e-NWTW: e-NWTW Sampler | 
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This is a sample lesson from the e-NWTW Teacher's Guide. The complete guide and quiz is available only to NEP customers.
Based on the May 19, 2008 edition of NEWSWEEK
Written by: Julie Weiss, Ph.D.
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NEWSWEEK Education Program customers can access the complete version of the e-NWTW teacher's guide that includes activities for FOUR articles from each edition of NEWSWEEK.
The premium content includes vocabulary lists, quiz questions and essay questions for each of the selected articles. It also includes "Tooning In," "Controversy" and "Campaign 2008."
For more information about the NEP program click here.
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| "Sit Back, Relax, Get Ready to Rumble" (pages 20-27) |  |
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| | | Pre Reading
Before you read the article, read the first part of "The Editor's Desk" (page 2) to get an overview of the article's focus. Use what you learn to guide your reading of the cover story. |
| | | Careful Reading
How does the lead paragraph describe Barack Obama's leadership style? On what voters does Newsweek think the November election may hinge? What challenge does Obama face now? How has Obama's campaign team worked so far? What do they intend to do as they face John McCain in the November election? How did McCain respond to an anti-Obama ad in North Carolina? What information about Obama are McCain's aids gathering? What are 527s? How might they affect the campaign? Who are Floyd Brown and David Bossie? How might "aiming low" backfire for Republicans? How does the Obama campaign team say they will behave differently than John Kerry's 2004 campaign team? Who are David Axelrod and David Plouffe? What have they helped Obama accomplish? How has Obama's personality helped his campaign? How does Obama's leadership style differ from George W. Bush's? |
| | | Post Reading
What is your overall impression of Barack Obama after reading the article? |
| | | Social Studies Activities
1. The Constitution identifies very few formal qualifications for the presidency; but each election year, voters evaluate the candidates' informal qualifications. As you read or reread this article, list the attributes that Barack Obama has that may or may not make him a good president. Compare your list with another student's, and discuss whether you would support Obama for president based on the attributes the article identifies.
2. The article highlights several members of Obama's campaign team. What qualities do they have? What jobs do they do? Based on what you've read, how important do you think the behind-the-scenes people are to Obama's campaign? How important might they be to a president? In other words, how much do you think a leader actually does, and how much do the rest of the people on the team do? To help you answer the questions, think about leaders you know and the people who work for them. How important is the support team?
NCSS: Power, Authority, & Governance; Individuals, Groups, & Institutions; Individual Development & Identity; Civic Ideals and Practices |
| | | English Activities
1. News stories often contain reports of things that have already happened (news) and hypotheses about what might happen in the future. Go through the article and highlight all the future-tense (e.g. "will be") and conditional (e.g. "may," "if," "it's possible that") words and phrases. Since those words signal a conjecture, ask yourself whose opinion they express. Why do you think the opinions are written without being attributed to a particular speaker? Try replacing one or two of the opinions with a different point of view. Is there information to support the alternative?
2. Looking at the work you did in Activity #1, discuss how the inclusion of unattributed opinions and hypotheses in the article affects a) your opinions about Barack Obama and the campaign; b) your opinions about the quality of the news you are getting in this article; and c) your thoughts about the value of news commentary and analysis.
NCTE/IRA: read texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States, to acquire new information, to respond to the needs and demands of society; apply strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts; apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss texts |
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| Covering the Cover | |
| | What do you think the people in the photograph are looking at? What impression do their expressions give you of Barack Obama and his campaign? What personality traits would you say Obama has, based on his facial expression, his folded arms, his clothes and other aspects of his appearance? Looking at the other headlines on the cover ("Israel at 60," "Horror in Burma," and "Nixon's Shadow," do you think any of those stories should have been the main focus of the cover? Why or why not? |
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