Current Event Quiz 1

Once a week we will have a currents events quiz. At my old school, I used to require that my students read the paper on their own time and come to class ready for a traditional quiz. I suppose I might do that at some point, but most of the time, I will give you the questions and some class time to read the paper until you find the answers. The goal is not to zap you for wrong answers, but rather for you to read the paper so you can learn some current events and also internalize the way that journalists write. 

Don't forget that the biggest portion of the quiz is the short essay question at the end - it is a free response, and it's your OPINION so it should be easy to write at least three paragraphs about the topic.

To get to the Austin American-Statesman - click the link and then put in the user name and password - you might as well bookmark the link.

http://nieonline.com/austin/studentconnect.cfm

The user name is MAC-J

The password is Knight1!

Here is today's quiz, the first one of the year. Woo hoo! Post your answers to your blog. You have 25-30 minutes.

SPECIFIC STORY QUESTIONS:

1. Why is the University of Texas under fire for hiring two student graduate assistants back in 2012? Why do university officials say they can't explain the hiring publicly? Do you think the university knew the whole story before they hired these two men? Why or why not? (see story at the bottom of page A1)

2. What deal did the city of Baltimore make on Tuesday? Why did the mayor support the deal? What related trial is still pending? (see page A2)

3.What did Vice Chancellor Sig-mar Gabriel of Germany announce yesterday? Why have some observers criticized the policy that he announced? How did German leaders respond to the criticism? What is the larger crisis that led to Germany's actions? How has Germany led the way in responding to it? (see page A3 for story)

4. Who did Texas Sen. Ted Cruz invite to his anti-Iran nuclear deal rally? How is Cruz unlike other Republican presidential candidates in extending this invitation? Why did he say that he extended the invitation? Why is his invited guest NOT one of Cruz's "standard targets"? (see page A9 for story)

5. What did Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton apologize for on Tuesday? What likely action by two Republicans in Congress makes it seem this issue will continue to be in the news? What does co-mingling mean and what two things in this story were co-mingled? What earlier "mistake" was Clinton also slow to admit was a mistake? (see page A4 for story)

6. Why are two John Jay high school student athletes suspended from school after Friday night's football game? Why has an assistant coach of the team also been suspended? What allegedly prompted the two players' controversial actions? (see page C1 for story)

SHORT FREE-RESPONSE ESSAY:

REMINDER - A single sentence isn't enough. I expect you to expand upon your writing. If you think you have written enough, you haven't, write more. Be sure to answer WHY you think something.

Pick any story in the paper that appeals to you and write a one paragraph summary of the article, then write a paragraph in which consider which of the eight news values make the story significant enough to be included in the newspaper. Then consider how the story is reported. What types of sources did the reporter include? Finally, conclude whether or not the reporter did the topic justice. Was it a good, well-reported, well-written story or just a good topic that could have been handled better?