Welcome to the Article of the Week (AoW) Archive. AoWs have been assigned to my students since 2015 and are a staple in my classroom. Below are links to Article of the Week assignments since 2017. Beginning the 2020-2021 school year, Article of the Weeks will be shared in Google Docs. Check out the current school year’s list here.
2021-2022
- “Their Inner Beasts: ‘Lord of the Flies’ Six Decades Later” by Lois Lowry for the New York Times: Critic’s Take
- “Banned Spotlight: To Kill a Mockingbird” by Betsy Gomez for BANNED BOOKS WEEK
- “What Tigers fans thought of Jack White’s atypical National Anthem instrumental (video)” by Edward Pevos for mLive
- “The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months” by Rutger Bregman for The Guardian
- “IHOP and Pepsi Made a Maple Syrup Cola – Will It Pair Well with Pancakes?” by Mike Pomranz for Food & Wine
- “TikTok is debating whether there are more wheels or doors in the world … for some reason” by Scottie Andrews for CNN
- “These tiny succulent plants are being poached by the thousands” by Meredith Lawrence for Vox: Down to Earth
- 2022 Super Bowl Commercials
- “Anna Kendrick leads Rocket Mortgage to another Super Bowl victory in USA TODAY’s Ad Meter” by Gabe Laques for USA TODAY
- “10 Best Super Bowl Ads of 2022” by Shannon Miller for ADWEEK
- “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Reveals 2022 Nominees” by Joe Lynch for Billboard
- “Internet sleuths think they figured out the Washington Football Team’s new name” by Jonathan Franklin for NPR
- “Black Friday reports show a drop in online sales, as in-store traffic rebounds from last year but fails to reach pre-pandemic levels” by Bethany Biron for Insider
- “Meet Bella, One of the Robot Servers Who’s Joined a Metro Detroit Restaurant Staff” by Monica Williams for Eater Detroit
- Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald
- “PETA calls for MLB to change term ‘bullpen’ to the ‘arm barn’ to be sensitive to cows” by Asha C. Gilbert for USA Today
- “Kellogg’s faces $5 million lawsuit for not having enough strawberries in its Pop-Tarts” by Bailey Schultz for USA Today
- RUBRIC REMOVED FROM ALL ABOVE AOWS. ALTERNATING WITH GRADES & FEEDBACK WITH THIS.
- “Biden becomes first president to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day with presidential proclamation” by the Associated Press for USA Today
- McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys
- “McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys to be plastic-free by 2025” by Thomas Barrabi for FOXBusiness
- “McDonald’s is giving its Happy Meal toys a makeover” by Danielle Wiener-Bronner for CNN Business
- “Jason Reynolds Named Inaugural Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week” by Betsy Gomez for Banned Books Week Coalition
- “The D’Amelio kids are not alright” by Rebecca Jennings for The Goods by Vox
- “Both Community and Garden Grow In ‘Seedfolks’” by NPR Staff for NPR’s Backseat Book Club
- “N.F.L. Will Allow Six Social Justice Messages on Players’ Helmets” by Michael Levenson for the New York Times
- “Nike closes offices for a week to give employees a mental health break” by Devon Haskins for KGW News
- “Fortnite is now allowing users to watch the MLK ‘I have a dream’ speech in the game. But why?” by Rishi Iyengar for CNN Business
- “Mattel says it ‘fell short’ on Asian representation in Olympics Barbie collection” by Bianca Brutus for NBC News
2020-2021
- “Why You Should Study Shakespeare” by Lori Gray for the UC Berkeley Extension: Voices Blog
- “Jackson Northwest girls basketball forfeits regional game due to spring break opt-outs” by Josh VanDyke for mLive
- “‘When Normal Life Stopped’: College Essays Reflect a Turbulent Year” by Anemona Hartocollis for the New York Times
- “TikTok will no longer let people opt out of personalized ads” by Kait Sanchez for The Verge
- “8-Year-Old Calls Out NPR for Lack of Dinosaur Stories” by Mary Louis Kelley for NPR: All Things Considered
- “Tokyo Olympics: Hugs, handshakes, and highfives banned under strict new rules for games” by Arata Yamamoto and Yuliya Talmazan for NBC News
- “Dear Basketball” by Kobe Bryant for the Players’ Tribune
- “Six top YA authors are collaborating on one of 2021’s most exciting books” by Seija Rankin for Entertainment Weekly
- “Sarah Fuller plans to stick with Vanderbilt football, addresses halftime pep talk” by Andrea Adelson for ESPN
- “Haslett teens open House of Soles, a store for sneakerheads” by Krystal Nurse for the Lansing State Journal
- “45 years later, remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck” by Kevin Byrne and Jesse Ferrell for AccuWeather
- “Alex Trebek: Jeopardy! game show host dies with cancer aged 80” from BBC News
- “TikTok Sensation: Meet the Idaho Potato Worker Who Sent Fleetwood Mac Sales Soaring” by Bobby Allyn for NPR
- “American classics amongst most ‘challenged’ books of the decade in US” by Alison Flood for the Guardian
- “McDonald’s Travis Scott Meal proves to be more popular than expected, leading to shortages at some restaurants” by Kelly Tyko for USAToday
- “Are Your Texts Passive-Aggressive? The Answer May Lie in Your Punctuation” by Danny Hensel for NPR
- “Why it matters that TikTok wants to reveal its algorithms” by Rebecca Heilweil for Vox: Recode
- “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater remakes renames the “Mute” grab to respect original skater’s legacy” by Imogen Donovan for VideoGamer
2019-2020
- “Stephen King Is Sorry You Feel Like You’re Stuck In A Stephen King Novel” by Terry Gross for NPR’s Fresh Air
- “I Can’t Believe I’m Going to Say This, but I Would Rather Be at School” by Henry Dodd for the New York Times
- “Michigan school districts, firms churn out masks with 3-D printers” by Jennifer Chambers for The Detroit News
- “Tekashi 6ix9ine will serve the rest of his sentence at home because of coronavirus risk” by Dakin Andone and Gregory Lemos for CNN
- “Doctors turn to Twitter and TikTok to share coronavirus news” by Kaya Yurieff for CNN Business
- “Oakland U to Beaumont: Use our campus if needed” by Kim Kozlowski for The Detroit News
- “How the NBA moved so quickly on coronavirus testing” by Ramona Shelburne for ESPN
- “Teen sports drama ‘All American’ is the most popular TV show on Netflix right now” by Travis Clark for Business Insider
- “The Dos and Don’ts of ‘Social Distancing’” by Kaitlyn Tiffany for the Atlantic
- “Garth Brooks Honored Football Player Barry Sanders and Many Confused It With a Bernie Sanders Endorsement” by Madeleine Carlisle for TIME
- “Is Black History Month still relevant? ‘Absolutely yes’ one historian says” by Keith Harriston for NBC News
- “The Kansas City Chiefs’ racist “Arrowhead Chop” has flown under the radar. Not anymore.” by Rhonda LeValdo for Vox
- “Katie Sowers Will Make History As The First Woman To Coach At The Super Bowl” by Elana Lyn Gross for ForbesWomen
- “PETA protests Starbucks over vegan milk upcharge” by Alexis Ware for WILX
- “Virginia gun-rights rally concludes peacefully despite earlier fears of extremist violence” by Veronica Stracqualursi and Karl de Vries for CNN
- “The Springs Ran Dry. Then This Australian Town Burned” by Thomas Fuller and Isabella Kwai for the New York Times
- “Random drug testing of student athletes approved by Michigan school district” by Kayla Miller for mLive
- “MRIs show screen time linked to lower brain development in preschoolers” by Sandee LaMotte for CNN
- “OK Boomer”
- “‘OK Boomer’ Marks the End of Friendly Generational Relations” by Taylor Lorenz for the New York Times
- “OK Boomer, OK Millennial, we need to talk” by Jill Filipovic and Paul Callan for CNN: Opinion
- Flint and Security Cameras
- “Cameras installed in Flint neighborhoods with high crime” by Jake May for mLive
- “Flint considering ordinance requiring security cameras at certain businesses” by Ann Pierret for ABC12
- “7 Ways to Balance Reading Multiple Books at Once” by Team Epic Reads for Epic Reads
- “Vontaze Burfict was the ‘no-brainer’ that backfired on Raiders” by Paul Gutierrez for ESPN
- “Restaurant adds sensory tool kits to help diners” by Ashley Graham for WLNS
- “Ms. Monopoly is supposed to empower women. Critics say it does the opposite” by Annie Nova for CNBC
- “New iPhone’s ‘trypophobic’ design disturbs people with fear of holes” by Amy Woodyatt for CNN
- “Trump is diverting $3.6 billion from the US military to fund his border wall” by Alex Ward for Vox
- “Antonio Brown in Oakland: Helmets, frost bite, fines and release” by Paul Gutirrez for ESPN
- “TSA bans Disney’s bomb-shaped Star Wars Coca-Cola bottles from all flights” by Chris Gates from Digital Trends
- “MDHHS investigating reports of respiratory illnesses linked to e-cigarettes and vaping” by Alyssa Burr from mLive
2018 – 2019
- “Teenagers Who Vandalized Black Schoolhouse Are Ordered to Read Books” by Christine Hauser for the New York Times
- “Why You Should Study Shakespeare” by Lori Gray for UC Berkeley Extension: Voices Blog
- “When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online” by Taylor Lorenz for the Atlantic
- “‘Epic fail’ won’t change Nike, but it could change college sports” by Marlene Towns for the Hill
- “The Rise of Dystopian Fiction: From Soviet Dissidents to ’70s Paranoia to Murakami” by Yvonne Shiau for Electric Lit on Medium
- “Airbus Beluga XL spreads its wings at long last” by Maureen O’Hare for CNN
- Student choice of topic about the school shooting at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.
- “Iconic Sweethearts won’t be available this Valentine’s Day” by Brandon Champion for mLive
- Super Bowl LIII
- “Microsoft’s Super Bowl ad is all about the Xbox Adaptive controller” by Tom Warren for The Verge
- Student choice of topic
- “Whitmer: Flint needs bottled water until pipes replaced” by Jonathan Oosting for the Detroit News.
- “Burger King mocks Trump over misspelled tweet: ‘We’re all out of “hamberders”‘” by Aris Folley for The Hill
- TIME Person of the Year
- “Who Will Be TIME’s Person of the Year for 2018? See the Shortlist” by Suyin Haynes for TIME
- “‘Time’ Person Of The Year For 2018: Journalists Fighting ‘War on Truth'” by Bill Chappell for NPR
- “All The Top Streaming Artists On Spotify In 2018 Are Men” by Courtney E. Smith for Refinery29
- Holiday Classics Sparking Controversies
- “‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ Charlie Brown and other holiday classics sparking controversy” by Madeline Farber for Fox News
- “Some people are upset about ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'” by Michael Brice-Saddler for The Washington Post
- “7 Ways to Balance Reading Multiple Books at Once” by Team Epic Reads for Epic Reads
- General Motors to Close Plants and Cut Jobs
- “G.M. to Idle Plants and Cut Thousands of Jobs as Sales Slow” by Neal E. Boudette and Ian Austen for The New York Times
- “GM to kill Chevrolet Volt, Cruze, Impala as Americans ditch passenger cars” by Nathan Bomey for USA Today
- Caravan News Coverage
- “Newt Gingrich: Stop the caravan and build the wall to keep deadly drugs out and save lives” by Newt Gingrich for Fox News
- “Bandaged feet, bleeding hands, violent coughs: The caravan takes its toll” by Michael E. Miller for The Washington Post
- “It’s ‘time change’ time. Did you remember to fall back?” by Doug Criss and Susannah Cullinane for CNN
- Halloween trick or treating age limits
- “Should there be an age-limit for Halloween trick-or-treating?” by Tanda Gmiter for mLive
- “These States Have Put Legal Age Limits on Trick or Treaters” by Chris Morris for Fortune
- “Researchers create new font designed to boost your memory” by Taylor Telford for The Washington Post
- UN Climate Change Panel
- “UN Panel Warns Drastic Action Needed to Stave Off Climate Change” by Timothy Puko for The Wall Street Journal
- “UN climate change panel says ‘unprecedented’ action needed to prevent temperature rise” by Tom DiChristopher for CNBC
- “Michigan high schools debate adding video games as new varsity sport” by Hugh Bernreuter for mLive
- Banned Books Week
- “Banning Books Silences Stories” by Millie Davis for NCTE
- “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2017” by ALA
- “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2012” by ALA
- “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007” by ALA
- Colin Kaepernick is Nike’s spokesman for 30th anniversary advertisement
- Why the social media boycott over Colin Kaepernick is a win for Nike by Alex Abad-Santos for Vox
- Nike reignited the Kaepernick controversy in naming him the face of “Just Do It” by Jane Coaston for Vox + Nike’s Colin Kaepernick gamble is already paying off by David Goldman for CNN
- “U.S. is denying passports to Americans along the border, throwing their citizenship into question” by Kevin Sieff for The Washington Post
- Detroit schools shutting off drinking water because of lead, copper by Lori Higgins for Detroit Free Press
- White Sox’s Michael Kopech: Offensive tweets ‘not who I am now’ by ESPN
2017 – 2018
- “Why Puerto Rico is Not a US State” by Christina Thornell for Vox + “Puerto Rico’s blackout, the largest in American history, explained” by Umair Irfan for Vox
- “Daylight saving time begins Sunday: 7 things you should know about ‘springing forward‘” by Brian Resnick for Vox
- “USS Lexington discovered by billionaire Paul Allen’s crew 76 years after WWII sinking” by Frank Miles for Fox News
- “How ‘Fortnite’ Defied Convention and Became a Hit” by Sarah E. Needleman for the Wall Street Journal
- “Why Is Russia at the Olympics” by Victor Mather for the New York Times + “What Ban? Patriotic Fervor Grips Russia’s Celebration House in South Korea” by Tariq Panja for the New York Times
- ** “The Early Bird Gets the Bad Grade” by Nancy Kalish for the New York Times + “Should School Stay early” by elenam112 for TeenInk + “High schools with late start times help teens but bus schedules and after-school can conflict” by the Associated Press via Fox News
- “Fitness tracking app Strava gives away location of secret US army bases” by Alex Hern for the Guardian + “Strava suggests military users ‘opt out’ of heatmap as row deepens” by Alex Hern for the Guardian
- “Former NFLers call for end to tackle football for kids” by Nadia Kounang for CNN
- “7 young adults went undercover as high-school students and found that life as a teenager today is nothing like they remember” by Mark Abadi for Business Insider
- “Wiring blamed in failed Pontiac Silverdome implusion” by JC Reindl and Allie Gross for the Detroit Free Press
**Adapted from C3WP
2016 – 2017
2015 – 2016
- “Deadpool Destroys Box Office Records with $135-million Haul” by Lindsey Bahr for the Associated Press
- “Is future bleak for Super Bowl?” by Amy Bass for CNN