1. Election 2012: Preaching the Vote

Everywhere you look this month, you’ll hear campaign messages. Television ads tell you whom to vote for or how to vote on particular issues. Radio ads from candidates ask for your vote. Signs fill front yards and roadsides promoting different candidates and propositions. Many people expect to be free from such messages in churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious buildings. In order for religious organizations to maintain their tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, leaders must not speak for or against any political candidate. Pastors across the country broke the law last week on “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” at which preachers spoke out about this year’s election. The movement has been going since 2008 to provoke challenges from the Internal Revenue Service, which holds that the U.S. Constitution maintains there should be a clear separation of church and state. Search your newspaper for stories about the separation of church and state. Or find examples online. Write an opinion essay on the issue as it relates to the election.

Common Core/National Standard: Writing arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

2. What a Writer

On October 18, 1951, Terry McMillan was born. She is a successful writer who writes about the experiences of African American women in the United States. Her books include "Waiting to Exhale" and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." Find an article about someone interesting who lives in your community in this week's newspaper. Write the beginning of a fictional short story about a person similar to the article's subject. Explain to the class why you would begin your story as you did.

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

3. Does Affirmative Action Work?

The nation’s highest court is back in session for a new term. The U.S. Supreme Court justices will be hearing a number of potentially landmark cases. One case involves the University of Texas and the use of race in determining admission to the school. In the past, affirmative action laws allowed colleges and universities to consider race when admitting students to increase the diversity on American college campuses. Backlash over the law has led to lawsuits filed by white students who have argued they have been subjected to reverse discrimination. The University of Texas uses race in a limited way in filling its freshman class. Now that practice is being challenged before the Supreme Court and arguments were heard last week. In teams or pairs, search the newspaper or the Internet for stories about the Texas case. Research affirmative action and make a presentation to the class on how the Supreme Court might rule. Discuss as a class.

Common Core/National Standard: Coming to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material, explicitly drawing on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic.

4. Mom, Can I Get a Tattoo?

You see someone at the mall sporting a cool tattoo and think, “I’d love to have a tattoo.” An 11-year-old North Carolina girl wanted one, so her mother, who is a tattoo artist, gave her a small heart tattoo near her right shoulder. Mom has since been arrested, because in North Carolina children under 18 can’t get a tattoo, even if parents approve of it. The mom told a TV station she didn’t know that minors couldn’t get tattoos if the parents approved – and she is the parent of the girl. Earlier this year, a woman in the neighboring state of Georgia was arrested for allowing her 10-year-old son to get a tattoo. Find a newspaper or online article about parenting and laws. As a class, discuss in what areas parents should have rights and in what areas they shouldn’t.

Common Core/National Standard: Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.

5. Frightfully Fantastic

People living in days before television often gathered around a radio every week to hear serial stories that would continue for weeks, or even months. Or they read serial stories in newspapers and magazines. Those days are back. The U.S. Library of Congress tapped several authors to create a scary serial story that is now available online. “The Exquisite Corpse Adventure” is now running with a new chapter every Friday through March. One author started the story and wrote a chapter and then passed it to the next author to write the next chapter until it reached 27 chapters. You can access the story at www.read.gov/exquisite-corpse/ After reading each chapter, discuss character traits, developments and story structure as a class. For added fun, try writing a group story of your own, with different students writing different chapters.

Common Core/National Standard: Describing how a particular story or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes, as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.