Students will investigate various points of view by reading three news sources and comparing a similar news article regarding international affairs in each news source.

Goals/Objectives:

Students may be under the impression that news sources are entirely objective resources. Students will investigate various points of view by reading several news sources and comparing a similar news article regarding International Affairs in three different newspapers: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Independent Press Association & Publishers.

Students will be able to:

• Gain knowledge of the world by examining differing viewpoints written by various journalists
• Evaluate and discriminate among various points of view
• Develop their own point of view from evaluating and discussing various news sources
• Develop and strengthen existing research skills

Procedure:

• Teacher will hand out The New York Times, and The Washington Post to groups of students (three students per group ideally, adjust as necessary). You may want to check with your local newspaper distributors to check on the availability of free older newspapers.

• Teacher will explain assignment, emphasizing that the news article in all three news sources must be similar in subject matter.

• Students will identify similar news article in both papers. Students will then access the independent news source online and identify a news source and an article with similar content comparable to the above papers.

• Students will read the three articles, paying particular attention to what is said, and not said, in all three sources.

• Students will make a list of similarities and differences between the three articles.

• Teacher will circulate among groups of students to answer questions, and help with research if need be.

Assessment:

This is up to the individual teacher's discretion, but you could design a rubric on the following criteria:

1. The first column would include: Group participation, Articles, Similarities and Differences among articles, and Classroom Discussion.

2. The following rows would be numbered 1-4, (1 being lowest and 4 highest) and would include the following grading criteria under column headings:

Group Participation

1. I did not participate with my group members
2. I collaborated with my group members by answering yes or no questions
3. I contributed comments, ideas, and opinions to my group members
4. I collaborated with my group members at all stages of the research process

Articles

1. I did not read the news articles
2. I read one news articles
3. I read two news articles
4. I read all three news articles

Similarities and Differences of Articles

1. 1. Our group listed no similarities or differences between articles
2. 2. Our group listed one or two similarities or differences between articles
3. 3. Our group listed three to four similarities or differences between articles
4. 4. Our group listed five or more similarities or differences between articles

Classroom Discussion

1. I did not participate in the classroom discussion
2. I gave yes or no answers to questions asked of me
3. I stated our group's research findings
4. I gave interesting insight (opinions or ideas of our group's research findings

Ideas for Follow-up Lesson(s):

• Students will develop their ideas regarding similarities and differences of news articles by writing an essay comparing and contrasting these differences. In the last paragraph of the essay, they must formulate an opinion as to what they think is the “objective” truth. They must also explain why they came to this conclusion.

• Students will then be taught how to do investigative research regarding primary documents to answer the questions that their research has generated.

• Students could either do a research paper or class presentation regarding their primary document research.