Template #1



Articles of the Week (AOW)Research clearly shows that the best way to become a stronger reader and to learn to analyze texts is to… READ! No kidding. So, we’re going to read widely – which means a variety of text, every week, on your own time. Yes, it is homework, and articles will be very topical. You will have one article to print, read, annotate and write about every week. Absent? Just seem my website & turn in work upon returning. An article will be assigned each week, typically on Friday. I will post these to my webpage. Your task is to be ready to discuss the article in class, typically on the next Friday. By the way, I am open to suggestions as to articles to assign. If you find an article you would think meets the goals of AOW, then let’s talk! On Friday, you’ll need to have the following:A printed copy of the article.You must “mark up” the article (annotate/close reading): make connections, ask questions, summarize, interpret, or express confusion.Prepare a response to the article (about one page double spaced, typed). In this response piece you should show evidence of a close reading-- provide evidence in your writing that you have read and comprehend the article. This can be done in several ways:Have quotes from the article in your writing.Use examples from the article in your writing.Refer back to the article in your writing.The following template may be helpful. You can use this template to help you prepare your response to the assigned article.Template #1Title: ______________________________The general argument made by author X in her/his work, _____________ ______________________, is that _______________________________. More specifically, X argues that __________________________. She/he writes, “______________________________________________.” In this passage, X is suggesting that ____________________________________. In conclusion, X’s belief is that _______________________________________________.In my view, X is wrong/right, because ___________________________. More specifically, I believe that _____________________________. For example, __________ ________________________________________. Although X might object that __________ __________________________________, I maintain that _______________________________________________. Therefore, I conclude that ____________________________.Example [Words from the template have been underlined.]The general argument made by the New York Times’ Editorial Board in their work, “E-Smoking Among Teenagers,” is that the FDA needs to prohibit e-cig manufacturers from marketing and selling their wares to teens and children. More specifically, the Board argues that even child-enticing flavorings should be banned. They write, “The new rules ought to… outlaw flavorings clearly designed to entice children” (3). In this passage, the editors are suggesting that fruit- and candy-flavored e-cigs are a ploy to get minors vaping. In conclusion, the Board’s belief is that e-cigarettes should be banned from in any way enticing minors.In my view, the Board is right, because, while e-cigarettes may be healthy compared to adults with pack-a-day tobacco habits, they are in no way positive for teenagers to smoke. More specifically, I believe that the facts speak for themselves: “nicotine–delivered in any manner–can impair adolescent brain development, is extremely addictive, and can be dangerous at very high doses to people of all ages” (Editorial Board, 3). In other words, e-cigarettes still spell danger–and a lifetime of addiction–for minors. Although e-cig manufacturers might object that restricting e-cig flavorings is unnecessarily harsh, I maintain that flavorings are a form of marketing, and when those flavorings appeal to the tastes of middle and high school students, they should be banned. I do recognize that there’s a slippery slope here–after all, look at all of the alcoholic beverages that are fruit-flavored, for instance–but just because one addictive substance has teen-enticing flavors doesn’t mean every addictive substance has to. Therefore, I conclude that e-cigarettes ought to be regulated in the manner set forth by the Editorial Board.Here is the article that the example of an AOW Response was written about: Use of E-Cigarettes Rises Sharply Among Teenagers, Report SaysKenny, a high school senior in Weston, Fla., likes to puff e-cigarettes during study sessions with friends after school. James, a senior in Fauquier County, Va., uses them outside at lunch with friends who do smoke tricks. Tom, a sophomore from Westchester County, uses them while hiking with friends.E-cigarettes have arrived in the life of the American teenager.Use of the devices among middle- and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to federal data released on Thursday, bringing the share of high school students who use them to 13 percent — more than smoke traditional cigarettes.About a quarter of all high school students and 8 percent of middle school students — 4.6 million young people altogether — used tobacco in some form last year. The sharp rise of e-cigarettes, together with a substantial increase in the use of hookah pipes, led to 400,000 additional young people using a tobacco product in 2014, the first increase in years, though researchers pointed out the percentage of the rise fell within the report’s margin of error.But the report also told another story. From 2011 to 2014, the share of high school students who smoked traditional cigarettes declined substantially, to 9 percent from 16 percent, and use of cigars and pipes ebbed too. The shift suggested that some teenage smokers may be using e-cigarettes to quit.Smoking is still the single-biggest cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than 480,000 Americans a year, and most scientists agree that e-cigarettes, which deliver the nicotine but not the dangerous tar and other chemicals, are likely to be far less harmful than traditional cigarettes.The numbers came as a surprise and seemed to put policy makers into uncharted territory. The Food and Drug Administration took its first tentative step toward regulating e-cigarettes last year, but the process is slow, and many experts worry that habits are forming far faster than rules are being written. Because e-cigarettes are so new, scientists are still gathering evidence on their long-term health effects, leaving regulators scrambling to gather data.In interviews, teenagers said that e-cigarettes had become almost as common at school as laptops, a change from several years ago, when few had seen them.“It’s the healthy alternative taking over my school,” said Tom, a 15-year-old sophomore at a school in Westchester County, N.Y., who started vaping — the term for puffing on an e-cigarette — to kick a smoking habit. He said about 70 percent of his friends now vaped.But opinions were mixed on why the devices had caught on. A significant share said they were using the devices to quit smoking cigarettes or marijuana, while others said they had never smoked but liked being part of the trend and enjoyed the taste. Two favorite flavors of teenagers interviewed were Sweet Tart and Unicorn Puke, which one student described as “every flavor SkE-cigarette use had grown exponentially in previous years, but from such a low base that the numbers had been relatively small. But last year’s rise, which was captured in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual youth tobacco survey of about 20,000 schoolchildren, lifted e-cigarette use above that of traditional cigarettes, prompting an outcry from anti-tobacco advocates. They warned that e-cigarettes were undoing years of progress among the country’s most vulnerable citizens by making the act of puffing on a tobacco product normal again, and by introducing nicotine, an addictive substance, to a broad population of teenagers.“This is a really bad thing,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the C.D.C., who noted that research had found that nicotine harms the developing brain. “This is another generation being hooked by the tobacco industry. It makes me angryBut opinions were mixed on why the devices had caught on. A significant share said they were using the devices to quit smoking cigarettes or marijuana, while others said they had never smoked but liked being part of the trend and enjoyed the taste. Two favorite flavors of teenagers interviewed were Sweet Tart and Unicorn Puke, which one student described as “every flavor Skittle compressed into one.”How to Annotate TextAs part of any class, you will be required to read about topics, either as journal articles, news sources, and even charts and graphs. High school will expect your ability to read complex texts, and hopefully by the time you get there, you will be pro at it.One strategy for reading articles or textbooks is to ANNOTATE. Think for a moment about what that word means. It means to add notes (an-NOTE-tate) to text that you are reading, to offer explanation, comments or opinions to the author's words. Annotation takes practice, and the better you are at it, the better you will be at reading complicated articles.First, determine how you will annotate the text you are about to readSince it is a printed article, you can just write in the margins, a colored pen might make it easier to see.For the AOW annotated response, read with a pen in hand and document by adding your own words, phrases, and summaries to the written text. For the examples below, the article "Guinea Worm Facts" was used. 1. Scan the document you are annotating, some obvious clues will be apparent before you read it, things such as titles or headers for sections. Read the first paragraph, somewhere there (or possibly in the 2nd paragraph) should be a BIG IDEA about what the article is going to be about. In the margins, near the top, write down the big idea of the article in your own words, this shouldn't be more than a phrase or a sentence. In composition class, this is probably called the author's thesis or claim. 2. Underline topic sentences or phrases that express the main idea for that paragraph or section. You should never underline more than 5 words, though for large paragraphs or blocks of text, you can use brackets. Write in the margin next to these underlines a summary of the paragraph or the idea being expressed 3. Connect related ideas by drawing arrows from one idea to another, annotate those arrows with a phrase about how they are connected. 4. If you encounter an idea, word, or phrase you don't understand, circle it and put a question mark in the margin that indicates an area of confusion, write the question in the margin.EXAMPLE: "Depending on the outcome of the assessment, the commission recommends to WHO which formerly endemic countries should be declared free of transmission, i.e., certified as free of the disease." --> ?? What does this mean, who is WHO?5. Anytime the author makes a statement that you can connect with on a PERSONAL level, annotate in the margins a summary of how this connects to you. Write any comments or observations you feel appropriate to the text, you can also add your personal opinionEXAMPLE: "Guinea worm disease incapacitates victims for extended periods of time making them unable to work or grow enough food to feed their families or attend school." --> My dad was sick for a while and couldn't work, this was hard on our family.6. Place a box around any term or phrase that emphasizes very specific language –relationship, science, math,psychological & social science words. These could be words you are not familiar with, define those words in the margins. [The rubric really values this!]EXAMPLE: "Guinea worm disease is set to become the second human disease in history, after smallpox, to be eradicated.?" --> Eradicated = to put an end to, destroyTo summarize how you will annotate text: 1. Identify the BIG IDEA2. Underline topic sentences or main ideas3. Connect ideas with arrows4. Ask questions5. Add personal notes6. Define technical wordsDon't be intimidated, like many skills, annotating takes practice. Remember that the main goal for doing this is to give you a strategy for reading text that may be more complicated and technical than what you are used to. Be persistent!!!Template #2 [See me first.]Publisher (what newspaper, magazine, etc.?): _______________________________ Article’s title: ___________________________________________________________Date of article____________________________Step-by-Step Directions1. Attach your article to this page. 2. Demonstrate evidence of close reading by underlining or highlighting three facts in the article that you thought were interesting. Circle at least one sentence that you found confusing and, next to the circle, explain why you were confused.3. In one complete sentence or more, explain why you chose this article to read:_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4. Prior knowledge: Write at least two complete sentences explaining two things you already knew about the subject before you began reading the article._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________(over)5. In three complete sentences or more, summarize the article’s main ideas:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6. Record three things that you learned by reading this article:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7. What is the author’s purpose for writing the article?______________________________________________________________________________________8. Who is the intended audience for the article?______________________________________________________________________________________# # #How Will Article of the Week Be Graded?ReadingWriting4-#5 Strong effort. Mature thinking is obvious. The student makes several margin notes, showing thoughtful interaction with the text. #The student circles and defines unknown or challenging words. Margin notes show that the reader is asking questions, identifying main ideas, and connecting to the focus question. *Reading for Meaning statements are supported or refuted with relevant evidence.3 Adequate effort. ?The student interacts with the text, but may struggle to dig deep. The student may circle and define unknown or challenging words. ?Margin notes show that the reader is using some reading strategies to improve comprehension. *Reading for Meaning statements are attempted.*RFM:Predict, summarize, question, identify: confusing parts, cause-effect, If…then…2 Some effort. ?Interaction with the text is basic. ?Margin notes are there but do not demonstrate that the reader is thinking deeply about the text. *Reading for Meaning statements are not all completed.0-1 Little to no effort displayed. ?Margin notes may not even be there. Reading for *Meaning statements are not attempted. ?5 Outstanding effort. ?The student obviously proofed this paragraph, focusing on neatness and accuracy – including spelling. ?Exceeds all requirements.4 ?Good effort. ?The product is neat and legible. ?Meets all requirements.3 ?Adequate effort. ?The product is legible. ?Meets most requirements.2 ?Weak effort. ?The student only completed some of the task. ?0-1 ?The student completed little to none of the task. ????Total AOW Grade:______/10A = 10B = 8C = 7D = 4 ................
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