History, Today and Every Day

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Subjects

Arts & Humanities
Language Arts
Social Studies
Current Events

Grades
6-8, 9-12

Brief Description

Students assess, by analyzing historic New York Times front pages, how print journalism reflects the values and language of the society in which it is created.

Objectives

Students will

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;
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";
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;
evaluate a current Times front page from the perspective of the student as historian in the year 2030.

Keywords

newspaper, New York Times, current events, news, every day, critical thinking, primary source, journalism

Materials Needed

paper
pens/pencils
copies of today's On This Day in History page (one per student)
copies of several historic New York Times front pages from the On This Day in History archives (Click 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 news story "President Heads to Mideast Talks Hoping for Truce," which can be printed from the Web at http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20001016monday.html.
copies of a current New York Times front page (one per student); alternately, the teacher might print out copies of the front page of the New York Times on the Web, which provides short summaries of many articles. The Web site can be found at http://www.nytimes.com.

Lesson Plan

Click here to access the complete lesson plan from the New York Times Learning Network.

Note: The news article "President Heads to Mideast Talks Hoping for Truce" was current at the time this lesson was first published. Teachers might use this news story for its value as a resource to be critiqued, omit the use of it, or substitute a more recent news story.

Assessment

Students will be evaluated based on group reflections of today's On This Day in History page, participation in class discussions, group analyses of historic Times front pages, and written pieces exploring a future perspective on today's front page news.

Lesson Plan Source

New York Times Learning Network

National Standards

LANGUAGE ARTS: English