1. Graft Foes Held in China

China’s new president, Xi Jinping, has acknowledged that corruption is a major problem in the Asian nation and has vowed to combat it. Yet his government apparently doesn’t look kindly on anyone else getting into the act. An anti-corruption group, the New Citizens Movement, has been working against official corruption, but Chinese authorities have been arresting activists from this organization – at least six in recent days, including a prominent civil rights lawyer. The activists had been calling for senior Chinese officials to publicly disclose their personal wealth. China is increasingly important as a world power. In the newspaper or online, find a story about China and write a paragraph explaining why the issue in the news is important to other nations.

Common Core/National Standards: Reading closely what a text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; citing specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions; writing informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

Figuring out words you know is an important skill in reading. Sometimes “root” words can help you out. Root words are words that are part of larger words. “Read” would be a root word of “re-read” or “reading” for example. Skim stories on the front page of the newspaper. Make a list of 10 words that contain a root word. Write what you think each word means. Then look them up in a dictionary. Use three of your words in complete sentences.

Common Core/National Standards: Conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic; producing clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to the task, purpose and audience.

3. Key to Weight Loss: Exercise If you’re trying to lose weight, the answer is not diet OR exercise — it’s diet AND exercise. According to a study reported in the journal called the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, the past emphasis on diet first, exercise later, is not the way to go. In fact, the report advises, “if you have to start with one [thing], consider starting with physical activity first.” The study was funded by grants provided through the National Institute on Aging and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. As a class, discuss what kinds of exercise you get each week. Examples can range from sports, to walking to school, to dancing, to biking. Then use the newspaper to find an activity that would give you exercise in a new way. Design an ad for the newspaper promoting this activity as a source of exercise, not just fun.

Common Core/National Standards: Conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic; engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions; using drawings or visual displays when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or points.

4. Boston Lines Cut from Play

Just before his play “The Assembled Parties” was to open at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater on Broadway, Tony Award-winning playwright Richard Greenberg eliminated from the script several lines referring to Boston. He made that move after the bombings at the Boston Marathon. During the first act, a Harvard student is asked how he likes Boston, and he replies, “There is something wrong with Boston, isn’t there?” and later in the play, he refers to a fellow student who tried to build a bomb as an extra-credit project. Neither line had a bearing on the plot of the play, which received favorable reviews during its previews. The Boston Marathon bombings and their aftermath have had repercussions in many ways far beyond the immediate events. Read follow-up stories in the newspaper this week and write a summary of the top news of the week, citing evidence from the stories.

Common Core/National Standards: Reading closely what a text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; citing specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions; writing informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

5. $$$ Apple for a Teacher

An educator somewhere in the world will receive $500,000 next year for demonstrating extraordinary innovative teaching. He or she will be recipient of the first annual Minerva Prize, administered by the Minerva Academy, a new nonprofit organization based in San Francisco. The Minerva Project’s founder says he hopes the award will be “the Nobel Prize of teaching … the creation of knowledge.” The new group is led by Roger G. Kornberg of Stanford University’s School of Medicine, who won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The chairman of its advisory board is Lawrence H. Summers, former president of Harvard University and former U.S. treasury secretary. The Minerva Project has ambitious plans for eventually establishing an online top-tier research university. As a class, talk about ways that teachers try new things to provide innovative instruction. With a partner, find a story in the newspaper about a topic that interests you. Brainstorm an innovative way to teach this topic that would be memorable and effective for students.

Common Core/National Standards: Conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic; engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions; integrating information presented in different media or formats to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.