Robin Van Lonkhuijsen/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEuropol’s chief, Rob Wainwright, second from left, said hundreds of soccer games might have been fixed. Go to related article »
COMMON CORE
Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.
What should soccer officials do about widespread match-fixing?
How might the discovery of the skeletal remains of Richard III inspire a reappraisal of the long-reviled king?
What is “professional peer pressure” and how might it work to fix voting flaws?
Below, this week’s edition of Common Core Practice, in which we collaborate with a classroom in New Jersey to test quick writing ideas inspired by Times content that address Common Core standards.
Common Core Practice Tasks | Week of Feb. 4-8, 2013
Argumentative Writing
Sports: “Police Call Match-Fixing Widespread in Soccer”
Common Core Standards: RI1, RI2, RI10, W1, W4, W10, RH1, WHST2
Soccer is known throughout much of the world as the beautiful game. But the sport’s ugliest side — the scourge of match-fixing — will not soon go away.
A recent European police intelligence agency report revealed widespread match-fixing in recent years, with 680 games globally deemed suspicious. Rob Wainwright, the director of the police intelligence agency called Europol, called this a “sad day for European football” with “match-fixing activity on a scale we have not seen before.” How should European officials punish match-fixers?
Your Task: Write a persuasive essay detailing your plan to deal with soccer players and officials convicted of match-fixing. Explain how your steps will put a stop to this rampant problem.
Before You Do the Task, You Might …
- Read the article to identify steps European soccer officials have already taken to punish match-fixers.
- Use a bulleted list to outline your multi-step plan, which might include some steps already taken by soccer officials.
- Use your bulleted list as the basis for your argumentative essay by creating an effective narrative around the points explaining your plan.
Extension Activities
—The Europol report about soccer is not the only recent example of match-fixing. In Japan, police have just uncovered text messages between sumo wrestlers that indicate a match they participated in was fixed. The scandal has outraged a Japanese public that considers sumo wrestling a venerable tradition.
Read the article, and create a short, one-act play between two wrestlers looking to fix a match. What kind of emotions do you think these wrestlers would show as they plotted their crime?
—What other examples of cheating, in any field, can you find in one day’s or week’s edition of The New York Times? What do these instances of cheating have in common? How and where do you see cheating in your world? Do you think it can ever be eradicated, in any field?
Narrative Writing
Europe: “Bones Under Parking Lot Belonged to Richard III”
Common Core Standards: RI1, RI10, W3, W4, W5, WHST4
Confirming what many historians and archaeologists had suspected, a team of experts at the University of Leicester this week concluded, on the basis of DNA and other evidence, that the skeletal remains found under a parking lot last fall were those of King Richard III.
The team’s leading geneticist, Turi King, said at a news conference that DNA samples from two modern-day descendants of Richard III’s family had provided a match with samples taken from the skeleton found in the priory ruins. Kevin Schurer, a historian and demographer, tracked down two living descendants of Anne of York, Richard III’s sister.
Your Task:What would it be like to be a modern-day descendant of Richard III? Write a narrative imagining the moment when one of the modern-day descendants was asked to provide their DNA to be compared against the skeleton unearthed in the parking lot.
Before You Do the Task, You Might ….
- Read the Times article from last fall, detailing the discovery of the skeleton.
- Brainstorm a list of emotions someone might feel if they discovered they were a descendant of a king.
- How would you react to news of this nature?
Extension Activities
For centuries Richard III was the most reviled of English monarchs, but many believe this discovery will inspire a reappraisal that could rehabilitate the medieval king and show him to be a man with a strong sympathy for the rights of the common man, who was deeply wronged by his vengeful Tudor successors.
Research Richard III via the Richard III Society and come to your own conclusions. Was he a villain or a good monarch? Write a blog post defending your answer with historical facts.
Informative Writing
Europe: “Lost Votes, Problem Ballots, Long Waits? Flaws Are Widespread, Stud...”
Common Core Standards: RI1, RI2, RI3, RI4, RI8, W2, W4, W7, RH4
In a major new study of voting issues in the U.S., the Pew Charitable Trusts ranked all 50 states based on more than 15 criteria, including wait times, lost votes and problems with absentee and provisional ballots, and the rankings confounds the conventional wisdom.
A main goal of publicizing the findings is to shame poor-performing states into doing better.
Your Task: “Peer pressure produces horrible things like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and tongue rings. But it also produces professional peer pressure,” says Professor Heather K. Gerken, a law professor at Yale and a Pew adviser, in this article.
Using examples from the article, explain what she means by this statement. What does the Pew Research Group hope to accomplish with this study?
Before You Do the Task, You Might …
- Underline examples of poor voting practices in the article.
- Highlight examples of steps states have taken to improve the voting experience for their residents.
Extension Activities
Using this interactive tool provided by the study, that allows rankings by individual criteria or clusters of them, investigate how your state fared in the study. Then, interview adults in your life about their experiences voting. Have they ever encountered any of the problems detailed in the article?
