the sheets back over and skim the content
again. This time give the student 20 seconds before stopping them.
11. Again, call on a few more students to explain what they think the article
is about.

(At this point you could continue with comprehension questions about the
article. If you do not want to allot so much time to this lesson, then continue
with step 12.)

12. Ask the students what section of the newspaper they think this article
would be found.

13. Next, have the students, as a group, flip through the newspaper and cut
out one interesting article from each section. Make sure that they write on
the back of the article which section of the newspaper the article came
from.

At this point, my time usually runs out. So, the next day, I do the following.

14. I xerox the articles the students cut out onto overheads. The next day,
we review todayfs lesson and then practice guessing which section of the
newspaper the respective articles came from.

#3824. Your Music, Your Culture

Social Studies, level: Senior
Posted Sat Sep 23 01:25:05 PDT 2006 by Justin Fineis (www.mrfineis.com).
Materials Required: Computer access
Concepts Taught: World Cultures, Music, Technology
Your Music, Your Culture
Presentation
Subjects: Social Studies, Technology
Grade Levels: 6-12
Materials: Computer w/internet access and printer, Windows Movie Maker (optional),
Power Point (optional)
Websites: www.youtube.com , www.lyrics.com , and www.google.com
Outcome:
Students will learn about world cultures and their own through music and images the
music represents.
Procedure:
This lesson requires some build up to it. Try not to give students too much information
on exactly what this lesson is about. Tell students that you are going to take a break
from social studies. Instead, lets talk about music. Who are the most popular groups
right now? What was the last cd you bought? Last mp3 downloaded? Most popular
radio station in their city? What type of music does it play? Etc.. For homework I will
have the students think about their all time favorite songs, choose one, and bring the
lyrics to class tomorrow. (Note: tell students they must edit any explicit lyrics) The next
day, schedule a trip to the computer lab (have students bring their lyrics) and show a

project done on youtube.com were a series of images were put together to make a music
video for the song We Didnt Start the Fire by Billy Joel.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcqMJN9dDtc)
Then tell the students to go to www.google.com and click on the image search tab.
Together search a couple words like apple, DJ, butterfly, etc. For every word there
should be tons of pictures found. Then tell the students too look at their songs lyrics
and think about what images are represented. Give them about ten minutes to search for
images and then head back to the room.
The presentation:
Students are to go home and print a minimum of 10 images that are represented in their
songs and put them in the proper order. They will have to present their songs and
images to the class. (Allow them to bring in the CD if they have it)
They must explain to the class:
1. What this song means to themwhy is it their favorite?
2. How does this song represent American culture?
3. Just from hearing the song and seeing the images it represented, what might a person
from outside of the United States think about American culture.
Follow up:
You can ask the students after watching all of the presentations, if the presentations did
a good job representing their cultur and generation.
I like to follow up this activity by showing music videos from other countries to the
students and ask what they can learn about that countries culture by watching the
videos. Usually students realize that we are more similar than we are different. You can
find tons of videos on youtube.com, just search the nationality and genera. For example:
Korean Pop, Japanese Rock, Chinese Hip Hop, German Alternative Rock, etc.
Variations:
One variation is to have students create their own music video using Windows Movie
Maker. It is very simple to use. You just import the MP3 and drag and drop the images
along the timeline of the song. You will be able to show the students this in about 10
min.
Another variation is to have them put their images into a Power Point presentation.