NovaNEWS for June 2010

Announcing a new edition of NovaNEWS . . . a student forum for current events

NovaNEWS is an international current events forum that gives students the opportunity to discuss a variety of issues on a supervised bulletin board. This collaborative learning environment enhances students' critical reading and thinking skills by encouraging them to analyze, discuss, and debate recent events in the world of politics, national and foreign affairs, economics, the environment, and even entertainment. It also improves the students' ability to express themselves through the written word by prompting them to write responses to a variety of thought-provoking questions.

Each of the articles selected for NovaNEWS is followed by a series of questions designed to promote critical thinking about challenging issues of the day.

This month's edition is titled "The BP Oil Spill." It includes articles that discuss the recent events surrounding the oil spill disaster off the Louisiana coast, including President Obama's new offshore drilling rules. These articles present various responses to the oil spill. Students explore and explain these perspectives, and then draw their own conclusions.

The article "Obama Unveils Offshore Drilling Rules" reports details of the implementation of President Obama's new offshore drilling regulations. Students identify the rules and examine varying responses by oil industry officials and environmentalists.

The article "BP Head Hits Back at Critics of Oil Spill Response" discusses BP's responses to criticisms surrounding the catastrophe. Students consider the argument presented in the article by BP's chairman.

And finally, the article "Washington a Lonely Place for Oil Group" describes how BP's public image changed after the oil spill, specifically as depicted by the Obama administration. Students examine the administration's actions to conduct "damage control," as well as BP's responses to these actions.

NovaNEWS resides as a lesson in every social studies alignment, as well as in the Additional Areas folder under Student Forums in the All Curricula location. NovaNEWS can be assigned alone or as part of a course. As with NovaKEYS, you might want to make NovaNEWS an initial assignment for your students. Once NovaNEWS is assigned, it is always available to students.