1. filled with melancholy and despondency
2. directed downward
The word downcast has appeared in 45 New York Times articles in the last year, including on June 11 in “World Cup’s Most Pessimistic Country: England?” by David Leonhardt:
Every school day since 2009 we’ve asked students a question based on an article in the New York Times. Five years later, we’ve collected 500 of them that invite narrative and personal writing and pulled them all together in one place. Consider it a companion to the list of 200 argumentative writing prompts we posted earlier this year.
The categorized list below touches on everything from sports to travel, education, gender roles, video games, fashion, family, pop culture and more, and, like all our Student Opinion questions, each links to a related Times article and includes a series of follow-up questions. What’s more, all these questions are still open for comment by any student 13 or older.
So dive into this admittedly overwhelming list and pick the questions that most inspire you to tell an interesting story, describe a memorable event, observe the details in your world, imagine a possibility, or reflect on who you are and what you believe.
Firefighters on Nov. 12 rescued two window washers who became suspended 69 stories above the street while working at the newly completed 1 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
In response, @NYTarchives posted on Twitter about a few such rescues in the past:
Today’s heroic window cleaner rescue is the latest of many such stories. A rescue from 1942: http://t.co/sRSLiK7yGC pic.twitter.com/wXjoS8b2VH
— NYT Archives (@NYTArchives) November 12, 2014
Newspaper restaurant critics have what many consider a dream job, dining out as often as they like on someone else’s budget.
If you were a restaurant reviewer and could review any restaurant in the world, where would you go first? Why? If you were the critic for your local paper, what restaurant in your community would you choose?
Read the article and answer the news questions below.
In “Landing on a Comet, a Mission Aims to Unlock the Mysteries of Earth,” Kenneth Chang covers the European Space Agency’s ambitious mission.
WHAT is the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission?
WHERE and WHEN did its small spacecraft land?
WHY did it make history?
Below are six paragraphs from the Nov. 8 article “Ottawa Senators Are Welcoming an N.H.L. Crowd in Soccer’s Image.”
Can you choose the best word or phrase for each blank?
When you’re finished, you’ll find a link to the full article.
1. be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly
2. mistake one thing for another
The word confound has appeared in 45 New York Times articles in the last year, including on Oct. 28 in the movie review “Lots of Philosophy, No Inhibitions” by A. O. Scott:
Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.
Twenty-five years ago this week, East Germans danced atop the concrete wall that had sealed off their communist-ruled world from the West.
In this Text to Text, we compare that moment of initial euphoria in 1989 — the first night of freedom in Berlin, followed by the end of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe — with today’s Berlin, a transformed city in which many do not remember the oppressive divisions of the past. In follow-up activities, students can evaluate the choices made since 1989 and decide if the Cold War is really over.
As with all of our Text to Text lessons, we link below to many more resources you might choose to pair instead of the ones we’ve chosen. Even more reporting and multimedia can be found on the Berlin Wall Times Topics page.
Hollaback!, an anti-street harassment organization, recently released this video, taken with a hidden camera.
Had you seen the viral video “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman” we posted above? What is your reaction to it? Do you think your reaction depends on whether you are female or male? Why or why not?
Below are the first six paragraphs of the Nov. 11 video game review, “In This Future War, Soldiers Are Part Superhero.”
Can you choose the best word or phrase for each blank?
When you’re finished, you’ll find a link to the full article.
