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One successful newspaper-related activity we conducted in my classroom was based on an editorial titled "What I Learned in China" in December 7, 2005 issue of The Daytona Beach News- Journal. In this editorial, students read about a prominent educator who traveled to China. He witnessed incredible enthusiasm for learning among most Chinese students, and he compared this to what he felt was a lack of interest in some United States high schools. From this, students in my more advanced 8th grade Language Arts class wrote a persuasive essay, based on this editorial, as follows:

Topic: Some experts in public schools believe that United States students need to become more motivated in their studies to be competitive out of school with Chinese students. Other experts in public schools feel that United States students are quite competitive with Chinese students.

Writing Directions: Using the December 7, 2005 Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial "What I Learned in China," write a persuasive essay that either supports the view that U.S. students are competitive with Chinese students; or opposes the idea that the United States students learn as enthusiastically as Chinese students. Use examples from the editorial to support your view.

We turned an editorial into an FCAT essay question style prompt and used it in a 1 page persuasive essay. Many students commented that this exercise made them think about how motivated they should be in comparison to Chinese students´ motivation.

Donald D´Orto, Jr.
LA & Intensive Reading
Southwestern Middle

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