Article of the Week

Please note that, as I explain in-depth in this blog post, I take no credit for coming up with the article of the week (AoW) assignment. Kelly Gallagher came up with the idea, and I first came across it in Readicide. Thus, anything I share about my classroom's experiences with AoWs, any theories or experiments I try out with the assignment, and any success my students or I have with it thoroughly and ultimately traces back to Kelly's work.

Articles of the Week for 2024-2025

• Is this some kind of joke? A school facing shortages starts teaching standup comedy (pdf; Drive)
• Feeling Artsy? Here's How Making Art Helps Your Brain (pdf; Drive)
• Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning (pdf; Drive)
• Characters in the public domain, explained (pdf; Drive)
• The Complex Continent Conundrum, explained (Drive)
• Biden Nudges Netanyahu + North Korea Opens to Tourists Again (Drive)
• What is a swing state? (Drive)
• France detains Telegraph CEO + Israel & Hezbollah exchange rocket fire (Drive)
• Trump, Harris campaigns disagree over ABC debate + Russia pounds Ukraine with ‘massive' air attack (Drive)
• Young adult mental health + Telegram CEO charged in France (Drive)
• Israel mourns slain hostages, protests Netanyahu (Drive)
• Russian strike kills at least 51 in Ukraine + Scientists want to zap coastlines with electricity (Drive)
• Trump & Harris Targeting Key Voter Groups (Drive)
• What the “rocket drone” Palianytsia means for Ukraine (Drive)
• How to Win Radio Contests (Drive)
• Is the penny obsolete? (Drive)
• Inside the Trump & Harris debate prep strategies (Drive)
• Ukraine hits Moscow with large drone attack + Polaris Dawn sets records for private space flight (Drive)
• US demands answers in Israeli killing of American (Drive)
• FBI Investigating 2nd Assassination Attempt (Drive)
• Hezbollah hit with exploding pagers, blames Israel + Poll updates (Drive)
  • Note: A learning target for this year's election cycle is to help my students understand the vocabulary that permeates election discourse (e.g., polls, swing states, electoral vote). With polling, I try to show my students a variety of polls so that they can understand the strengths and weaknesses of polling numbers.
• Overdose Deaths Falling in USA (Drive)
• Teamsters decline to endorse Trump or Harris + Betting on Elections!? (Drive)
• Elon Musk's X blinks in standoff with Brazil (Drive)
• How Vance and Walz plan to tackle the VP debate (Drive)
• Biden Lifts Restrictions on Ukraine War Tactics + Pope Calls for Inquiry on Gaza Casualties (Drive)

Articles of the Week for Summer 2022

• (Video) “I Read 2,216 Resumes. Here’s How You Stand Out 🚀,” by Ali Abdaal (Youtube)
• Scientists Working to Resurrect the Wooly Mammoth (pdf; Drive)
• The US May Give Ukraine More Missiles. Should It? (pdf; Drive)
• The Rise of Legal Cannabis (pdf; Drive)
• Would Curbing Gun Usage in Movies Help Prevent Mass Shootings? (pdf; Drive)
• Is COVID Over in the Minds of Americans? (pdf; Drive)

Articles of the Week for 2021-2022

Psst… I've updated my approach to articles of the week. Read about that here.

(Organized by question)

What should I do w/ my life?

• 3 dirty jobs that will build the future (Axios)
• What Are You Doing with Your Life? The Tail End (Kurzgesagt video)

What's up w/ my being?

• What the brain is like (interview w/ David Eagleman in The Guardian)

What's happening in the world?

• Russia's Controversial New Pipeline, Explained (The Week)
• The Future of Drone Warfare (The Week)
• The US' Digital Divide is about More than Just Access (Morning Brew)
• Mapped: Global Happiness Levels in 2021 (Visual Capitalist)
• Two on the summer heat waves from Axios:
  • In summer of apocalyptic weather, concerns emerge over climate science blind spot
  • Study: Get ready for many more record-shattering heatwaves
• Withdrawal from Afghanistan, from the perspective of the White House (Axios)

What's the future like?

• Google Doc: An Interview with Beeple, the Guy Who Sold a $69 Million Computer Image (via Morning Brew)
• How Water Shortages Are Brewing Wars (BBC Future)

Just for fun

• The Future of Star Wars (The Week)
• Jeff Bezos is Building a 10,000 Year Clock Inside a Mountain (Popular Mechanics)
• 18 Forbidden Places You Can't Visit (Mental Floss)
• Joy Generator (NPR)

Articles of the Week for 2020-2021

These days, I am experimenting with a topic immersion approach to AoW that allows students to read deeply about a single topic over several weeks, thus expanding their background knowledge more coherently and purposefully.  If you're looking to add a layer of complexity, join me here.

That stated, I'm a big fan of keeping things simple. A less calculated, more varied approach to article selection is more than good enough and served me well for years.  Below is the smorgasbord of articles that I collected this year just in case you or I might need them.

Articles of the Week for 2019-2020

These days, I am experimenting with a topic immersion approach to AoW that allows students to read deeply about a single topic over several weeks, thus expanding their background knowledge more coherently and purposefully.  If you're looking to add a layer of complexity, join me here.

That stated, I'm a big fan of keeping things simple. A less calculated, more varied approach to article selection is more than good enough and served me well for years.  Below is the smorgasbord of articles that I collected this year just in case you or I might need them.

Articles of the Week for 2018-2019

Articles of the Week for 2017-2018

The primary purpose of Kelly Gallagher's article of the week assignment is to help his students gain knowledge about the world. Knowledge, after all, begets literacy, critical thinking, and more knowledge. With that said, I sometimes bring secondary purposes to the assignment, such as helping my students read for bias or argumentation.

With that said, below you'll find a list of articles I'll be pulling from during the 2017-2018 school year. Some are from years past (see the “Timeless” column), while others are as fresh as possible.

Time-sensitive Articles

• “Pro/Con: Should All Students Take Personal Finance Classes?”, by K. Alexander Ashe and Wayne Madsen for Tribune News, adapted by Newsela staff. (pdf)
• “China's Plan to Run the World,” by The Week staff. (pdf)

Timeless Articles

These are articles that I've used in the past and that I could, in a pinch, use again this year.

• “Study Smarter,” by Joe Stromberg for Vox (Google Doc; pdf)
• “Harvard Rescinds Acceptances for At Least Ten Students for Obscene Memes,” by Hannah Natanson for The Crimson. (pdf)
• “Struggle For Smarts? How Eastern And Western Cultures Tackle Learning,” by Alix Spiegel for NPR. (pdf)
• “‘I’m not Paranoid': These Americans are doing more than stockpiling food and ammo” by Kevin Sullivan for the Washington Post. (pdf)
• “Why you should really start talking to old people more,” by Karl Pillemer for Aeon Media. (pdf)
• “Inside America's lottery addiction,” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “Inconvenient Gun Facts for Liberals,” by Nicholas Kristoff for The New York Times. (pdf)
• “Too Much TV And Chill Could Reduce Brain Power Over Time,” from Angus Chen at NPR. (pdf)
• “Procrastination: Is Your Future Self Getting a Bad Deal?,” from Psychology Today. (pdf)
• “The deadly threat of a solar superstorm,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “The End of Smoking?,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “Teachers, Students, and Sleep,” from my blog, with modifications for student appropriateness. (pdf)
• “How to Be Loved by Everyone: 6 Powerful Secrets,” from Barking Up The Wrong Tree. (pdf)
• “A Race to the Top of the Most Beautiful Place on Earth,” from Narratively. (pdf)
• “How Saudi Arabia Exports Radical Islam”, from The Week. (pdf)
• “The Walking Dead,” part III of a series on sleep, from The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “The Work We Do While Sleep,” Part II of a series on sleep, from The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “Why Can't We Fall Asleep?”, Part I of a series on sleep, from The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “The rise of workplace spying,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “”Follow Your Bliss” Advice,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “Making Graduation Meaningful: A Real Qualifications System for U.S. Students,” from Education Week. (pdf)

Articles of the Week for 2016-2017

I carried some of the “timeless” articles from last year into this year. I'm a collector, so not every article below will be used with my students. I hope you find an article that's useful to you and your purposes with your students. Please keep in mind the context within which you introduce article of the week and the way in which you frame each week's articles. I choose some articles that are arguing for one side of an issue. Bias is real! I teach my students to read for these things, as my goal is never indoctrination and is always clearer thinking and a greater knowledge of the world.

With these things said, please use discretion when choosing articles for your kids, keeping in mind the context you teach within and the sensitivities of your students and families.

Time-sensitive Articles

• “Can America protect itself from North Korean missiles?”, by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “The Great British Crack-Up,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “Why the sudden collapse of North Korea would be hell on Earth,” by Henry Kazianis for The Week. (pdf)
• “The Growing Nuclear Threat of North Korea,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “Space Travel for Sale: Two People to be Flown by Moon by SpaceX Soon,” by the Associated Press. (pdf)
• “Survivors of Japanese internment camps see parallels today,” by Prem Calvin Prashad for Times Ledger. (pdf)
• “Surges and Slips: Immigration in America over 200 Years,” by the Associated Press. (pdf)
• “Life After the White House,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “5 Things Experts Said Were Good and Bad for Us in 2016,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “The Rise of Legal Weed in the USA,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “Is International Justice Doomed?,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “A Brief History of Populism,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “Inside America' Hacking Epidemic,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “How Anwar al-Awlaki Haunts America from Beyond the Grave,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “America's Guantanamo Quagmire,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “The Great Billionaire Space Race,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “The Clintons' Controversial Foundation,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, Explained,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “The New War on Cancer,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “How to Rig an Election,” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “How Donald Trump Built His Business Empire,” by The Week staff. (pdf)

Timeless Articles

These are articles that I've used in the past and that I could, in a pinch, use again this year.

• “Struggle For Smarts? How Eastern And Western Cultures Tackle Learning,” by Alix Spiegel for NPR. (pdf)
• “‘I’m not Paranoid': These Americans are doing more than stockpiling food and ammo” by Kevin Sullivan for the Washington Post. (pdf)
• “How serious is Russia's military threat?” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “Can Facebook bring internet access to the entire world?” by Erin Blakemore for The Week. (pdf
• “Why you should really start talking to old people more,” by Karl Pillemer for Aeon Media. (pdf)
• “Is nuclear armageddon more likely than ever?” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “Inside America's lottery addiction,” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “Inconvenient Gun Facts for Liberals,” by Nicholas Kristoff for The New York Times. (pdf)
• “Too Much TV And Chill Could Reduce Brain Power Over Time,” from Angus Chen at NPR. (pdf)
• “Procrastination: Is Your Future Self Getting a Bad Deal?,” from Psychology Today. (pdf)
• “The deadly threat of a solar superstorm,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “The End of Smoking?,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “Teachers, Students, and Sleep,” from my blog, with modifications for student appropriateness. (pdf)
• “A Brief Guide to America's Sharing Economy,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “How to Be Loved by Everyone: 6 Powerful Secrets,” from Barking Up The Wrong Tree. (pdf)
• “A Race to the Top of the Most Beautiful Place on Earth,” from Narratively. (pdf)
• “How Saudi Arabia Exports Radical Islam”, from The Week. (pdf)
• “The Frightening Truth About the Future of Driverless Cars,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “The Walking Dead,” part III of a series on sleep, from The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “The Work We Do While Sleep,” Part II of a series on sleep, from The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “Why Can't We Fall Asleep?”, Part I of a series on sleep, from The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “The rise of workplace spying,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “”Follow Your Bliss” Advice,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “Making Graduation Meaningful: A Real Qualifications System for U.S. Students,” from Education Week. (pdf)

Curricular Articles — these are used in direct connection with my world history curriculum

• South Korean “Comfort Women” (pdf)
• Hiroshima text set (pdf)

Articles of the Week for 2015-2016

I'm being a bit more proactive with my AoW approach this year, organizing articles that I plan to use by time-sensitive — it's best to use these near their publication date — and timeless — these touch upon themes and ideas likely to be relevant for at least a few years.

Time-sensitive Articles

• “How America is Defeating ISIS,” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “The Brexit, Explained,” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “The Puerto Rico Crisis, Explained,” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “Republican Party's disruption laid bare in Trump's Nevada victory,” for The LA Times. (pdf)
• “The History of Socialism (Connected to Bernie Sanders),” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “There are big changes underway in Saudi Arabia,” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “America's ‘Everything' Fighter Jet is a Complete Disaster,” by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry for The Week. (pdf)
• “7 Things Experts Said Were Healthy in 2015” and “7 Things Experts Said Were Unhealthy in 2015,” both by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “The Struggle Inside Iran,” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “Inside the Paris Climate Summit,” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “Paris Stunned After Wave of Terror Attacks Across City,” from The Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff. (pdf)
• “A Growing Disenchantment With October ‘Pinkification,’” from The New York Times. (pdf)
• “A Brief Guide to Big Pharma,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “Martin Shkreli: America's most despised man who makes AIDS sufferers pay $750 per pill,” by Sadie Nicholas from The Sunday Express. (Thank you to Ken Greco for sharing this AOW!)
• “8 Reasons Europe's Refugee Crisis is Happening Now,” from The Washington Post. (pdf)
• “China's Military Parade Was a Massive Display of Political Weakness,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “America's Biker Gangs,” from The Week. (pdf)

Timeless Articles

• “How serious is Russia's military threat?” by The Week staff. (pdf)
• “Can Facebook bring internet access to the entire world?” by Erin Blakemore for The Week. (pdf
• “Why you should really start talking to old people more,” by Karl Pillemer for Aeon Media. (pdf)
• “Is nuclear armageddon more likely than ever?” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “Why China and America are barrelling towards war,” by Kyle Mizokami for The Week. (pdf)
• “Inside America's lottery addiction,” by The Week Staff. (pdf)
• “Inconvenient Gun Facts for Liberals,” by Nicholas Kristoff for The New York Times. (pdf)
• “Too Much TV And Chill Could Reduce Brain Power Over Time,” from Angus Chen at NPR. (pdf)
• “Procrastination: Is Your Future Self Getting a Bad Deal?,” from Psychology Today. (pdf)
• “The deadly threat of a solar superstorm,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “Slowly, more Saudi women find their way into the workplace,” from Newsela.com. (pdf)
• “The End of Smoking?,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “Teachers, Students, and Sleep,” from my blog, with modifications for student appropriateness. (pdf)
• “A Brief Guide to America's Sharing Economy,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “How to Be Loved by Everyone: 6 Powerful Secrets,” from Barking Up The Wrong Tree. (pdf)
• “A Race to the Top of the Most Beautiful Place on Earth,” from Narratively. (pdf)
• “How Saudi Arabia Exports Radical Islam”, from The Week. (pdf)
• “The Frightening Truth About the Future of Driverless Cars,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “The Walking Dead,” part III of a series on sleep, from The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “The Work We Do While Sleep,” Part II of a series on sleep, from The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “Why Can't We Fall Asleep?”, Part I of a series on sleep, from The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “The rise of workplace spying,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “”Follow Your Bliss” Advice,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “Making Graduation Meaningful: A Real Qualifications System for U.S. Students,” from Education Week. (pdf)

The list of articles of the week for 2014-2015

Here's the list for this school year:

• “Abolish prison,” from The Week. (pdf)
• “These are the 12 things most likely to end the world,” from Vox. (pdf)
• “President Obama says he doesn't believe Cuba is supporting terrorism,” from Newsela & the Washington Post. (pdf)
• “Too Many Tests? More Parents Opt Out; Congress May Rewrite Law,” from Newsela & the Washington Bureau. (pdf)
  • Dear Readers: Please note that this is a controversial issue, and that you should use this article thoughtfully. I chose this article because of what I feel is a balanced reporting of an issue that many of my students have been hearing about. The aim of these articles is not to sway students one way or another, but rather to provide them background knowledge so that they might better understand the world they live in and be better able to read its texts.
• California Water Shortage, from Newsela & the LA Times. (pdf)
  1. Kelly's AoW this week takes an argumentative approach to this topic — click here.
• “The End of Coal?” from The Week.
  • This is one of Kelly's AoWs.
• “Two Articles about Net Neutrality,” from CBS News and The Washington Post.
  • This is one of Kelly's AoWs.
• “A Thirsty, Violent World,” by Michael Specter for The New Yorker. (pdf)
• “Warren Buffet's Two List Strategy,” by James Clear. (pdf)
• “The case for invading North Korea,” by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry for The Week. (pdf)
• “Why invading North Korea would be insane,” by Harry J. Kazianis for The Week. (pdf)
• “Five Maps and Charts that Will Surprise You,” by Ezra Klein for Vox. (pdf)
• “The Sony Hack: How it happened, who is responsible, and what we've learned,” by Timothy Lee for Vox. (pdf)
• “Two Children's Activists Win Nobel Peace Prize,” by Los Angeles Times and Newsela staff.
• “Why the Government Should Pay Every American Child an Allowance,” by Matt Bruenig for The Week.
• “Glendale district says social media monitoring is for student safety,” by Stephen Ceasar.
  • This one comes from Clifton But — you'll notice the formatting is different, but my kids are used to things not always looking the same, so it's all good!
• “Infamous Hajj Selfie Is One More Thing Transforming Mecca, And Not Everyone Is Happy About It,” by Antonia Blumberg for Huffington Post.
  • Thank you to Caleb Allen for providing this article — you'll notice it's in the fuller rubric + reading for meaning statements format.
• “One Feminist Critic's Battle With Gaming's Darker Side,” by NPR.
  • Again — thank you Caleb Allen!
• “The Minimum Wage Ballot Debate,” by McClatchy Washington Bureau, adapted by Newsela staff.
  • Thank you to Teresa Wecht for putting this beauty together and sharing it with the Teaching the Core community!
• “Eight Things the Happiest People Do Every Day,” by Eric Barker of Barking up the Wrong Tree.
• “Six Ways to Strengthen Your Self-Control Muscle,” by Laura Entis for Entrepreneur.
• “Colorado Students Protest a Conservative Call to Change Their Curriculum,” by Matt Ferner for The Huffington Post.
  • Thanks again to the dynamic duo of Erica Beaton and Clinton Chapman for finding fascinating article of the week!
• “Why I'll Never Tell My Son He's Smart,” by Sal Kahn for The Huffington Post.
  • Thank you to Erica Beaton and her husband Matt for this one!
• “US Works to Step Up Ebola Aid, but Is It Enough?” by Lauran Neergaard for the AP.
  • Thank you to my student teacher, Clinton Chapman, for creating his first article of the week!
• “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: The Man Who Would be Caliph,” by TheWeek.com.
• “Crumbling Under Our Wheels,” by TheWeek.com.
  • This one also come from Kelly's website.
• “What is ISIS?” by Gil Kaufman for MTV News.
  • This one comes from KellyGallagher.org — the format is different from the articles I've been posting on Teaching the Core for the past year or so, but the concept is the same. My students were highly engaged by this piece last week as, tragically, ISIS executed another American journalist.
• “Here's how much your high school grades predict your future salary,” by Jonnelle Marte for the WaPo.

If you have an AoW you've used this year that you'd like to share, contact me — I'd love to post it for the good of the community.

The list of articles of the week for 2013-2014

Here's the list for this school year:

• “American Prisoner in North Korea Requests Rescue,” by Choe Sang-Hun for the New York Times.
• “Why ‘Stop and Frisk' is Worse than NSA Surveillance,” by Marc Ambinder for The Week.
• “The Writing is on the Wall,” by Esther Cepeda for the Washington Post.
• “Monsanto Doesn't Want You to Know What You're Eating,” by Zack Kaldveer and Ronnie Cummins for AlterNet.org
• “Can the Postal Service by Saved?” by The Week.
• “Seeing Narcissists Everywhere,” by Douglas QuenQua for the New York Times.
• “Nazi War Crimes Suspect, 98, Dies Awaiting Trial,” by Alan Cowell for the New York Times.
• “Why Are Chemical Weapons Worse Than Conventional Weapons?” by Keith Wagstaff for The Week.
• “Dying Well,” by Katy Butler. Note that this article includes my first attempt at an AoW rubric and also the Reading for Meaning strategy. We'll see how it goes!
• “Miss America and Social Media's Ignorant Bigotry,” by Leonard Pitts Jr. for The Miami Herald. Once again, the format I'm using is tweaking the AoW 2.0 I started playing with in AoW #9.
• “Rest of the World Thinks Congress is a ‘Laughing Stock' for Government Shutdown,” by Shadee Ashtari for The Huffington Post.
• “Smart Strategies that Help Students Learn How to Learn,” by Annie Murphy Paul for Mind Shift. Special thanks to Erica Beaton for putting this one together!
• “E-Smoking Among Teenagers” and “Everything You Need to Know about E-Cigarettes,” by NYT and ABC News, respectively.
• “Forget Cursive. Teach Kids to Code,” by Keith Wagstaff for The Week.
• “Pro/Con: Fast Food Minimum Wage Debate,” by Mark Weisbrot and James Sherk for McClatchy-Tribune News Services; adapted by NewsELA.
• “End Adolescence,” by Newt Gingrich for Business Week. Thanks to Chad Walden for putting this one together!
• “Five Arguments For and Against Capital Punishment,” by Flame Horse for
• “How to Raise a Kid Who Isn't Whiny and Annoying,” by Lyz Lenz for LyzLenz.com. Thank you to colleague and friend Heidi Bonnema for putting this one together!
• “Richard Sherman: Evil, or Genius?” by Keith Sharon. Thank you to Jennifer Villalpando and the fine teachers of Oceanside Unified School District for sharing this!
• “Eating Food that's Better for You, Organic or Not,” by Mark Bittman for The Times. Thank you again to Heidi Bonnema for this great article!
• “Less Sleep, More Time Online Raise Risk of Teen Depression,” by Maanvi Singh for NPR.org. Heidi once again provided this one. Thank you!
• “What to Pay the Babysitter,” by Jan Francisco for Huffington Post.
  • This one's not in our usual format, but it's a great article to give kids during those odd weeks before a break you want them to debate on something pretty “in their world.” Thanks again to Heidi Bonnema for this one!
• “Teen to government: Change your typeface, save millions,” by Jay Dillon. Once again, Heidi Bonnema created this one!
• “A Startlingly Simple Theory about the Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet,” by Chris Goodfellow for Wired Magazine. Thank you again to Jennifer Villalpando and her colleagues at Oceanside Unified School District for sharing this one!
• “How to get a job at Google,” by Thomas Friedman. Thanks again, Jennifer and Co!
• “Study: You Really Can ‘Work Smarter, Not Harder,” by Nanette Fondas. Thank-you, Heidi for creating this one!
• “Read, Kids, Read,” by Frank Bruni for the New York Times. This one isn't in the AoW format, but it's a great read for kids prior to summer break — we need them to read!
• “Should Drone Attacks Continue ,” by ____ for USA Today. Thank you to Chad Walden for sharing this one — like Chad says, it's an older article, but the issue is current and it's a nice format with an opposing view included. Thank you, Chad!
• The Coding Debate: A point-counterpoint pair of articles featuring “Teach It As Early As Possible,” by Hadi Partovi, and “Other Skills Should Come First” by Beverly Amico; for the New York Times.
  • Thank you to Jay Dennis of Gautier HS in the Pascagoula School District for contacting me and offering to share your articles of the week! This one was from Jay, as well as the next one
• The Coding Debate: A point-counterpoint pair of articles featuring “Teach It As Early As Possible,” by Hadi Partovi, and “Other Skills Should Come First” by Beverly Amico; for the New York Times.

The list of articles of the week from 2012-2013

Below is a list of articles I prepared for the 2012-2013 school year. Some were read as part of the AoW assignment; others were read for different lessons or units (which I note parenthetically).

• “Best. Decade. Ever.”, by Charles Kenny for Foreign Policy.
• “Saudi Arabia's Judoka Strikes Blow for Women's Rights in Olympics,” by Esther Addley for The Guardian.
• “Teen Hospitalized after 4-day Video Game Binge,” by TheWeek.com.
• “The Media's Obsession with Political Gaffes: Four Downsides,” by TheWeek.com.
• “Justin Bieber Disses Prince William on Thinning Hair,” by Lisa Suhay for The Christian Science Monitor.
• “Sikhism and Gun Control,” by TheWeek.com.
• “The Quietly Heroic Life of Ambassador Chris Stevens,” by TheWeek.com.
  1. My colleague Erica Beaton created this one — thanks Erica!
• “The Writing is on the Wall,” (pdf) by Esther Cepeda for The Washington Post Writer's Group, 9/20/12.
• “State Dept Never Believed what Hilary Clinton Said,” by Daniel Halper for The Weekly Standard.
• “The World's Silliest Territorial Dispute,” by TheWeek.com.
• “The Cases for Obama and Romney,” by TheWeek.com.
• Articles related to marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado; I've also created an ACT-style writing prompt and debate for this issue:
  • “Legalizing Marijuana: The View from Mexico,” by T.W. for The Economist.
  • “Pot Legal but ‘Jury Still Out' on What's Next,” by Jonathan Martin for The Seattle Times.
  • “Is Marijuana Bad for Your Health?” by TheWeek.com.
• “Did Big Labor Kill the Twinkie?” and “Ding Dongs — Big Labor Strikes Again,” by TheWeek.com and by Jennifer Rubin for The Washington Post, respectively.
• “Is the 500 million Powerball Lottery a Tax on the Poor?”, by TheWeek.comand Natasha Lennard at Salon.
• “10 Things You Need to Know Today: December 9, 2012,” by TheWeek.com.
• “Why the World is Preparing for War in Mali,” by D. B. Grady for TheWeek.com.
• “North Korea's Rocket Launch: 3 Consequences,” by Harold Maass for TheWeek.com.
• “What Gun Control Can and Can't Do,” by Marc Ambinder for TheWeek.com.
• “4 Disturbing Trends You Should Pay Attention to in 2013,” by Paul Brandus for TheWeek.com.
• “The Growing Humanitarian Crisis in Syria: By the Numbers,” by TheWeek.com.
  • I used this on a Friday — it was a 15-minute activity that tied into our world history unit on the 1700s, but these “by the numbers” articles are fantastic for developing students' ability to read, visualize, and logically link numbers and statistics
• “Is Bashar al-Assad Nearly Finished?”, by Harold Maass for TheWeek.com.
• “What's Happening in Mali?”, (Various sources)
  • I used this article to expose students to the breaking news in Mali this week, as it perfectly tied into some issues we were exploring in our 1700s unit in history. This document includes a progression of 3 news releases and a collection of opinions on whether France will regret intervening in Mali.
• “Bride-burning in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh is Acceptable Murder,” by Nancy Koerner for The Examiner.
• “Urine the Army Now: Arguments against Women in Combat,” by William Saletan for Slate.
• “8 Ridiculous Vladimir Putin Publicity Stunts” and “Did Iran Fake its Space Monkey Mission?”, by Samantha Rollins and TheWeek.com.
• “The Early Bird Gets the Bad Grade,” by Nancy Kalish for the New York Times.
  • My colleague Becky Kooi created this one — thanks so much, Becky!
• “Struggling Back from War's Once-Deadly Wounds,” by Denise Grady for the New York Times.
  • This article serves as an excellent segue into All Quiet on the Western Front, as well as into any discussion about the human costs of war.
• “Sleep Deprivation has Genetic Consequences, Study Finds,” by Erin Brown for the LA Times.
  • This article comes from Kelly Gallagher's list of Articles of the Week.“
• “Bystander Psychology: Why Some Witnesses to Crime Do Nothing,” by Maia Szalavitz for Time.com.
  • We'll be connecting this case to our study of WWI and WWII in world history.
• “Secrets of the Most Successful College Students,” by Annie Murphy Paul for Time.com.
  • This is another from Kelly Gallagher's list — it was way too good to pass up!
• 3 articles on escalating tensions in Korea (pdf), by various authors for TheWeek.com.
  • In world history, we are beginning our study of 1950-2000, and, as part of that, we're reading Blaine Harden's Escape from Camp 14.
• “He has Millions and a New Job at Yahoo. Soon, he'll be 18,” by Brian Stelter for the New York Times.
• “Inside the World of Kim Jong Un,” for The Week.
  • This is another North Korea tie in to our reading of Escape from Camp 14. Thanks to Kelly Gallagher for providing this article of the week.
• “Should college grads do what they love?”, by Carmel Lobello for The Week.