New York Times articles

If the article is required, it will be handed out in class. If not required, please search for the title on The New York Times web site or follow the link below. Required articles often have special questions I've made for them. If there are no questions provided, I expect a 150-word minimum summary and a 250-minimum reaction to the article.

Here is a list of the articles we will do, which will be updated as we do them:

Week One: New York Times – Planets Galore questions amended!
Week Two: (not required) New York Times – Why Does College Cost So Much?
Week Three: (not required) New York Times – Absorbing the Pain
Week Four: Fool.com - When Rich People Do Stupid Things HW6 questions due 3/14
Week Five: (not required) New York Times - China's Winning Schools - 7 questions attached
Week Six: no article (testing week)
Week Seven: New York Times - One Hundred Years of Multitude - 5 question attached: HW8
Week Eight: Long weekend for tomb sweeping day: spend time with your family - no article.
Week Nine: New York Times (2 short articles) HW10: Lady Gaga Gets Garbled on Malaysian Radio and ArtScience Museum opens in Singapore. You need to do a 150-word summary and a 250-word reaction that refers to both articles. The number of words you dedicate to each article is up to you, but you must talk a bit about both articles in the summary and reaction. The total number of words (minimum) for this assignment is 400.
Weeks Ten and Week Eleven: You will be away on your trip to Malaysia and Singapore. There is a New York Times article for homework extra credit called Times of Upheaval for which you should provide the usual summary and reaction. I hope at some point you can put a reflection on your blog about your trip, perhaps with some photos. Be careful and enjoy!
Week Twelve: HW11 Article Due Friday 5/6 250 reaction only on 10 Natural Wonders to See Before They Disappear
Week Thirteen: optional extra credit article - When We Hated Mom - due 5/13 250 word reaction only, worth up to +5 points on homework
Week Seventeen (due Week Eighteen, 6/16): 250-word reaction only, HW16 for this class

D-Day Veterans Recall World War II Turning Point

My main reasons for offering articles are:
To give you more examples of "authentic text," which are things written in English that are meant for native speakers, not for students. This gives you a real feel for the language, and a goal to shoot for.
To introduce some non-fiction into the curriculum. We do a lot of fiction in literature class, but as a reading class it is doing you a disservice to not let you read at least some non-fiction, which will be readily apparent in your lives both at university and work. It can also be useful and quite interesting.
To support the themes that are in our books, and provide more information about them, perhaps for projects or further research.
To tie-in with other courses or subjects you are studying now, or other book themes you have done in the past, or current events that shape our world, or for insight into other culture through those events or articles.
Finally, just to have interesting discussions or writing topics. It's good at times to get away for the usual things we do.