Teenagers often focus too much on life in their town or neighborhood. They don’t know enough about the larger world. They don’t yet understand the reality that upon high school graduation most of the graduates will most likely go all over the United States for college and the town as they know it will empty out and feel like a different place.
High school is a time full of peer pressure and gossip. Having students read articles about other places in the world helps students move their minds out of the hot house atmosphere of the high school and local area and into the larger world. Once they learn more about daily life in other countries their worldview expands as they learn that different cultures have very different habits from America.
It is very interesting to link news articles about a country to the literature, language, or history lesson you are teaching. Reading news articles about various countries throughout the year is very interesting for students. Learning about vastly different places in the world helps students step out of their small world and start to think about all of the opportunities available in the larger world.
There are many websites to find world-wide news and entertainment articles: www.CNN.com, www.Reuters.com, www.NYTimes.com, www.FindingDulcinea.com, www.AssociatedContent.com, www.MSNBC.com.
There are many ways to use articles about different countries in a literature or history class. It is interesting to have students cull facts and details from the articles to build a setting for a short story. It is also fun to use the articles to see the perspective on America’s news as it is portrayed abroad. The European newspapers often give much more realistic details about events in politics than our American papers.
Project: Compare / Contrast America and Another Country
Chose one country to write about; then do online research to find articles about it. Find enough facts to create a 5-paragraph essay that will also later be used as the basis for a speech.
Use articles with many facts about the country and the life of its inhabitants. Then compare life in that country to the life the student has known in the United States. Write an essay about the differences and or similarities between the two countries. Describe what life is like for teenagers in America and contrast it to life for teenagers in the other country. Find facts and write about social mores of the other country. At what age do residents typically marry? What cultural customs does the country have? What is the cuisine of the country like? What traditions are widespread in the country? Do teenagers go to college or right to work after high school? What size families are typical? What is the average salary?
Project: Speech
Eventually, the class will also do a speech based on the information comparing and contrasting America and another country contained in the essay.
Assessment
To assess these projects use a writing and a speech rubric. Give it to the students before they start the projects so they know the grading criteria before they start the project.
