Three Months, 18 Years — Post Resources for You

Review the Range
2001-2019 Curriculum Guide Index
Reading, Topics to Cover Every Discipline

Dr. Vincent Reed started The Washington Post’s Newspaper In Education (NIE) program in the late 80s. At that time it was part of the Public Relation Department. INSIDE became part of the Circulation Department ten years later. Resource guides originally were photocopied and delivered personally to participating schools.

In the 18 years since the first online curriculum guides were posted, topics were selected from an array of Post coverage for potential classroom enrichment and fulfillment of academic standards. In recent years, disciplines most likely to use the suggested activity have been noted.

Review the range of topics. While all are based on current events and findings, many are evergreen. Crossword puzzles, word finds, etymology (Word Study), and map reading activities are ready to use. “Meet the …” introduce careers in media. Some articles, lede reading and journalistic writing exercises, and informational graphics are applicable at any time. Many can be used for comparison and contrast, then-now, and follow-up exercises. Some, like the e-Replica guide and suggested activities, help teachers to use the e-Replica format more fully with students.

Cartoons by Herblock and Tom Toles are great for visual literacy and current events — symbols, iconic images and succinct communication. They also illustrate how being knowledgeable in history and literature can add depth to comprehension.

The D.C. history series, Watergate and Pentagon Papers, and You and Your Rights lessons enrich history classes. 

B1 with e-Replica
Journalism, Media Literacy, Reading, Social Studies

The METRO section takes readers into the neighborhoods — rural, suburban and urban — to report on the people, places and events of the D.C. Metropolitan area. In addition to the METRO reporting staff, columnists John Kelly, Petula Dvorak and Theresa Vargas give fresh perspectives on issues, people and events.

Teachers might have current METRO front pages (B1) to introduce students to the reader aids found at the top of the page as well as the number of stories that begin on this page. Use the e-Replica editions to give a sense of the variety of subjects covered. The following days offer a strong introduction to B1 coverage:

• April 25, 2019: “Gifts of love, with no strings” is a follow-up to an earlier story about GMU student Eddie Adams. Read the lede for an example of a re-cap/summary lede. What is the new dimension to the first news story?

• July 9, 2019: Note the size of headline typeface. Also, that headlines of feature stories are centered. Those of news stories begin at the left margin. What is the weather story? Where can a quick view of the day’s weather be found? Which story do they find most interesting?

• July 29, 2019: How many stories deal directly with young people? Which do they want to continue reading? Note the tease for John Kelly’s Washington. Kelly attended high school in Maryland.

• July 30, 2019: Assign a story to student groups to read and summarize. Did the lede paragraph, photograph and/or headline grab their attention? How does this story give you a glimpse into what is happening in the region?

• August 1, 2019: One person’s life is briefly highlighted in the upper right corner each day. Some of the obituaries are local personalities. Why do you think this day’s person was selected?  Also discuss how the photograph, headline and subhead on B1 work together to communicate a basic idea before the first paragraph is read. What is student connotation of “Baltimore”? Who have visited there? What do students learn from the article? In what way does the article about Ben Carson balance coverage?

Read Petula Dvorak
Ethics, Journalism, Social Studies

METRO section columnist Petula Dvorak includes examples of her thesis in “Our indifference toward kids is unconscionable.” 

• Discuss the events and actions that she lists. Were students aware of these actions against young people? How are these a picture of 2019?

• What is Dvorak’s main idea?

• What do students think students can do in or about any of these circumstances?

• From a writer’s perspective, when are lists effective to support an idea?

Consider the Words You Use
Composition, English, Environmental Studies, Journalism, Science, Government

Read and discuss the Style section article by Dan Zak, “Words Fail: How do we talk about what’s happening to our planet?” This article would be very good to use with Advanced Placement English Language and Composition students and Honors English as well as science courses to challenge students to be aware of the power to influence others through the denotation and connotation of the words they use.

Find the Keener Word is provided for use with this essay.

Get In the Know
English, Reading, Vocabulary Development

In the Know section usually provides terms associated with the main focus on the month’s curriculum guide or words used by writers in reprinted articles. This month In the Know is a selection of words added to the dictionary in 2019 and found frequently in Post headlines in the last months.

Teachers may wish to review them with students, assign students terms to define them, or ask students to locate the terms in news stories.

Want a New Competitive Sport?
Economics, Health, Physical Education, Social Studies

Petula Dvorak is a METRO columnist who covers a wide range of topics. As a mother, she includes the interests and attitudes of her children. Read and discuss “High schools are starting to bet on esports to engage and motivate.” Would your students want this competitive sport added to your school’s athletic offering?

What About Tackle Football?
Economics, Health, Physical Education, Social Studies

Mark Hyman, a professor of sports management at George Washington University, and Robert C. Cantu, clinical professor of neurology and neurosurgery and co-founder of the CTE Center at the Boston University School of Medicine, co-authored  “Brain injuries, other dangers of tackle football.”

Teachers may discuss with students their awareness of the potential for concussions in contact sports before reading the guest commentary. Questions might include:

• What is a concussion?

• How do your school’s coaches handle concussions?

• How many contact sports are played at your school? How many players on each team?

• Is turn-out for these sports declining? Remaining the same? Increasing?

• Do teams have an assigned physician for games/competitions? What about during practice?

Read and discuss “Brain injuries, other dangers of tackle football.” Questions might include:

• How strong are the authors’ arguments? Most compelling argument?

• What is CTE? What are “subconcussive hits”?

• Does the introduction of the U.S. Surgeon General add another twist to the issue?

Speak Up and Listen, Athletes
Ethics, Physical Education, Social Studies

The You and Your Rights activity Speak Up. Listen. Free Speech? centers on the right — perhaps, responsibility — of athletes and sports journalists to express their opinions on and off the field of play. Is this a First Amendment issue or one involving contracts and business policies? Teachers may include the suggested research activity to learn more about the motivation of successful athletes who chose to express their points of view.

As part of this activity students are asked to read a John Feinstein column, “‘Stick to sports’ is the wrong response. So try listening.”

Grasp the Maine Situation
Career Education, Economics, U.S. History, Social Studies

Read the Post Business section article, “‘This will be catastrophic’: Maine families face elder boom, worker shortage in preview of nation’s future.”

Questions to use with the article are found in A Shortage of Young Workers.

Read the Editorial Cartoons
Art, English, Government, U.S. History, Visual Literacy

Tom Toles, The Washington Post’s editorial cartoonist, provides visual commentary Monday through Friday in the print edition. Online his cartoons have titles that we have added in the selected ones found in this guide. Discussion questions [GUIDE 2] are ready for you to hand to students with the 2019 National Issues group of cartoons.

Consider the Price of Freedom of the Press
Government, Journalism, Social Studies

At the beginning of this activity, discuss with students what an advocacy ad is.

Give students the advocacy advertisement for August 2019. Locate on a map where these actions are taking place against journalists.

Through the Press Freedom Partnership, The Washington Post and other publications each month publish advocacy ads to inform the public of the personal attacks — imprisonment, threats, loss of employment, death — upon journalists around the world. The Post’s Jamal Khashoggi was No. 1 on the August 2019 list. Some people remain on the list; others are replaced. What does this communicate about the dangers faced by journalists?

Teachers may continue discussion of the price of freedom with questions such as

• What is the role of the journalist? Of the foreign correspondent? 

• What does it mean to be a “watch dog”?

• Why do governments, corporate officials and others attack journalists?

• Are political cartoonists immune from attacks? 

Should Media Publish Graphic Images?
Art, Ethics, Journalism, Media Literacy, Photography

Paul Farhi, The Post’s media reporter, provides background on the decision to (or not to) publish the “now-iconic photo of the bodies of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramfrez and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria.” Read and discuss “A graphic photo gives the press pause.” 

• Does the American public need to see the lifeless bodies as well as the line of people waiting to enter the U.S.?

• What about photographs taken inside the detention centers?

• What is the responsibility of the photojournalist?

• What stories are told in the photographs that appear with today’s edition of The Washington Post?

Teachers will note that the photograph appears on the second page of the reprinted article. You may decide to not give students beyond the first page. You could put a period after “A major exception was the New York Times.”

Appreciate Toni Morrison
English, Media Literacy, Reading, U.S. History

"The Tenacity of Hope," the Toni Morrison appreciation essay by Ron Charles is beautifully written. It can be read to meet the author before reading one of Morrison’s works or just to be introduced to a black woman who wrote “the greatest novel of the 20th century” and received the Nobel Prize in literature.

This homage to her may be paired with her obituary, “Toni Morrison, Nobel laureate who transfigured American literature, dies at 88.”  Compare and contrast the styles and the content.

Teachers might also want to share a Sports column by Kevin B. Blackistone that brings together the intersection of sports, culture and literature: “Toni Morrison’s work with Muhammad Ali foretold a gift for chronicling the black experience.” This tells of Chloe Anthony Wofford’s work on editing The Greatest: My Own Story.

Post NIE Guide Editor | Carol Lange
Post NIE Guide Art Editor | Carol Porter