1. La Cannes Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival is taking place this week in the European country of France. The Cannes Festival is a yearly event at which movies are premiered and actors and other film artists are interviewed. Find an article about the festival, a movie or a film artist in this week's newspapers. Create five interesting questions you would ask someone mentioned in the article if you could.

Learning Standard: Employing the most effective strategies to construct meaning while reading, listening to, viewing or creating texts. Examples include generating focus questions; deciding how to represent content through analyzing, clustering and mapping; and withholding personal bias while listening.

2. Famous Female Pilot

On May 21, 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. At 2,026 miles, it was also the longest nonstop flight by a woman. Look through the newspaper and online news sources and pick a woman making news. Use what you find to write a short biography of her and present your biography to the class.

Learning Standard: Demonstrating the ability to write clear and grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, and compositions.

3. Hair for Oil

As the oil company BP struggles to contain an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, volunteers around the world are pitching in to help - with their hair. Matter of Trust, a charity based in California, said that hundreds of thousands of pounds of human and animal hair have been donated to its Hair for Oil Spills program. Hair is good at soaking up oil. Find a problem or conflict in the news. It can be a natural disaster, a political issue or anything else. In groups, brainstorm a list of creative ways the problem could be solved, or at least made a little bit better. As a class, share your lists and discuss whether any of the solutions a different group came up with could be applied to your problem.

Learning Standard: Engaging peers in constructive conversation about matters of public concern by clarifying issues, considering opposing views, applying democratic values, anticipating consequences and working toward making decisions.

4. Malcolm X

Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925. He was the national spokesperson for the Nation of Islam in the 1950s and 1960s. The Nation of Islam was controversial because its members thought African Americans should separate themselves from the government of the United States. In the newspaper, find an article about another group of people -- or a person -- creating controversy. Write a newspaper editorial commenting on the situation.

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

5. Supreme Court

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Brown v. Board of Education case, deciding that racial segregation in public schools violates the rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. In groups, read articles about an important court case. It can be one that's concluded or ongoing. Create a short presentation for the class about the case and the laws that apply to it.

Learning Standards: Using actual cases to evaluate the effectiveness of civil and criminal courts in the United States; describing the political and legal processes created to make decisions, seek consensus and resolve conflicts in a free society.