Kenneth B. Hilliard
Activity I
Materials Needed
Newspaper (New Haven Register or other daily newspaper), Newsweek, or Time Magazine, (or other current magazine).
Procedure
To begin have available for your students copies of the daily local newspaper. The students assignment will be as follows; students are to research, follow, and finally cut out articles that pertain to issues around substance abuse, adolescent health, teenage pregnancy, AIDS, STD’s or other related subjects. (Students may also listen to their radios or watch television to research these topics.) Students should keep a log or journal of when the articles appear and from what source they came.
After a two week period students should compile and write a short essay on their findings. The essay could be a page in length and should summarize the articles
Evaluation
These essays along with any other materials (logs, journals, or other newspaper clippings) can be handed in to class. At this point the teacher may wish to present some of the articles or have the individual students present their own articles to the class.
By using this method a separate grade could be given for content and also presentation.
Activity II
Materials Needed
(Logs, Journals, Newspaper Clippings)
By using materials from the previous lesson students can now create skits to be presented in class.
Procedure
To begin the teacher may select a few articles that could be used as background for a skit or have the students write their own skit. Again the content of the skit should center around one of the topics discussed earlier in this unit.
Divide the class into small groups of 3-5 students. The students are then to work together as a group to produce a small skit not lasting more than 5 minutes. Each member in the group must have a role in the skit. These roles could include acting, props, directing, or narrating the skit.
The students will probably need at least two days to work on these skits. One day for the deciding of roles and the 2nd day to finish practicing for the presentations. If at all possible have the students begin their presentations on this second day. If another day is needed for completion then use a third day for this.
Evaluation
Students can again be given a grade for content and also for presentation.
Activity III
Guest Speaker
This activity will serve as a culmination of the previous two lessons. All three lessons are linked together and could take approximately three weeks to complete.
Procedure
Before the presentation of the skits in the previous lesson, make arrangements to have a guest speaker(s) come into class. The selection could be done any number of ways. One way would be to ask the students to write down any topics that they may wish more information on and place these topics in a suggestion box. Another resource would be to check with The School Volunteers Office of the New Haven Public Schools. In addition though contacts within the community parents may be available or know of people qualified to be guest speakers.
When the selection is made make sure that you get in contact with that person (who will be the guest speaker) to let them know what topic(s) they should speak on, and how much time will be available to speak.
When the speaker does arrive make sure that the students are aware that the guest speaker is a culminating activity to the previous two lessons. (The guest speaker should not be selected just to come in and speak but be related and relevent to the subject matter being discussed and the previous classroom activities.)