1. Poetry

Walt Whitman, a famous poet, was born on May 31, 1819. One of his most famous poems is "O Captain! My Captain!" It was written in response to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Pick a news item and identify the dominant emotion of the news. It is cheerful? Frustrating? Something else? Write a poem that expresses Some other type of feeling.

Learning Standard: Writing fluently for multiple purposes to produce compositions, such as stories, poetry, personal narratives, editorials, research reports, persuasive essays, resumes and memos.

2. To the Xtreme

Last week, the Center for Science in the Public Interest announced its annual "Xtreme Eating" awards. The "awards" go to the most unhealthy and fattening foods on restaurant menus. On the list were a noodle dish at the Chinese chain restaurant P.F. Chang's that boasts 1,820 calories, and a pasta meal at The Cheesecake Factory that weighs in at 2,500 calories and 85 grams of saturated fat.

In groups, use the newspaper and online sources, including restaurant websites, to make a poster about eating healthy. Include a chart that shows high-calorie, fattening restaurant foods next to examples of healthier foods you could eat instead.

Learning Standard: Acquiring information from books, maps, newspapers, data sets and other sources; organizing and presenting the information in maps, graphs, charts and timelines; interpreting the meaning and significance of information; and using a variety of electronic technologies to assist in accessing and managing information.

3. Protest

On June 4, 1989, protesters gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, to demonstrate against the Chinese government. In response, the Chinese army came in and killed hundreds of them. Many of the protestors were students. Find an example in the news of a group of students working together for a cause or goal. Write a newspaper editorial about the students and their actions.

Learning Standard: Composing coherent written essays that express a position on a public issue and justify the position with reasoned arguments.

4. Safety

June is National Safety Month. Each week of the month has a different theme: prescription drug overdose prevention; teen driving safety; preventing overexertion at work and at home; the dangers of cell phone use while driving; and summer safety. In groups, research one of those topics in the newspaper, books and online. Create an engaging, informative lesson about what you learned, and teach your lesson to the class.

Learning Standard: Communicating information accurately and effectively and demonstrating expressive abilities by creating oral, written and visual texts that enlighten and engage an audience.

5. 24-Hour News

CNN, the first 24-hour TV news network, was launched on June 1, 1980. In the pre-Internet world, having access to news all day and all night was revolutionary. Now it's easy to get the news, but it's harder to determine which news sources are reliable news sources. Read the newspaper this week and look at several online or TV news sources. Write an opinion paper explaining what factors go into making you consider a news source reliable and unbiased.

Learning Standard: Synthesizing and evaluating information to draw conclusions and implications based on their investigation of an issue or problem.