Alison Zimbalist, The New York Times Learning Network
Subjects: Journalism, Language Arts, Social Studies
Review the Academic Content Standards related to this lesson. Suggested Time Allowance:
1. Assess the place in history of significant events and birthdays found on today's On This Day in History page of The New York Times Learning Network.
2. Explore the historic significance of a recent front-page New York Times event by reading and discussing "President Heads to Mideast Talks Hoping for Truce."
3. Analyze how historic New York Times front page articles reflect the values and language of the times in which they were written, as well as provide accounts of significant events as they happened.
4. Evaluate today's Times front page from the perspective of the student as historian in the year 2030.
Resources / Materials:
-copies of today's On This Day in History page (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday) (one per student)
-copies of "President Heads to Mideast Talks Hoping for Truce" (one per student)
-copies of several historic New York Times front pages from the On This Day in History archives (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/archive.html) (click on the image of the front page on each day's On This Day page to access the scans and transcriptions; choose one historic front page for each small group, and make enough copies of each article for each member of a group)
-copies of the most current New York Times front page [one per student; alternately, you might print out copies of the front page of The New York Times on the Web, which provides short summaries of many articles, found at (http://www.nytimes.com)]
--Read the brief description of the historic Times front page for today. Why do you think that this event was selected as a very significant event in history? How do you think this event impacted history?
--Read the brief description of the historic person born on this day in history. Why do you think that this person is featured as a very significant person born on this day? How do you think this person impacted history?
--Read the list of historic events that happened on this day in history. In what way did each event impact history?
--Compare the lists of current birthdays and historic birthdays of people born on this day in history. What similarities and differences do you note regarding the impacts of these people on history?
Review answers with the class.
2. As a class, read and discuss "President Heads to Mideast Talks Hoping for Truce," focusing on the following questions (note to teachers: any front page New York Times article can be used for this exercise):
3. Distribute copies of historic Times front pages to groups. Each group should be assigned a different article, and each student in a group should receive a copy of that article. You may select front pages that relate specifically to content covered in your class (such as all science-related or all American history-related articles), or use the following suggestions [the archive is found at (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/archive.html)]:
-death of Theodore Roosevelt on January 6, 1919 (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0106.html)
Each group reads its article together and responds to the following questions in short answers on a piece of paper (written on the board for easier student access):
4. WRAP-UP/HOMEWORK: Students respond to the following (written on the board for them to copy before leaving class): "Carefully review the front page of the most current New York Times (NOTE TO TEACHER: you may wish to distribute front pages of the paper or the Web site before students leave class). Then, imagine that you are a historian in the year 2030. Write an analysis of how the day in history presented on this now-historic Times front page is remembered in your time. Since you were a student when these events occurred, be sure to share not only how the events impact today's society in 2030, but also reflect on their importance in the year in which they happened." Students should share their writings in a future class.
--Why might one news story be presented differently in different countries? What examples can you think of to support this?
--How and why has language changed over the past 100 years? What does language reflect about society?
--How are front page articles at a newspaper selected on a daily basis?
2. Research a historic time period or event. Then, create on a poster a New York Times front page for a significant day in that era or event. Include all of the details that one sees on a Times front page, such as the name of the paper, other "masthead" information, headlines, photos, articles, etc. Display your work in the classroom.
3. Find your birthday in the On This Day in History archive (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/onthisday/archive.html), and look at the articles, events and birthdays presented. To what people and events do you feel connected, and why? If you could add yourself as a birthday, how would you describe yourself?
4. Choose a historic New York Times front page from the On This Day in History archive (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/onthisday/archive.html), and look at the other headlines provided from that day in history. Try to locate the text of the other articles that made the front page, and assess their importance in history at the time when they were written. (Most local and university libraries have the entire New York Times archive in microfiche. Articles after 1980 are also available on CD-ROM).
Media Studies- Keep a log of the top stories on both a local and national news broadcast on one night. Then, compare these stories to the front page stories in the next day's paper. What similarities and differences do you note, and why?
Science- Create an On This Day in Science page similar to the On This Day in History page of The New York Times Learning Network. Teachers may assign one significant day to each student. Write a news story covering what you feel was the most important scientific achievement on this day, as well as a related biography of a person in the science world born on this day.
Technology- Compare a print newspaper front page to the front page of the paper's Web site. What stories do these front pages share, and which differ? Why might this be?
History Channel: This Day in History (http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/) offers historic events in a number of categories.
This lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards listed below. These standards are drawn from Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education: 2nd Edition and have been provided courtesy of the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning in Aurora, Colorado. In addition, this lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards of a specific state. Links are provided where available from each McREL standard to the Achieve website containing state standards for over 40 states. The state standards are from Achieve's National Standards Clearinghouse and have been provided courtesy of Achieve, Inc. in Cambridge Massachusetts and Washington, DC.
Historical Understanding Standard 2: Understands the historical perspective. Benchmarks: Understands that specific individuals and the values those individuals held had an impact on history; Analyzes the influence specific ideas and beliefs had on a period of history; Analyzes the effect that specific "chance events" had on history; Analyzes the effects specific decisions had on history
Connect to State Standard
Language Arts Standard 1: Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process. Benchmarks: Uses style and structure appropriate for specific audiences and purposes; Writes narrative accounts; Writes in response to literature
Connect to State Standard
Language Arts Standard 7: Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies for reading a variety of informational texts. Benchmarks: Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of informational texts; Knows the defining characteristics of a variety of informational texts; Identifies techniques used to convey viewpoint; Seeks peer help to understand information; Draws conclusions and makes inferences based on explicit and implicit information in texts;; Differentiates between fact and opinion in informational texts
Connect to State Standard
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