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: Two Years After the Attacks, 9/10/03
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec03/911_9-10.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Has America changed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001? In what ways?

2. Two years ago, what would you have imagined the second anniversary would be like? Is it different than you would have predicted? Why or why not?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Where will President Bush be on September 11, 2003?

President Bush will attend a prayer service at St. John's Church, participate in a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House and visit wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

2. What will happen at the former site of the World Trade Center?

At New York City's ground zero, the former site of the World Trade Center, children of the victims will read aloud the names of the 2,792 people who were killed at the site.

3. What happened on September 11, 2001?

On September 11, 2001, terrorists linked to the Muslim extremist group al-Qaida hijacked four commercial jetliner flights. Two crashed into the World Trade Center buildings, another hit the Pentagon, and one plane, which some officials speculate was intended to fly into a Washington, D.C., target, crashed in a field in southwestern Pennsylvania.

4. What major event resulted from the terrorist attacks on the United States. Explain this event.

The terrorist attacks sparked what has come to be known as the war on terrorism: the United States' ongoing effort to combat terrorists and the individuals and organizations that support them. This war has come to involve military operations in Afghanistan and increased domestic security, including tightening immigration and border controls and adopting the Patriot Act. President Bush has said the new frontline of this war is the ongoing mission in Iraq.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Have students read the essay by Stuyvesant High School student Audrey Uong in which she describes her feelings about the second anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Have students respond with their own thoughts about the events of two Septembers ago and how their feelings may have evolved or changed.

2. Research the design of the memorial that has been planned for the Pentagon site. Describe it. How effective is the design? Explain your reasoning. The designs for the World Trade Center memorial and the Shanksville memorial have not yet been decided. Choose one site and plan a design for the site. Include a statement describing your memorial design.

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.