Grade 8 ELA Activities

Newspapers and magazines are full of stories about people who have experienced dramatic changes in their lives. The characters we read about in these publications are not, however, the products of a writer’s imagination as fictional characters are; rather, characters in the news live in the same world we do. By following the stories of real-life characters in a newspaper article or a series of articles, we can learn about the individual traits that lead a character to make certain choices. Help your child read the newspaper carefully by helping him follow stories about a particular character.

	A daily newspaper or a magazine that is published at least once a month. You can read many major newspapers and magazines online. The Internet allows your child to read articles every day if you don’t have a daily newspaper subscription. (The Internet also allow you to see how the same story might be covered differently in different publications.)

	Pen or pencil

	Paper or a notebook in which your child can record insights, questions, and notes about the characters he is following.

	Optional: A folder in which to keep clipped articles (or articles printed from the Internet).

Have your child choose an article about a person who intrigues him, read the article carefully, and then share it with the family. Encourage your child to select a character that helps him learn more about his own interests, and then talk with him about what the story presents. How does the character change? What are the events that occurred before the character went through a change? How did those events contribute to a new outlook or purpose for the character? What kinds of choices did the character make? As you talk with your child about this, ask him why he admires the character or why he sees this person as noteworthy. Does your child believe that his understanding of this character will influence his own life?

Encourage your child to follow his chosen character and to keep watching the paper for more news about this person. He might also check other newspapers to see how different papers report the same story about this character. Are the different accounts the same? If not, how and why are they different?

In using newspapers or magazines to focus on a character, your child will learn about the experiences of others and see how characters can change over time. Encourage your child to think about the traits and choices of characters he has grown to admire. Show him that you are also involved in learning about newsworthy characters by reading, learning, and talking about characters you follow in the media. You might also point out that many characters in the news are not admirable. Ask your child to think about what these characters can teach us.

If you want to give your child a further challenge, have him choose a character he has researched in the news and write a description, a news report, a letter, or a biography with details that are true and details that he makes up. Ask him to come up with outrageous details in his writing. Once he does, have him quiz you: “Can you identify which facts are true and which are invented?” Get him to ask you hard questions about why certain pieces of information appear to be true and why some of the information seems inaccurate or made up.

 Grade 8 ELA Activities