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: Military, Monks Face Off in Myanmar, 09/26/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec07/myanmar_9-26.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Can you find Myanmar, once known as Burma, on a map?

2. What does it mean if a country has a military government?

3. What are some of the ways people throughout the world show disapproval for their government?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What happened to the monks protesting in Myanmar?

Security forces in Myanmar (formerly called Burma) opened fire on protests led by Buddhist monks Wednesday, as civilians joined religious leaders to challenge the military regime.

Witnesses said police beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks, and the government said at least one person was killed.

2. What event set off the most recent demonstrations?

The current protest began on Aug. 15, when the government decided to raise the cost of fuel, in turn pushing up prices of food and fuel across the economy. The demonstrations drew international attention when thousands of maroon-robed Buddhist monks took the lead.

3. How did the Myanmar government try to force the protests to stop?

Earlier in the week, the military government imposed a ban on gatherings of more than five people and deployed soldiers to enforce a nighttime curfew.

4. How did the monks and civilians protest?

In Yangon, the country's commercial capital (formerly called Rangoon), the monks marched from the sacred Sule Pagoda shrine to the city center holding their begging bowls upside down, symbolizing their refusal to receive alms from the government.

Thousands of civilians locked arms around the monks, forming a human chain. Demonstrators carried placards and banners that read "Better Living Conditions", "Release of Political Prisoners," and "May the Peoples' Desire Be Fulfilled."

5. What is the junta?

Since 1962, the country has been ruled by a small group of military generals (a "junta"). The rulers changed the name from Burma to Myanmar, which is similar to the country's official name in Burmese, in 1989.

6. What are some of the ways the government has caused anger among civilians?

The period has been marked by severe economic decline and erosion of political rights. The junta has refused to recognize democratic elections and dissenters face arrest and torture.

7. What happened during the 1988 protest?

During the 1988 uprising, demonstrators succeeded in overthrowing the military general Ne Win, but he was soon replaced by another general. An estimated 3,000 people lost their lives when the government retaliated against protesters.

8. Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?

The figurehead of the opposition is Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and daughter of the Burmese independence hero General Aung San. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for twelve of the past eighteen years since the 1988 uprising.

The NLD won landslide elections in 1990, but Suu Kyi was not allowed to govern. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Why do you think the role of the monks in the protests became so important?

2. How did world leader react? Should they take other actions towards the Myanmar government?

3. Research the role of monks in Buddhist society. How have monks been influential in government matters in other countries?

Write a 300-500 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.