Editorial Cartoon Punchline Opportunity 2

In class, today we will have another fun opportunity to write a caption for the above editorial cartoon.

See if you can write a caption better than the original. I saw what won for the bacon contest, and I think we can do better than that. I really do.

If you enter your caption into the competition at this link, I will give you five points of extra credit.

Another 10 points if you captions wins us the prize for the contest.

Good luck.  And Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Current Events 3.2 -- A Very Decisive Thursday

To get to the Austin American-Statesman - click the link and then put in the user name and password.

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

The user name is MAC-J

The password is Knight1!

To answer question no. 1, please read, "House OK's tough refugee checks," atop page 1A.

1. Describe the measure that passed Thursday in the House of Representatives. Why is the measure so popular? What is the next step for the bill (after Thanksgiving)? What was President Obama's response? Why does the Obama administration feel the bill hurts U.S. foreign-policy efforts? Why does the administration feel the decision is unnecessary? 

To answer question no. 2, please read, "City eases regulations on garage apartments" on the middle right of page 1A.

2. Describe the decision passed by the Austin City Council on Thursday. Proponents of the decision argued that there were two primary benefits of the decision: What where they? What objection did District 9 Council Member Kathie Tovo raise about the decision? What similiar point was made by both Tommy Ates, an AURA board member, (at the board meeting) and District 3 Council Member Sabino “Pio” Renteria (at a press conference afterward)? Do you have an opinion on this decision? If so, what is it? If not, why not?

We pause the newspaper reading portion of this current-events activity to ask you a civics question: 

3. Which Austin City Council board member serves the neighborhood where you live? If you don't know, take a second to look it up here. 

http://www.austintexas.gov/government

You can click on the "Council District Map" icon and find your neighborhood (That's how I found out which district the school is in). Or you can type your home address in the "District Look Up" menu bar.

We now resume our regular reading of the newspaper. 

To answer question No. 4, please read, "Modified salmon OK to eat, feds say" on the top right of page A3. 

4. What decision did the Food and Drug Administration announce on Thursday, and what may now reach "U.S. supermarkets and dinner tables" as a result? What two arguments did consumer and environmental groups make in opposing this decision? Why did the decision take so long? How did the chief executive of the company who applied for the approval react to the decision?  

Check out the graph that accompanied the story. State one conclusion you can draw from the data presented in it. 

(I don't know about you, but I am wary of eating anything called AquAdvantage. It sounds more like an insurance policy or a checking account feature than something I want to eat).

To answer question No. 5, please read "Zimmerman’s refugee proposal blasted" and "Miller compares refugees to rattlers," both on page 10.

5. The matter of Syrian refugees is creating a lot of news in Texas these days, isn't it? What proposal did District 6 Council Member Don Zimmerman make at the Austin City Council meeting on Thursday? How did Council Member Greg Casar and Mayor Steve Adler respond? How many total refugees (from all areas) came to Travis County in 2013? Describe the Facebook post that has Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in the news.  How did Texas Democrats respond?

(I think this is the first time that I have read the term xenophobic in two stories on the same news page.)

To answer, question No. 6, (yep, there's a No. 6, I had to make sure you saw this since it connects so directly with the column we are going to discuss on Tuesday), please read, "Man who set fire that killed 3 kids executed" on page B5. 

6. What crime was Raphael Holiday convicted of committing? How many "convicted killers" has Texas executed this year? How many have the other 49 states executed? Why did Austin-based lawyer Gretchen Sween believe Holiday's case should be appealed? Why did Holiday's trial lawyer believe an appeal was in order? Who overturned each appeal?

THE BIG QUESTION: 

7. There were several articles in the A section and in the B section (Metro and State) that might be good topic for your future board editorials and/or columns. Take some time to look through today's paper and isolate three articles that contain topics that you might fashion into an editorial or column. Write the topic and a couple of sentences stating what your opinion on the topic would be if you chose it as the topic for an editorial. 

If you have other ideas, please feel free to post those too after you get three from the paper. Keep in mind that local topics are usually better for editorials and columns so think about matters that have a lot of proximity to you (school, neighborhood, city, etc.).

EXTRA CREDIT:

I love Kirk Bohls, but couldn't ask another question. If you want an extra credit opportunity to read at home, please read his column in today's paper (on the right of page C1) and let me know what you think of it. 

Do you think you will see the movie he writes about? How does his piece illustrate what we have been discussing about columns in general?

The Craft of Writing Columns

Please read the column that was the heart of Lisa Falkenberg's winning 2015 Pulitzer Prize entry for column writing. Falkenberg writes for The Houston Chronicle, so in addition to being excellent, her columns hit close to home.

Wheels of justice grind slowly on death row

After you read her column, please answer the following questions and post your responses to your blog.

1. Describe what crime Alfred Dwayne Brown was convicted on committing.

2. What was his contention voiced during closing arguments?

3. When was the closing argument heard and the jury's decision rendered?

4. When was Falkenberg's article published?

5. Was was Brown's alibi?

6. Why did his alibi fail to convince jurors at his original trial?

7. What happened the spring after the trial ended which caused the district attorney to reopen the case?

8. What second document made Falkenberg doubt that the failure to produce the first document was "an innocent oversight"? Do you believe she is right?

9. How did the appeals court respond to the recommendation for a new trial?

10. What plea to action does Falkenberg make in the conclusion paragraph of her column?

11. How do you think this story ends for Brown?

12. Describe the style of this piece? How do you think it the style is typical of an op-ed column?

The Craft of Writing Editorials

Today in class we are going to learn about writing editorials.

First, we will read an article from Jim Wooten of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in which he explains to AJC readers what an editorial is and how to write a good one (and for that matter a bad one.

I will eventually post the article and worksheet her for absent students but I will have copies available in class today.  You will read the article, complete the short discussion worksheet and then we'll talk through the answers.

After the discussion, you will take a closer look at an excellent editorial, the first in a series of Boston Globe editorials, for which Kathleen Kingsbury won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.

The piece is long but good so stick with me on this.

As you read the editorial, please write down the answers to these questions.  I will have print copies of the editorial available in class, but you can also read it by clicking here if you prefer.

There are two objectives here. One, to learn about the subject she wrote about so well. Two, to generalize about what makes a great editorial. You may be writing one soon. :)

(1) Describe the lead. What is Kingsbury's strategy here? How does the lead serve to introduce the topic and hook the reader?

(2) What two related trends provide the context of this editorial (and the series that followed it)?

(3) What economic argument does Kingbury dismiss in the third paragraph of her story? How does she dismiss it?

(4) What counter arguments does she offer in favor of raising wages for restaurant employees?

(5) What statistics support her claim that restaurant workers are more likely to be poor? (5)

(6) What does she say consumers must do? How about lawmakers?

(7) What is the role of the National Restaurant Association in all of this? And what is the "tipped minimum wage"?

(8) What arguments do restaurant owners offer to explain the low wages and poor working conditions of their industry?

(9) How does Kingsbury counter those claims?

(10) Why do so many Boston restaurant workers work multiple jobs?

(11) Describe what the paragraph about Filiberto Lopez adds to the editorial.

(12) According to Kingsburgy, how do restaurant owners routinely violate the law?

(13) How common is wage theft in Boston?

(14) What concrete actions does she advocate that the mayor's office take?

(15) Describe how the conclusion paragraph is written. Do you think it's effective? It is typical of other conclusions that you've written for other types of assignments?

Opinion Page

If you missed class when we went over it or you need to review it, here is the Power Point presentation on the editorial and op-ed pages.

Opinion Pages Power Point

Current Events Activity 3.1

To get to the Austin American-Statesman - click the link and then put in the user name and password.

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

The user name is MAC-J

The password is Knight1!

To answer question no. 1, please read, "Texas abortion law may get review," in the middle left of page A1.

1.  What Texas law might be reviewed by the Supreme Court? When will folks know whether or not the Supreme Court will review it? What do people feel that it should be reviewed? Why does the Texas Attorney General feel that it should not be reviewed?

To answer question no. 2, please read, "Kleinert ruling may expand shield," across the top of page A1.

2.  What happened to the manslaughter charges against Austin police Detective Charles Kleinert? What precedent did the judge cite to justify this decision? What is the Supremacy Clause? What is the possibly "far-reaching" impact of this case?

To answer, question no. 3, please read, "UT, Washington taking different paths to China," on the bottom of page A1?

3.  How is the University of Texas treating the men's basketball team's trip to China differently than the University of Washington, the team they will play in Shanghai? How is the game historic and how is it part of a larger trend in college athletics? What are some concerns about the trip for Shaka Smart and his basketball program?

To answer, question no. 4, please read, "Millions vote in historic Myanmar election," across the top of page A3.

4. How was history made in Myanmar on Sunday? Describe what the day was like. What is the "main fight" in this event? Who is expected to prevail and why is that such a big deal? 

To answer, question, no. 5, please read, "Pope pledges to continue reforms in face of leaks," on the bottom of page A3.

5. What action did Pope Francis deem to be "a crime"? According to the article, what two discoveries did the action make possible (in two book released last week)? If the pope is committed to reform as he appears to be, why is he so upset about these disclosures being made public?

THE IN-DEPTH QUESTION:

To answer the in-depth question, please read the pair of articles and analyze the pair of editorial cartoon under the headline, "Should cities disregard ICE detainers?" on page A12.

6. What are "sanctuary cities"? What two opinions are expressed about them in the pair of guest columns on today's Statesman editorial page? What evidence or logical reasoning does each author present to support his view? What viewpoint expressed by each of the M. Scott Beyers cartoons that illustrate each article? After reading the articles, what is your opinion on the subject? 

How is this editorial page different than the format we discussed in class on Thursday? If you missed class or don't remember, take a look at the gray box that says "Two Views" for a hint. What do you think of this variation on the traditional editorial page? Good idea or bad idea? Why?

Bring Home the Bacon (Or Not)

Read the following article and write a response to your blog that answers the following questions.

New York Times: "Health Report Links Some Types of Cancer with Processed or Red Meat"

1. What was the finding the recent World Health Organization report on processed meat?

2.  Describe the reaction to the report from the meat industry and from environmental groups?

3. The report places processed meats in Group 1. What does that mean? What did the chairman of disease prevention at Stanford have to say about this classification in this story?

4.  How does this Randy Bish cartoon portray the finding that processed meats, like bacon, ham and hot dogs, cause colon cancer?

5.  What opinion do you think Bish's cartoon is taking on the report? Explain why you think so.

6.  Do you eat processed meat? How much per week? Will the report change what you choose to eat?