Comparing Current Events

Lesson Plan for Comparing Current Events
Materials:
Computer stations for each student with internet access and the program, Inspiration.
Article comparison chart from Inspiration (a template that is provided by program)
www.refdesk.com
Printer
Procedure:
1. The teacher explains the nature of the activity as the following:
___(identify the topic)___ is an issue that many people across the world/country are concerned with. Today, you will locate two (or three) articles that discuss this topic. Each article must be from a different news source and from a different part of the world. One of the sources should be a local newspaper, such as Newsday or The New York Times. The other news sources should originate from another country (or state, depending on the topic). You will be able to find all of these sources at www.refdesk.com. You will read these articles, complete an article comparison chart, and write a report based on the information collected from the article comparison chart.
2. The teacher should instruct students to use the graphic organizer template for article comparison in the software application Inspiration. The students should open this template, save it with a filename of the teacher’s choice, and leave the software program open for easy access in note-taking.
3. The students should access the internet website www.refdesk.com. The teacher should direct students to the portion of the web page that contains local and international newspapers.
4. Students should search for articles on the topic. The teacher should support students on an as-need basis.
5. Students should read the specified number of articles and complete the article comparison chart.
6. Students should write a comparison report of the two articles either in class or as a homework assignment.
Evaluation:
1. The class shares their analysis and draws conclusions about their findings.
2. The teacher reviews each student’s written report. Each student should have identified at least one example of a difference in perspective. Mastery of this skill is seen in the student’s ability to include all pertinent information from the article in the comparison chart.