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NEWSPAPER
CRITICAL THINKING
ACTIVITIES
2. Read and study reviews that film critics have written. Have
your students select a movie and write their own review.
Students who are unable to select a movie theatre film may view
and review a television movie. Have your students share their
reviews with the class.
3. With your students, discuss how many books have been made into
movies. Have students select a book that they feel would make a
good movie. Have them create a display ad for their book; have
them give it a movie rating, and have them write a review for
their new movie.
5. Students study a comic strip that they often read. They pick a
character that they can identify with and explain what ways
they feel they are like this character.
6. Students study the comics page and find comics that fit into
each of these categories: funny, no use of words mystery, super
hero, satirical, western, science fiction, romance, biography,
political, adventure, soap opera, animal, history, and
military.
7. Students study the comics page and state what they feel would
be a good topic or plot for a new or existing comic strip.
8. Students cut out one of their favorite comic strips and cover
up the words that have been used. Then they write their own
words.
10. Students compare and contrast two different comic strips and
present their ideas on a cube or box.
13. Students select one of their favorite comic strips and cut off
the last panel of the strip. Then they create a new and novel
ending.
15. Students analyze what makes comic strips humorous and find
examples of various humor techniques. Then they explain, in a
display or an oral report, what makes comic strips funny.
16. Have students find comic strips whose order could be changed to
produce a new story. Have them cut each strip apart and
rearrange the panels. Then they paste the new arrangement on a
piece of paper and explain how their plot is different from the
original.
17. Make a display on a bulletin board, showing all of the uses for
newspaper.
18. Have students find out what their community is doing about the
recycling of newspaper.
23. Have students pretend that they are someone involved in one of
today' s stories in the newspaper. Have them express their
opinion, problems, feelings, etc. about the situation in which
they are involved.
28. Students are given $400.00 to buy a new wardrobe. They are to
go through Friday's edition of the Sun-Sentinel, cutting out
the articles of clothing that they have selected, along with
the cost of each item. Students should be able to justify their
purchases.
29. Have students design a floor plan of what they would like their
new bedroom to be like and then have them search through the
newspapers, cutting out furniture and arranging it in their new
room.
30. Play the stock market game where each student or team is given
$100,000 ficticious dollars to compete against other teams,
schools, and counties.
31. As quickly as they can, have students find ten things in the
newspaper that they love.
33. Define what an import is and have students search through the
newspaper cutting out examples of items which we import.
38. Have students read all the comic strips for a week. Have them
evaluate which comics they think are the best and which are the
worst. Have them write a letter to the creators of these
comics, expressing their feelings.
40. Have students create a comic strip that shows something funny
that could happen in their school.
42. Have students read the want ads in the CLASSIFIED section of
the newspaper and have them list several different jobs that
interest them. Then, have them make a list of all the skills
that would be needed for each job that interests them.
43. Using the FOOD section of the newspaper, inform students that
they have $75.00 to plan a meal for a dinner party for 10
people. Have them devise a menu and find, in the food section,
the cost for each item in their menu.
44. Have students read the editorial page and choose one article
which states an issue and the stand of the editor on this
issue. Students are to react to the editor's opinion and write
a letter to the editor, expressing their reaction. Then, have
them create an editorial or editorial cartoon which expresses
their opinion on an issue that is important to them.
46. Have your students search through the SPORTS section and make a
list of all the interesting verbs that sports writers use.
47. Students are to study the SPORTS section and write their own
sports story covering a sports event in their school that they
have observed.
49. Students study the television listing page and make a graph or
a chart which displays a categorical analysis of all of the
shows.
50. Students read the obituary page and study the format of an
obituary. Then they are to choose a famous living person,
research that person's background, and write an obituary for
that person.
53. Tell students to write a newspaper story that they think might
appear in the year 2010 or 3010.
54. Students are to choose five articles in the newspaper and write
a new headline for each one.
55. Students are to study the weather map for five consecutive days
and then try to predict what tomorrow's weather will be, based
on the previous five days weather reports.
56. Students are to make a list of basic human needs. Then they
should select five advertisements and decide which of those
human needs the advertiser chose to utilize in the construction
of the ad.
57. Students select five advertisements that they consider good and
explain what it is that makes them good, effective
advertisements.
58. Have students circle today's major headlines on the front page.
Tell them to write at least five possible questions if each
headline was an answer.
59. Have students cut out an advertisement for a product which they
think can be improved. Have them design an improved version of
the same product, including a sketch and a written explanation.
60. Have your students write a story telling what would happen if
one of the people mentioned in the SPORTS section became our
president.
61. Have your students write a story telling what would happen if
one of the people mentioned on the front page became our
president.
63. Students are to search through the newspaper, circling all the
"positive words and underlining all the "negative" words.
65. Students are to cut out the names of 10 people who are in
today's news. On 10 slips of paper, they are to write the
reasons for each of these people being in the news. Then they
are to scramble up the names and the action and have a
classmate match each person with the correct action.
68. Have students match four weather maps taken from four different
dates throughout the year with their correct date.
71. Have students try to determine the age and sex of the person
who is writing to an Advice Columnist in today's paper. They
must cite specific clues they used to help make their decision.
72. Students are to read and study the obituary page and determine
the percentage each of men and women who have died.
73. Students are to study a comic strip and determine the age of
the children and adults in the strip according to their
actions, speech, and physical characteristics.
74. Have students redo the index from the newspaper, using totally
new words that could be easily understood by an eight-year-old.
75. Students are to rewrite a news story from the perspective of
twenty years ago or twenty years from now.
79. Have students read the editorials for a period of one week.
Then have them write an editorial that they think might appear
in an issue of a newspaper that was produced in the year 2089.
80. Have students read the horoscopes and write their own for the
remainder of the week. Then, they can compare their prediction
with the ones in the newspaper.
82. Students are to select an item in the "For Sale" section of the
CLASSIFIED pages of the Sun-Sentinel and are to make a list of
questions which they might have concerning the item which is
for sale.
83. Students are to read and study the Real Estate section of the
Sun-Sentinel and they are to determine where the most expensive
homes are, where the least expensive homes are, etc...
84. Have students look through the FOOD section and find two
recipes that they feel they'd like to try. Then have them make
a list of the ingredients in each and search through the food
section, trying to determine the total cost of all the
ingredients in each recipe.
85. Have students find a recipe in the FOOD section. Have them
categorize the ingredients to determine if that recipe contains
something from each food group. Does the recipe have an equal
balance of ingredients from each food group within the Food
Pyramid?
87. Students are to read the "Letters to the Editor" and identify
two letters which were written about the same topic. Students
are to compare the letters, showing similarities and
differences between the two letters.
88. Have students read the SPORTS section of the newspaper and have
them decide what appears to be the most popular sport.
89. Students are to read Friday's SHOWTIME section and are to plan
their weekend of entertainment and activities for under $20.00,
94. After students read a newspaper story, have them cut it apart,
between paragraphs, and reassemble it into the correct order.
95. Have students turn to the editorial page and locate the,
editorial cartoon. Then have them make a list of questions
about the cartoon that they would like to ask the artist.
97. Students are to study the weather map for a month and select a
city which has weather which would provide a favorable climate
for them. They must fully explain why they chose the city that
they did and what they discovered about the climate.
100. Have students search through the CLASSIFIED section and select
an item which they would like to have. Have them make a list
of all of the issues which they will present to their parents,
trying to persuade them to purchase the item.