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: Presidential Conventions Heat up Election Season, 07/19/04
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec04/conventions_7-19.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Have you ever been to a convention before? If so, why did you go and what did you do there?

2. What are the Democratic and Republican conventions? Why do the parties have them?

3. In what ways are America and the world different than before the last presidential election?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Why is this convention season particularly important?

This convention season is especially significant as it is the first time voters will be able to choose a president after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Americans also are divided by the war in Iraq and struggling with an economy on the rebound.

2. Who holds presidential conventions? When are they held? Why? Where are they this year?

Both major political parties hold conventions every four years. The party officially nominates its candidate for president and vice president and presents it platform, or major political themes and ideas, to the public. The Democratic National Convention will be held in first-time host city Boston July 26-29. The Republican National Committee will hold its convention in New York City from Aug. 30 through Sept. 2.

3. Who are some of the interesting speakers at the Democratic Convention? Why are they interesting?

The keynote speaker will be Barack Obama, a popular young African-American politician from Illinois who is running for the U.S. Senate. Another speaker to watch is Ron Reagan, son of former President Reagan, who will talk about stem cell research. Ron Reagan, a self-described liberal whose political views were often at odds with his conservative Republican father, has said publicly that he does not support President Bush's re-election.

4. Who are some of the interesting speakers at the Republican Convention? Why are they interesting?

The Republican National Committee's prime-time speakers include Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Republicans are preparing for an energetic speech from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and an appearance by Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, who will talk about being a pro-life Democrat.

5. When do voters pay attention to the presidential elections?

Political analysts say that many Americans begin to pay attention to the race for the White House during the national political conventions.

"Voters have 'windows of time' when they're interested," Matthew Dowd, chief strategist of President Bush's campaign told USA Today. The days leading up to the conventions are one of those windows, he added.

6. Why is security at the conventions especially tight this year?

Security in Boston and New York will be tight. Earlier in the month Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge warned that there was intelligence indicating al-Qaida might strike the United States sometime this summer in an attempt to influence the presidential election, as some say was done in Madrid, Spain in March.

"Credible reporting indicates that al-Qaida is moving forward with plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States aimed to disrupt our democratic process," Ridge said at a Boston press conference.

But he added that no specific intelligence pointed to a specific attack to either political convention.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Why do you think political parties choose particular speakers for key slots in their conventions? Look at each party's selections, choose one person and analyze why that person might have been chosen. What do they bring to the party? How might they influence voters?

2. Why do you think people pay attention to the presidential elections during the conventions, as political analysts say they do? Will you be watching? Why or why not? If not, what do you think the convention organizers could do to get more teens involved?

3. Conventions are opportunities for political parties to present their platforms, or ideas, to the public. Research each party's platform or perspective on the issues. Which issues are most important to you? Why?

Write a 500-800 word essay on any 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.