Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features 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 an 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: Schools Struggle to Motivate Students with 'Senioritis': 05/15/06
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june06/senioritis_5-15.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What do you do when you start to feel unmotivated at school?

2. What should schools do to keep you interested in learning?

3. Have you heard of "Senior Slump"? What is it?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What is Senioritis?

It happens each spring as the days lengthen and grow warmer: High school seniors who have applied to colleges or finished most graduating requirements struggle to stay focused on work that doesn't seem relevant.

Even the best students who once spent hours on homework succumb and turn in sub-par work or no work at all. Concentration is difficult. "Senioritis" has struck.

2. How do students feel about senior slump?

"There's sort of a change somewhere where it doesn't feel like it's worth it, or it doesn't feel necessary anymore," Andrew Geiszler, a Great Falls High School in Montana senior with a grade point average of 4.0, told the Great Falls Tribune.

They count the days till graduation or until they make big decisions, like to go to college or join the military.

"I am ready for it to be over," Joshua Tardif, a senior at Mount Ararat High School in Maine who is trying to decide between the Army and going to Thomas College, told the Portland Press Herald.

3. What are schools doing to combat senior slump?

Some schools allow internships, letting seniors take classes at local colleges and universities, or by instituting special skill building programs that give students a taste of what's to come.

At Freeport High School in Maine, seniors apply to participate in a month-long project that they must turn into a presentation. Often projects are related to or lead to post-graduation work or study.

At New Trier Township High School in Illinois seniors, take a "Senior Institute" in which they learn about money management, college life, eating disorders and other issues.

4. What are some educators in California doing to motivate seniors?

Two years ago, the California State University system created the Early Assessment Program (EAP) which tests 11th-grade students' readiness for college-level English and math.

"We're trying to give them an early-warning signal so they take the courses they need to take instead of taking it easy," Allison Jones, Cal State's vice chancellor of academic affairs, told Time magazine.

5. What can happen if a student is accepted at college but has bad grades in the final semester?

And although most seniors don't know it, schools can rescind acceptances.

"It is not at all rare for a college to withdraw an offer of admission when grades drop significantly over the course of senior year. (I have a folder full of copies of these letters)," Illinois college counselor Mary Lee Hoganson said in a letter to the College Board.

6. According to the article, what are some end-of-the-school-year events that divert students' attention away from academics or athletics?

"It's tough for kids to focus when there is so much going on," Bruce Rich, softball coach at Chelmsford High School in Massachusetts, told the Lowell Sun.

"It's kind of like a minefield trying to get through that first week of the state tournament while dealing with banquets and proms -- and especially the days after banquets and proms."

Discussion Questions and Extension Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Read the following quote by Charles Reed. Do you agree or disagree with his statement? Why? What is the situation like at your school?

"The 12th grade is the biggest wasteland in America," Charles Reed, chancellor of the California State University system, told USA Today.

2. How would you tell the teachers and educators at your school to improve the usefulness of senior year? Create a concrete plan the school could implement that would meet the diverse needs of students at your schools, including those going to colleges and those going directly into the workforce.

3. Now, what would be the best way to present this plan to your school leaders?

Send your answers, in essay form, to extra@newshour.org for possible publication!