Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra feature stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write a 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: U.S. Carmakers Restructure to Stay Alive, 05/08/06
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june06/carmakers_5-08.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Name the most popular car manufacturers.

2. Name some American car companies.

3. Do American car companies make the most popular cars? Why or why not?

4. What are some new technologies that will change cars in the future?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1.General Motors and Ford are cutting their workforces and closing manufacturing plants in the United States. How many people will they lay off and how many plants will they close?

In November 2005, GM announced it would close a dozen plants and lay off 30,000 employees -- one-tenth of its workforce -- in the next three years.

Ford made a similar announcement in January 2006: It plans to lay off another 30,000 workers -- a quarter of its workforce -- and close 14 plants in the next six years.

2. How do economists think the layoffs and plant closures will impact the economy?

The influence could be the most severe in the Upper Midwest, especially cities like Detroit, where 10 percent of the economy can be attributed to the automobile industry.

Economists hope the slogan “What's good for Detroit is good for America” doesn't work in reverse, but the impact on the U.S. economy could be sharp: one job in the auto industry supports almost five other jobs, such as those in the steel and electronics industries, according to The Washington Post.

3. How much do U.S. car companies spend on employee benefits?

GM and Ford now pay about $1,300 in health care expenses for each car they make because they have to pay benefits -- mostly to retirees. Asian manufacturers spend considerably less, about $450 for each car, because their workers are younger -- they have fewer retirees.

In addition, GM's policy of providing full pensions for 30 years of service tacks on another $1,000 per car, putting the company behind the foreign competition that amount on each vehicle before GM even starts building it.

4. What is GM's new initiative and how could it help the environment?

In its "Live Green Go Yellow" advertising campaign, GM has touted E85, an 85 percent corn-based-ethanol gasoline that could help reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. GM hopes to accelerate the use of biofuels by producing 400,000 "FlexFuel" cars in 2006 that can run on E85.

 

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Research the General Motors Corporation and Ford Motor Company. What car brands do they produce?

2. Do a quick scan of the nearest parking lot—compare the number of cars from American companies to foreign companies. What did you find? Do you think you'd find similar results in other parts of the country? Explain.

3. The turnarounds of Nissan and Mazda have been credited, in part, to new cars. After researching alternative fuels, alternative materials, and "concept cars," select one feature for a new car that could help GM or Ford return to profitability. Determine how much it would cost or save per car to add this feature.

4. "...If you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country. The more ownership there is in America, the more vitality there is in America, and the more people have a vital stake in the future of this country." -- President George W. Bush, June 17, 2004

In an "ownership society," citizens have the option to invest in retirement accounts and health care accounts that they will own and control, entrepreneurs and small businesses receive tax benefits, and more people own their homes. Research the "ownership society," then debate how it might affect America in the short term and 50 years from now.

Write a 300-500 word essay on either of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.