Course Description
California Standards from different subject areas are applied in practical and “real world” situations in this course. In addition, many of the tools and basic skills in this course—such as reading, writing, critical thinking, and analyzing data—will help students outside of school by teaching them how to read directions and documents, compose legible and well-written documents, and critically analyze the world around them.
Credits: 5
Course Content
UNIT 1 — Language Arts
California Education Model Standards:
Listening and Speaking Strategies and Applications 1.1: Recognize strategies used by the media to inform, persuade, entertain, and transmit culture (e.g., advertisements; perpetuation of stereotypes; use of visual representations, special effects, language)
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.2: Understand the systemic problem-solving models that incorporate input, process, outcome, and feedback components.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.3: Use critical thinking skills to make informed decisions and solve problems.
Reading Comprehension 2.5: Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration.
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development 1.2: Distinguish between the denotative and connotative meanings of words and interpret the connotative power of words.
Writing Strategies: Organization and Focus 1.1: Demonstrate an understanding of the elements of discourse (e.g., purpose, speaker, audience, form) when completing narrative, expository, persuasive, or descriptive writing assignments
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.1: Demonstrate control of grammar, diction, and paragraph and sentence structure and an understanding of English usage.
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.2: Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct punctuation and capitalization.
Writing Applications 2.2: Write responses to literature
Unit Objectives
Upon completion of this Unit, students will be able to:
- define news and explain the history of newspapers.
- understand vocabulary important to news writing.
- identify the differences between paper and online newspapers.
- recognize the basic functions of news media and the various purposes of news stories.
- understand summarizing and problem solving as related to news stories.
- understand how punctuation can influence meaning and how to incorporate quotations into writing.
- understand synonyms, word connotations, and perspective in writing.
- understand and identify subjectivity, bias, rhetoric, and editorial language.
- understand how to incorporate critical thinking into reading and writing.
UNIT 2 — Social Studies
California Education Model Standards:
Chronological and Spatial Thinking 1: Students compare the present with the past, evaluating the consequences of past events and decisions and determining the lessons that were learned.
Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View 1: Students distinguish valid arguments from fallacious arguments in historical interpretations.
Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View 2: Students identify bias and prejudice in historical interpretations.
Listening and Speaking 1.1: Recognize strategies used by the media to inform, persuade, entertain, and transmit culture (e.g., advertisements; perpetuation of stereotypes; use of visual representations, special effects, language).
Listening and Speaking 1.2: Analyze the impact of the media on the democratic process (e.g., exerting influence on elections, creating images of leaders, shaping attitudes) at the local, state, and national levels.
Listening and Speaking 1.3: Interpret and evaluate the various ways in which events are presented and information is communicated by visual image makers (e.g., graphic artists, documentary filmmakers, illustrators, news photographers).
Principles of American Democracy 12.2.1: Discuss the meaning and importance of each of the rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and how each is secured.
Principles of American Democracy 12.8.1: Discuss the meaning and importance of a free and responsible press.
Principles of American Democracy 12.8.2: Describe the roles of broadcast, print, and electronic media, including the Internet, as means of communication in American politics.
Principles of American Democracy 12.8.3: Explain how public officials use the media to communicate with the citizenry and to shape public opinion.
Principles of Economics 12.1.1: Examine the causal relationship between scarcity and the need for choices.
Principles of Economics 12.1.3: Identify the difference between monetary and non monetary incentives and how changes in incentives cause changes in behavior.
Principles of Economics 12.1.4: Evaluate the role of private property as an incentive in conserving and improving scarce resources, including renewable and nonrenewable natural resources.
Principles of Economics 12.2.1: Understand the relationship of the concept of incentives to the law of supply and the relationship of the concept of incentives and substitutes to the law of demand.
Principles of Economics 12.2.2: Discuss the effects of changes in supply and/ or demand on the relative scarcity, price, and quantity of particular products.
Principles of Economics 12.2.5: Understand the process by which competition among buyers and sellers determines a market price.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.2: Understand the systemic problem-solving models that incorporate input, process, outcome, and feedback components.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.3: Use critical thinking skills to make informed decisions and solve problems.
Reading Comprehension 2.5: Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration.
U.S. History and Geography 11.5.2: Analyze the international and domestic events, interests, and philosophies that prompted attacks on civil liberties, including the Palmer Raids, Marcus Garvey’s “back-to-Africa” movement, the Ku Klux Klan, and immigration quotas and the responses of organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Anti-Defamation League to those attacks.
U.S. History and Geography 11.6.1: Describe the monetary issues of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that gave rise to the establishment of the Federal Reserve and the weaknesses in key sectors of the economy in the late 1920s.
U.S. History and Geography 11.6.2: Understand the explanations of the principal causes of the Great Depression and the steps taken by the Federal Reserve, Congress, and Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the economic crisis.
U.S. History and Geography 11.7.3: Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. home front, including the internment of Japanese Americans and the restrictions on German and Italian resident aliens; the response of the administration to Hitler's atrocities against Jews and other groups; the roles of women in military production; and the roles and growing political demands of African Americans.
U.S. History and Geography 11.8.7: Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post-World War II America: Describe the effects on society and the economy of technological developments since 1945, including the computer revolution, changes in communication, advances in medicine, and improvements in agricultural technology.
World History, Culture, and Geography 10.11: Students analyze the integration of countries into the world economy and the information, technological, and communications revolutions.
Writing Applications 2.2: Write responses to literature.
Writing Strategies 2.3: Write expository compositions, including analytical essays and research reports.
Writing Strategies 2.4: Write persuasive compositions.
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.1: Demonstrate control of grammar, diction, and paragraph and sentence structure and an understanding of English usage.
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.2: Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct punctuation and capitalization.
Unit Objectives
Upon completion of this Unit, students will be able to:
- understand how social studies relates to news.
- review the history of the media in the U.S.
- understand how various social issues and technological advances have influenced news media.
- identify the four basic types of news.
- identify the five themes of geography and how they relate to news.
- understand how the news is used to discuss various social issues.
- know basic vocabulary relating to economics and the economy.
- understand how the news covers economic events.
- identify basic marketing principles, incentives, and advertising.
UNIT 3 — Math and the News
California Education Model Standards:
Advanced Placement Probability and Statistics 10.0: Students know the definitions of the mean, median, and mode of distribution of data and can compute each of them in particular situations.
Advanced Placement Probability and Statistics 14.0: Students organize and describe distributions of data by using a number of different methods, including frequency tables, histograms, standard line graphs and bar graphs, stem-and-leaf displays, scatterplots, and box-and-whisker plots.
Advanced Placement Probability and Statistics 15.0: Students are familiar with the notions of a statistic of a distribution of values, of the sampling distribution of a statistic, and of the variability of a statistic.
Algebra I 10.0:Students add, subtract, multiply, and divide monomials and polynomials. Students solve multistep problems, including word problems, by using these techniques.
Algebra I 12.0: Students simplify fractions with polynomials in the numerator and denominator by factoring both and reducing them to the lowest terms.
Algebra I 13.0: Students add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational expressions and functions. Students solve both computationally and conceptually challenging problems by using these techniques.
Algebra I 15.0: Students apply algebraic techniques to solve rate problems, work problems, and percent mixture problems.
Algebra I 24.1: Students explain the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning and identify and provide examples of each.
Algebra I 24.2: Students identify the hypothesis and conclusion in logical deduction.
Algebra I 24.3: Students use counterexamples to show that an assertion is false and recognize that a single counterexample is sufficient to refute an assertion.
Algebra II 6.0: Students add, subtract, multiply, and divide complex numbers.
Banking and Related Services 2.1: Know basic banking concepts and terms.
Banking and Related Services 3.1: Understand the role of the Federal Reserve System in the banking industry.
Geometry 1:Students demonstrate understanding by identifying and giving examples of undefined terms, axioms, theorems, and inductive and deductive reasoning.
Geometry 3:Students construct and judge the validity of a logical argument and give counterexamples to disprove a statement.
Listening and Speaking Strategies and Applications 1.5: Distinguish between and use various forms of classical and contemporary logical arguments, including inductive and deductive reasoning and syllogisms and analogies.
Principles of Economics 12.1: Students understand common economic terms and concepts and economic reasoning.
Principles of Economics 12.1.3: Identify the difference between monetary and nonmonetary incentives and how changes in incentives cause changes in behavior.
Principles of Economics 12.2.9: Describe the functions of the financial markets.
Principles of Economics 12.6.4: Explain foreign exchange, the manner in which exchange rates are determined, and the effects of the dollar’s gaining (or losing) value relative to other currencies.
Probability and Statistics 3.0:Students demonstrate an understanding of the notion of discrete random variables by using them to solve for the probabilities of outcomes, such as the probability of the occurrence of five heads in 14 coin tosses.
Probability and Statistics 5.0: Students determine the mean and the standard deviation of a normally distributed random variable.
Probability and Statistics 6.0: Students know the definitions of the mean, median, and mode of a distribution of data and can compute each in particular situations.
Probability and Statistics 7.0: Students compute the variance and the standard deviation of a distribution of data.
Probability and Statistics 8.0:Students organize and describe distributions of data by using a number of different methods, including frequency tables, histograms, standard line and bar graphs, stem-and-leaf displays, scatterplots, and box-and-whisker plots.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.2: Understand the systemic problem-solving models that incorporate input, process, outcome, and feedback components.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.3: Use critical thinking skills to make informed decisions and solve problems.
Reading Comprehension 2.5: Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration.
Responsibility and Flexibility 7.5: Understand the importance of time management to fulfill responsibilities.
Writing Applications 2.2: Write responses to literature.
Writing Strategies 2.3: Write expository compositions, including analytical essays and research reports.
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.1: Demonstrate control of grammar, diction, and paragraph and sentence structure and an understanding of English usage.
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.2: Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct punctuation and capitalization.
Unit Objectives
Upon completion of this Unit, students will be able to:
- understand how math relates to news.
- understand time and deadlines.
- understand how to determine mean, mode, and median.
- understand fractions, decimals, and percentages.
- define probabilities and statistics and how they relate to news.
- define independent and dependent variables and statistics.
- define normal distributions, variances, and standard deviations, and how to calculate each.
- explain various graphs and charts and how they relate mathematical information.
- understand how logic and reasoning relate to news and how to look at issues logically.
- recognize the differences between inductive and deductive forms of reasoning.
- understand math and the Business section of newspapers.
- understand the Federal Reserve, the financial markets, and how math can be used in choosing investments.
- understand financing and incentives in choosing a job and loan.
UNIT 4 — Science and the News
California Education Model Standards:
Biology/Life Sciences: Ecology 6: Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing effects.
Earth Sciences 3: Plate tectonics operating over geologic time has changed the patterns of land, sea, and mountains on Earth's surface.
Earth Sciences 4: Energy enters the Earth system primarily as solar radiation and eventually escapes as heat.
Earth Sciences 6: Climate is the long-term average of a region's weather and depends on many factors.
Earth Sciences 8: Life has changed Earth’s atmosphere, and changes in the atmosphere affect conditions for life.
Earth Sciences 9: The geology of California underlies the state’s wealth of natural resources as well as its natural hazards.
Investigation and Experimentation 1: Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations.
Nutrition and Physical Activity 1.5: Describe the relationship between poor eating habits and chronic diseases such as heart disease, obesity, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and osteoporosis.
Nutrition and Physical Activity 1.8: Describe the prevalence, causes, and long-term consequences of unhealthy eating.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.2: Understand the systemic problem-solving models that incorporate input, process, outcome, and feedback components.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.3: Use critical thinking skills to make informed decisions and solve problems.
Reading Comprehension 2.5: Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration.
Responsibility and Flexibility 7.5: Understand the importance of time management to fulfill responsibilities.
Writing Applications 2.4: Write persuasive compositions.
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.1: Demonstrate control of grammar, diction, and paragraph and sentence structure and an understanding of English usage.
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.2: Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct punctuation and capitalization.
Unit Objectives
Upon completion of this Unit, students will be able to:
- define important weather-related vocabulary.
- understand how news and weather are related.
- understand the difference between climate and weather.
- explain the importance of healthy eating and exercise and about the resources newspapers provide to help readers live healthier lives.
- explain pandemics and how they may be covered in the news.
- understand how logic and reasoning relate to news and learn how to look at issues logically.
- recognize differences between inductive and deductive forms of reasoning.
- explain importance of conservation, ecology, and alternative energy sources.
- identify the resources and geology of California.
- explain the role of newspapers in promoting and discussing the above information.
UNIT 5 — The Arts and the News
California Education Model Standards:
Aesthetic Valuing 4.1: Articulate how personal beliefs, cultural traditions, and current social, economic, and political contexts influence the interpretation of the meaning or message in a work of art.
Aesthetic Valuing 4.2: Compare the ways in which the meaning of a specific work of art has been affected over time because of changes in interpretation and context.
Aesthetic Valuing 4.3: Analyze and articulate how society influences the interpretation and message of a work of art.
Architecture and Structural Engineering A1.2: Understand the development of architectural and structural systems in relation to aesthetics, efficiency, and safety.
Artistic Perception 1.1: Identify and use the principles of design to discuss, analyze, and write about visual aspects in the environment and in works of art, including their own.
Artistic Perception 1.2: Describe the principles of design as used in works of art, focusing on dominance and subordination.
Artistic Perception 1.4: Analyze and describe how the composition of a work of art is affected by the use of a particular principle of design.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.2: Understand the systemic problem-solving models that incorporate input, process, outcome, and feedback components.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking 5.3: Use critical thinking skills to make informed decisions and solve problems.
Reading Comprehension 2.5: Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration.
Writing Applications 2.1: Write biographical or autobiographical narratives or short stories.
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.1: Demonstrate control of grammar, diction, and paragraph and sentence structure and an understanding of English usage.
Written and Oral Language Conventions 1.2: Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct punctuation and capitalization.
Unit Objectives
Upon completion of this Unit, students will be able to:
- understand how the arts relate to news.
- define aesthetics.
- identify various elements of art found in newspapers.
- understand the principles and elements of design and learn about newspaper design.
- explain architecture and how it is represented in newspapers.
- identify principles of effective advertising, design, and newspaper advertisements.
- explain creative writing and how it relates to newspapers.
- recognize and use various literary devices and learn about various parts of speech and modifiers.
