1. The King and Why?

There isn’t much we Americans can’t (and don’t) say about our leaders. Free speech is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Not so in many other countries. In the Southeast Asian nation of Thailand, for example, a magazine editor recently was sentenced to 10 years in prison for insulting the king. The case was one of a string of convictions under a law in the country that makes it a crime to defame or insult the royal family. Insulting the king, the court ruled, “wounds the feelings of Thais who respect … the monarchy.” The imprisoned editor ran a magazine, now defunct, in which two articles were seen as insulting the king, even though they never actually mentioned him. The editor didn’t write the articles, but was held responsible because the writer fled to neighboring Cambodia. The ruling undercut “Thailand’s image as a free and democratic society,” the European Union declared in a statement. As a class, call up the First Amendment online and see what freedoms it guarantees. Then use the newspaper and Internet to find examples of people criticizing public officials in this country. Write a paragraph describing what U.S. life would be like if people did not have freedom of speech.

Common Core/National Standards: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions; explaining the meaning and origin of the ideas and core democratic values expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other foundational documents of the United States; producing clear and coherent writing appropriate to a task.

2. Seeing Your Shadow

February 2 was Groundhog Day. Legend has it that if a groundhog leaves its den on this day and sees its shadow, winter will last six weeks longer. Of course meteorologists are pretty good at estimating weather trends, too. Track the weather in this week's newspaper and make predictions for next week's mean temperatures. The mean temperature is the high temperature plus the low temperature, divided by two. Check next week's newspaper to see how close you came. Write a sentence summarizing what you found out.

Common Core/National Standards: Producing clear and coherent writing appropriate to a task; describing patterns of changing weather and how they are measured.

3. You Can Try Chicken Soup

For children between 6 and 12, over-the-counter remedies are unlikely to help overcome a cold — and for younger children they’re of no value at all. A 2012 review by the Cochrane Collaboration reported that antihistamine-analgesic-decongestant combinations provide some cold relief to adults and teens, but “there is no evidence of effectiveness in young children.” Even among older cold sufferers, there can be “adverse effects.” The common cold is the most frequent infection people get. Most physicians agree that a cold has a predictable life span, and not much can be done to change it. Symptoms can be reduced, however. For children, pediatricians advise lots of fluid (chicken soup can help) and the pain relievers acetaminophen or ibuprofen. With the newspaper or Internet, find stories about this year’s cold season and how many cases are being reported. From what you find, write a summary of some causes and treatments for colds.

Common Core/National Standard: Citing textual evidence to support analysis of what a text says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text.

4. Welcome to Walmart

Walmart stores say they will be hiring 100,000 military veterans in the next five years, as part of a three-part plan to help the U.S. economy. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and this country’s biggest private employer, says it will also spend $50 million to buy more American-made merchandise in the next 10 years. And it is launching a program to help its part-time workers move into full-time positions sooner. In the newspaper, find stories about jobs and companies that employee people. Pick one and write a summary of what the company is doing for workers and how the effort is designed to help. Then write a letter to the company, indicating whether you support the company’s effort or think it could do more to provide jobs or help workers. Make sure your letter is in the correct form for a business letter.

Common Core/National Standard: Producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

5. Teen Wins a Drink Change

A 15-year-old Mississippi girl’s efforts have led to a change of ingredients in Gatorade. The sports drink uses brominated vegetable oil (BVO) to separate flavors, and scientific studies have suggested that BVO could have possible side-effects, including neurological disorders and altered thyroid hormones. When 15-year-old Sarah Kavanagh read about these studies online, she started a campaign on Change.org to petition the PepsiCo company that makes Gatorade to remove the ingredient. Gatorade executives have not acknowledged a health or safety risk in BVO, but because of “customer feedback,” began testing alternatives to the chemical, and is replacing it with a different one. BVO is banned as a food ingredient in the European Union and Japan, but is still contained in about 10 percent of drinks in the United States. “We can only hope that other companies” follow PepsiCo’s lead, a prominent environmentalist said. As class, talk about the different ways teens or pre-teens can make positive changes in communities or the nation. Then find a problem or issue in the newspaper that your class could address or work to correct. Write a paragraph outlining what your class could do.

Common Core/National Standards: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions; responding thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarizing points of agreement and disagreement; producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.