News From the World: A Lesson in Perspective

C. Rettig

Maine West High School

Major curricular focus: Social Science

Topic: In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to compare news events from global perspectives. Students will choose countries from designated regions of the world, and research background information on each country in order to familiarize themselves with the basic political and demographic features of each. Then they will select 2 major news events, and find articles regarding the topics from each country in English-language newspaper. After summarizing each article and identifying major differences among them, students will prepare a one-page typed paper about each of their news events, analyzing the event from the variety of perspectives. Finally, students will prepare a poster about one of their topics that serves as a thought-provoking visual aid to demonstrate the various perspectives.

Learning goals:

Students will understand the concept and power of perspective
Students will familiarize themselves with the political and social systems of several other countries
Students will familiarize themselves with major current events

Lesson plan:

DAY 1

1) Create placards of perspective quotations and give 4 to each group of students. Group should discuss quotes and select their favorite to explain to the class.

2) After discussion, teacher will read a fairy tale to the class. I suggest Jack and the Beanstalk. Discuss perspective as it relates to this fairy tale—we only have Jack’s perspective of the story. Whose are we missing? …Jack’s mother, giant, giant’s wife, cow who was sold for the beans.

3) Homework: Write the Jack and the Beanstalk story from another character’s perspective.

DAY 2

1) Introduce the news assignment: Students will each pick four countries (in addition to the United States)—one from Europe, one from Africa, and one from Southeast Asia, and one of their choosing.

2) Students will use the CIA Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/) to do background research on each of the non-US countries. Students will fill out the attached spreadsheet with their information.

DAYS 3-4

1) Students will select two major news events, one political or military and one economic or humanitarian. They will then find articles from 5 newspapers relating to each topic: one US paper, and one from each of the chosen countries. Links to English-language newspapers are on a separate page.

2) After selecting their 10 articles, students will write a summary of each, explaining the perspective of the event given in each article.

3) Students will then write a 1-page essay about each of their events, analyzing it from all sides of the issue.

DAY 5

1) Students will create a poster collage for one of their news topics that visually demonstrates the variety of perspectives. Students can use print, cut-outs from magazines or newspapers, drawings, or other materials to express their point.

Appendix 1: Quotations of Perspective

Source: www.quotegarden.com/perspective.html

Quotes to initiate a discussion on perspective:

· If you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

· The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. –H.S. Mencken, Minority Report, 1956

· The word is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. – Ivy Baker Priest

· People who look through keyholes are apt to get the idea that most things are keyhole shaped. – Unknown

· Is the glass half empty, half full, or twice as large as it needs to be? --Unknown

· If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. – Abraham Maslow

· We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. –Anais Nin

· When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute—and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity. –Albert Einstein

· If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of graink at what stage of starvation will you prefer the grain to the vote? – Bertrand Russell

· I am not an Athenian or a Greek, I am a citizen of the world. – Socrates

· It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem. –G.K. Chesterton

· The reverse side also has a reverse side. – Japanese proverb

· At high tide the fish eats ants; at low tide the ants eat fish. –Thai proverb

· There is but an inch of difference between the cushioned chamber and the padded cell. G.K. Chesterton

· Everything’s got a moral if only you can find it. – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

· There are always three sides to every story: your side, the other side, and the truth. –Unknown