By Sandra Cook, NC Newspapers in Education The anniversary of the March on Washington held August 28, 1963 offers parents and teachers a “teachable moment.” One example found on the web describes a NC parent, a father from Statesville, age 40, who took his three children to the recent March on Washington to make the point that every generation makes choices and decisions that shape the future. A “teachable moment” for his children. What can teachers do that’s consistent with Common Core State Standards? Scan newspapers (informational text) over the days and weeks before the date for an historic event. You are sure to find stories about the March on Washington in newspapers published over the last days and week, for example. Newspapers provide choices and offer background or history to support reporting about current events. You may use the stories that appear in print editions available in your classroom. You may also search the archives available through electronic or replica editions and/or webpages that newspapers publish. Some newspapers will provide instructional support for using current events in the classroom through educational (NIE) websites. You may also use historic newspapers to find out how stories were reported when they occurred. To find out how the March on Washington was reported, you’d look at historic newspapers published before, on and after August 28, 1963 and newspapers published on that date in years that followed. The N.C. Digital Collections include N.C. newspapers (http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/allcols/), and additional newspapers may be found through the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/). Newspapers from multiple North Carolina digital collections may be searched simultaneously through a federated search at http://ncecho.org. Straight-forward strategies, such as “Close Reading, Research and Reflection outlined below and in the attached pdf, take students beyond the few names and dates associated with any event and require them to view and read different texts (print and visual) that vary in difficulty. What they learn remains dependent on text. Students may interpret photos, cartoons and/or ads. They may read news stories, letters to the editor, columns and editorials and must consider how each purpose for writing affects their reading and future research. Historic events, reported in news, represent “teachable moments.” The Tampa Bay Times held a webinar on the Common Core and issues related to the March on Washington in which the instructors recommended the following sources: http://www.tolerance.org/ http://www.facinghistory.org/ http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/ http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/ Close Reading, Research and Reflection WHAT I ALREADY KNOW ASK students: