Engaging Stories Choices

My students found it easier to respond to the question about stories they found engaging than they did about stories that should be leads. Some students still did not read at all, unfortunately; but I'm not giving up hope yet! Hopefully, the lively conversations we had as a class regarding some of the stories students found in the paper will encourage the non-readers to try harder to read the paper when asked to do so.

Engaging Stories:

"Give it a whirl"
Section E page 1
Life and Arts
by Pam LeBlanc--Fit City Column
This article caught and held students' attention because of the pictures of the crazy bikes. They had a big debate about whether or not the shoe-tire bike could actually work and whether or not you could flip all the way over on the scorpion bike while pedaling.

"Slave descendant's milestone: at 109 a vote for Obama"
Section B page 1
by Joshua Sanders
Each student that found this story said that what initially intrigued them was the picture of Amanda Jones on the front page ("because she looked so old" as my students put it).
Then, they were drawn to the article because of the headline about a 109-year-old woman. Some of them also thought it was fascinating that her father had been born into slavery, while she was able to cast a ballot for Obama. Interestingly, one student could not see why this was news at all. I would love to explore his reaction in more depth, but he was absent today.

"UT-Tech tilt looms large in Lubbock: Gameday heads to Plains for first time as UT hype builds"
section C page 1
by Suzanne Halliburton
Most of my male students immediately went to the sports section and found whatever they could read about the Longhorns. They said they were drawn to the BCS standings box and the picture of the UT players huddled together in an action shot.

"Man charged in death at club: Shooting bouncer is 2nd fatal incident as La Rumba Disco this year"
Section B page 1
by Laura Heinauer
Students were struck by the detail in the article that this was the 20th murder in Austin in 2008. Many of them live near this club and so the headline caught their attention.

As you can tell, many of my students seem hesitant to look past the first page of each section. I think next week I'm going to change my strategy somewhat.

Jessica Mitchell
Special Education English and Reading
Austin High School