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Common Core State Standard
SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support. FOR THE WEEK OF OCT. 03, 2005 The latest classroom battleground: Darwin vs. Intelligent Design![]() ![]() Ask the students to check their newspapers for stories about the school district. Then have them do a fact check on the stories. Did the newspaper accurately report the facts? Was the story complete, or did it leave questions unanswered? Did it explain the facts clearly?
![]() Ask the students to search their newspapers for stories about education issues. For example, are their newspapers covering the Dover case? Are their papers covering the Government Accountability Office's ruling Friday finding that the Bush administration violated federal law by buying favorable news coverage of the president's education policies? The Education Department paid a conservative commentator to praise those policies. Are their newspapers covering education trends and student test performances? If they are not satisfied with education news coverage, ask them to invite a local editor to talk to the class about how school news is covered.
![]() Have the students attend a school board meeting and write a report about it. Have them compare their stories with the newspaper coverage of the meeting. Have a class discussion about their impressions of the meeting, the decisions made by the board members and how the board reached its decisions.
Are we the random result of a primordial chemical soup, mutation and natural selection? Or could only a higher being's intelligent design explain human existence? Those questions and whether both theories should be taught in public schools have ripped apart a small community in Pennsylvania and landed the Dover school board in federal court because it decided that intelligent design must be presented to science students along with evolution. The board has required teachers to view a videotape which asserts that there are gaps in evolutionary science. Ninth grade biology teachers are required to read a four-paragraph statement to their students. It declares in part: "Because Darwin's theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence." It also says, "Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view." The statement also informs students that a textbook teaching intelligent design is available in the school library. Eleven parents in the district, outraged by what they regarded as the school board's violation of the separation of church and state, took the board and the district to court. The trial, expected to last six weeks, is under way in the federal court in Harrisburg and drew people on both sides of the question from across the country for opening arguments Sept. 26. TALKING POINTS: Front Page Talking Points is written by
Alan Stamm for NIEonline.com, Copyright 2024
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