Brett Lawrie, 2011. Image: Keith Allison

SPORTS COLUMN

Earlier this week, we ran a TKN article about a soccer player whose emotions got away from him and helped cost his team the game (Poor Sportsmanship Leaves Door Open For Man City Soccer Victory).

On Tuesday, Brett Lawrie — a baseball player for the Toronto Blue Jays — also lost control of his emotions.

Lawrie was batting, and the umpire made a couple of calls that Lawrie disagreed with.

In Major League Baseball (MLB), there are four umpires including the home-plate umpire. He is the one who decides if a pitch was a “ball” or a “strike.”  The pitcher pitches and when the ball crosses home plate the umpire makes a quick decision as to whether it was a good pitch (called a strike) or a bad pitch (called a ball).

If a batter gets three strikes against him he strikes out. If a batter gets four balls against him he gets a ‘walk’ and is allowed to go to first base.

Lawrie has a reputation for being a fiery guy. He felt that the home-plate umpire robbed him – twice.  The first time, the count was 3-1 (Lawrie had three balls and one strike against him). The next pitch that came in was wide of the strike zone. Lawrie thought the umpire would definitely call it a ‘ball.’ In fact, he was already on his way to first base when he heard the umpire yell “strike!”. Understandably frustrated, Lawrie slowly made his way back to the batter’s box for the next pitch.

(An interesting note here is that a batter should never ‘assume’ a call and take off the way Lawrie did — it’s poor baseball etiquette (against the game’s unwritten rules) because it’s viewed as showing up the umpire. Umpires do not like that.)

On the next pitch, which was high and outside of the strike zone, Lawrie felt really robbed when he heard the strike call. The result was Lawrie being called out on strikes–he had struck out.

Lawrie couldn’t believe what had happened. He began yelling at the umpire. The umpire than ejected him from the game.

Lawrie took off his helmet and threw it down onto the ground. It bounced up and hit the umpire, Bill Miller. For that action MLB handed Lawrie a four-game suspension.

Lawrie is appealing the suspension. Until the suspension is reviewed he is still able to play.

There’s no question that Lawrie had a reason to get upset. He deserves a suspension for exploding on the baseball field. But his reaction was understandable; both pitches were very questionable strike calls.

As a young player, though, and one with tremendous potential, Lawrie is beginning to learn how emotions can influence performance at the major-league level.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
As explained in the article, the call made by the umpire was questionable. If umpires could be replaced with technology that is accurate, should Major League Baseball consider this as an alternative? Why or why not?

Reading Prompt: Variety of Texts
Today’s story is a column. A column, unlike a newspaper article, contains a clear, personal point of view. What evidence in today’s story tells you that it is a column?

Primary
Read a variety of literary texts, graphic texts and informational texts (OME, Reading: 1.1).

Junior
Read a variety of texts from diverse cultures, including literary texs, graphic texts, and informational texts (OME, Reading: 1.1).

Intermediate
Read a wide variety of increasingly complex or difficult texts from diverse cultures, including literary texts, graphic texts, and informational texts (OME, Reading: 1.1).

Grammar Feature: Compound Words
Compound words combine two words into one. Some examples of compound words are doghouse, basketball, shoebox.

Read through the article and identify all of the compound words.

Protesters in Quebec in April, 2012. Image: Jeangagnon

University students in Quebec have been protesting.

They have been told that the government is going to raise their tuition fees. In this case, “tuition fees” are the fees people pay to attend university.

Traditionally, Quebec has some of the lowest tuition fees in Canada. Only students in two provinces: Newfound and Labrador and Manitoba, pay less to attend university.

However, the increase will be the largest in the province’s history. The government intends to raise tuition by $1,625 by 2017. Students will pay $325 more each year for the next five years.

Student groups say the increase doesn’t go towards improving the quality of the teaching, and the hikes will force some students who can’t pay the extra money to drop out of school or take a second job. They worry that students who come from low-income families won’t be able to afford higher education.

As a result, students have been demonstrating on campuses in Quebec. The protests started about 14 weeks ago.

This week, some protests became violent.

In Sainte-Therese, Que. a group of students, teachers and parents was protesting at College Lionel-Groulx. Protesters were told to leave, but when they didn’t, police were called in. They used tear gas to get the crowd to disperse.

There have been other protests in the province. In Montreal, the Jacques Cartier bridge was blocked; and about 200 protesters tried to break in to a meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Montreal. And on Wednesday (yesterday), more than 100 protesters shut down classes at the University of Quebec in Montreal by taking over the school’s downtown campus.

Many of the protesters wear a red square as a symbol of their protests.

Some other students, who are against the protests and who aren’t as worried about the tuition increases, are wearing green squares in opposition to the protesters.

About  a third of university and college students are boycotting their classes in protest of the tuition increases.

Some people say the protests are becoming symbolic, and are about more than just the tuition fees; they say the protests are against “authority” in general and have to do with general unrest.

UPDATE: This is an ongoing story, as more protests occur across Quebec. Last night (Wednesday around midnight), for instance, 122 protesters were arrested as the Montreal protest became violent. With an adult, follow this breaking story in the news.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
The last paragraph in this article says, “Some people say the protests are becoming symbolic, and are about more than just the tuition fees; they say the protests are against “authority” in general and have to do with general unrest.”

What do you think this sentence means?
Look through TKN’s archives and search for articles about the Occupy protests. Review one or two of these articles and think about the sentence above in relation to these two protests.

Reading Prompt: Reading Unfamiliar Words
This story contains some words that you may find in stories about protests. How do you read the following words, and what do they mean?
1. boycott
2. protest
3. symbol
4. authority
5. opposition
6. demonstrating
7. unrest

Junior and Intermediate
Predict the meaning of and rapidly solve unfamiliar words using different types of cues, including: semantic (meaning), syntactic (language structure) and graphophonic (phonological and graphic) (OME, Reading: 3.2).

Grammar Feature: Adjectives
What adjectives would you use to describe the protests and protesters? Think of at least 10.

Two of the biggest soccer teams in the PL are two of the bitterest rivals: Manchester City, known as “Man City” and Manchester United, known as “Man United.”

Last weekend, one of the most exciting games in the PL took place… and it came down to the final moments. It was a game that would decide who took home the cup.

If Man City won its game against the Queens Park Rangers, Man City would end up with more points than its rival, Man United. In that case, Man City would win its first PL championship in 44 years.

However, a win wouldn’t come easy.

At the end of “regulation play,” Man City was losing 2-1 to the Rangers.

If the game had stopped after regulation play, Man City would have lost. But, thanks in part to some unsportsmanlike conduct by one of the Rangers players, extra time was added on to the game; it was enough time for Man City to pull off a dramatic win.

Here’s what happened. After 90 minutes of “regulation time,” soccer games usually go into “stoppage time.” Stoppage time is time that’s added to a soccer game, to make up for lost time. Lost time is time that has been wasted during the game for things like substitutions, goal celebrations, injuries, fan horseplay or players fighting. The referees decide if, and how much, stoppage time will be added to a game.

In this case, Joey Barton (who used to play for Man City but now plays for the Rangers), elbowed an opponent and was thrown out of the game. He wasn’t happy about that, and took longer than normal to leave the field.

Because of that, the referees added five minutes to the game.

Thanks to Barton, Man City not only ended up playing a Rangers team with only 10 players instead of the usual 11, but they had five extra minutes to try to pull off a win.

And Man City made the most of those five minutes. Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero wrote themselves into club history with one goal each, to cement an exhilarating 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Rangers.

In one of the most exciting finishes ever, Man City snatched its first title in 44 years.

The soccer-mad city of Manchester can boast its greatness by having two excellent soccer teams. On Sunday, though, it was the Man City players and fans who were the loudest and proudest of all.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
Joey Barton is the captain of the Queens Park Rangers, and its highest paid player. He makes more than $120,000… not a year, a week. Because he elbowed someone in Sunday’s game, Barton will have to sit out at least the next 10 games the Rangers play. It’s not the first time this soccer player’s poor behaviour has been an issue, on and off the field. With this in mind, do you think this punishment was reasonable?

Do you think poor behaviour is accepted in many sports? Why or why not?

Reading Prompt: Reading Fluently
One key skill in reading is the ability to read fluently. This means that we can read with the appropriate expression, speed and phrasing.

Practice reading this article aloud to a classmate or friend. Make sure to add drama and excitement in your voice when telling this story.

Primary
Read appropriate texts at a sufficient rate and with sufficient expression to convey the sense of the text readily to the reader and an audience (OME, Reading: 3.3).

Junior
Read appropriate texts with expression and confidence, adjusting reading strategies and reading rate to match the form and purpose (OME, Reading: 3.3).

Intermediate
Read appropriate texts with expression and confidence, adjusting reading strategies and reading rate to match the form and purpose (OME, Reading: 3.3).

Grammar Feature: British vs. North American words
Many of the words and terms in this article were originally British, but have been changed to North American vocabulary. For example, the word “soccer” is used instead of “football”.

Try to fill in the chart, guessing what each British word means.

Queen Elizabeth II at a visit to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, 2007. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Queen Elizabeth II is the queen of 54 Commonwealth countries. 16 of these countries are called Commonwealth Realm countries and Canada is one of them.

When Elizabeth steps down or dies, her son, Prince Charles will become King. If he steps down or dies, his first-born son, Prince William will become King–even though Princess Anne is the Queen’s only daughter and is next in age to Prince Charles.

In other words, because she is female, the crown wouldn’t go to Princess Anne.

Since the beginning of the British monarchy, men have been chosen first to become the next ruler.

A woman can only be chosen when there are no men in the monarch’s direct line, (like a brother or a brother’s sons).

That is how Elizabeth became queen. Her father, King George VI, had two daughters and no sons.

Last October, Commonwealth countries agreed that this centuries-old tradition was old-fashioned and should change.

Last week, at the opening of British Parliament in London, the Queen proposed a law to allow women to become Queen if that woman is next in line.

The Queen proposed other changes, as well.

She proposed that monarchs in Britain should be able to marry Roman Catholics.

This has been forbidden since the time of Henry VIII, who wanted to get a divorce (which was not allowed by the Catholic Church).

Henry VIII split the church into two parts — the Church of England (Anglican) and the Roman Catholic church. Since then no King or Queen of England has been allowed to marry a Catholic.

Stephen Harper has said Canada’s government approves of these changes but doesn’t consider them a priority for Canada.

He said he doesn’t believe there should be much time in Parliament spent debating them when there are other issues that are more important.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
What is your opinion on this issue? Do you think that girls and women should have the right to the crown if they are the first born? Why or why not?

Do agree with Stephen Harper? Is this issue less important than others? If so, which issues would be more important and why?

Reading Prompt: Comprehension Strategies
Read the title of the article and make predictions about what the text might be about.

How do your predictions change when you notice the picture of Queen Elizabeth II? Now what do you think the article might be about?

When you finished reading the article, discuss whether your initial prediction was correct or if it needed to be changed.

Junior
Identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand texts (OME, Reading: 1.3).

Intermediate
Identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand increasingly complex texts (OME, Reading: 1.3).

Grammar Feature: Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word that joins two words or phrases (groups of words) together. Some conjunctions include: and, but, or, nor, for, and yet.

Read the article and identify which sentences use conjunctions. In each sentence, identify which words/phrases are joined together by a conjunction.

Computer. Image: Everaldo Coelho and YellowIcon

Lots of companies use email to communicate with their employees.

Most companies create email “distribution lists.” A distribution list is a group email, that lets a company send a message to many employees at once, with just one email.

Aviva is an insurance company in the United Kingdom.

Recently, someone in the company sent an email to one of Aviva’s employees who was being let go, or fired. The email gave instructions to the employee about what they needed to do, now that he’d been fired.

However, the email was accidentally sent to everyone in the company.

Aviva has 1,300 employees around the world.

That means that 1,300 people who work at Aviva were all sent an email that implied they had been fired.

Everyone.

But it wasn’t true.

Human resources (or HR, for short) is the department in a company that hires and fires employees.

Aviva’s human resources department sent out the email.

When employees are fired, they are usually told in person and then sent a follow-up email with more detailed information. In this case, the HR department should have only sent that follow-up email to one person.

Most people who received the emails knew it was a clerical error—in other words, a mistake. Most people didn’t think they had actually been fired.

Aviva’s HR department sent another email about half an hour later letting everyone know of the error, and apologizing for the mistake.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
Mistakes easily happen over email. This article explains how Aviva accidentally emailed the entire company rather than one person about their job ending. This small mistake probably caused a lot of people stress and worry.

When people use the Internet for work, school or their personal lives, they have to be careful about the information they share and how they share it. What information do you think should be shared over email and what should be shared in person or over the phone?

What rules do you follow at school and at home to make sure you are safe when you are using the Internet?

Reading Prompt: Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts
The really interesting part of this story lies in what has not been said. For instance, the article did not describe how people felt when they received an email out of the blue that they had just been fired. What did they do? Did they tell their work colleagues—and then find out they had also received the email? Were some of them upset? Did they get frightened or angry? Or did some people laugh?

Primary
Make inferences about texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts as evidence (OME, Reading: 1.5).

Junior
Use stated and implied ideas in texts to make inferences and construct meaning (OME, Reading: 1.5).

Intermediate
Develop and explain interpretations of increasingly complex or difficult texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts to support their interpretations (OME, Reading: 1.5).

Grammar Feature: Sentence lengths
When we write, we compose sentences of different lengths. Sometimes our sentences contain a lot of information and other times they are short and straight-forward.

Read this article again and pay attention to how the sentences vary in length. Why do you think the journalist chose to write both short and long sentences? How do the length of the sentences change how you read and understand the information in the article?

Smartphones, like these, were intentionally lost as part of an experiment to find out what people would do when they found them. Image: FinnsDeal

Some people at a software company wanted to find out what happens when people find a cell phone.

Do they keep it, or return it? What do they do with it?

They found out that half of the people people who find a cell phone returned it. However, in nearly every case, the “finder” first looked through the information on the phone, checking out the owner’s photos, emails and apps.

In his experiment, Scott Wright, who works for Security Perspectives Inc., left 50 cell phones in various places in five cities in Canada and the United States. He left them out so they would look like they had been accidentally lost.

The five cities were Los Angeles, New York, Ottawa, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Wright left phones in restaurants, elevators, phone booths, on newspaper boxes and in public washrooms.

Twenty-five of the people who found a phone tried to return it to its owner.

Ninety-six per cent—48 people—snooped through the phone.

Each phone had software in it so that Wright could tell what the finders were doing with it. Wright watched remotely as people looked in files that had names like banking, email and “private pix.” In other words, the names of the files clearly indicated that they contained private information that should be off-limits to strangers. But people snooped anyway. In fact, many people tried more than once to get into the files.

More phones were returned in Ottawa than in any other city: seven out of 10. That compares with New York City, where just three phones were returned.

Some of the “finders” used the phone for an extended period of time, checking out personal information and making calls. One person in Ottawa spent several days checking out the phone’s banking information and photos.

Wright said he was surprised and disappointed that so many people snooped into the phones’ private information.

Information in this article was abridged from an article in The Globe and Mail and Canadian Press, by Michael Oliveira. You can read that article here.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
Are you surprised that so many people snooped into the phones they found? Why?

Reading Prompt: Extending Understanding
What thoughts go through your mind when you find something that doesn’t belong to you? How do you decide what to do?

Primary
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own
knowledge and experience, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).

Junior
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own
knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world
around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).

Intermediate
Extend understanding of texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and
insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them(OME, Reading: 1.6).

Grammar Feature: Hyphens
Hyphens are a punctuation mark that are used in many different ways. One situation in which writers use hyphens is when writing two-part numbers in words (21-99). Today’s story includes two examples,

“Twenty-five of the people who found a phone tried to return it to its owner.”

“Ninety-six per cent—48 people—snooped through the phone.”

Write the following numbers in words and remember to use hyphens when appropriate.

13 ____________________                  56 ____________________
909 ___________________                 102 ___________________
43 ____________________                  88 ____________________                  

France and Greece both recently held important elections. Image: El Spartan/El Greco

Two countries in Europe had important elections last weekend – France and Greece. Both elections went against the conservative parties in power.

Experts are saying this could be a sign that more countries in Europe will protest against spending cuts by voting out current governments.

In France a new party and a new president were elected.

Francois Hollande is the head of the Socialist Party, and he was elected president, over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. (Incumbent means “currently in power.”)

The Socialists, or “leftist” party has not been in power for more than 20 years. Hollande said he believes the way to succeed is to create jobs and trade with other countries.

Greece did not get a new government, but the people did take votes away from the conservative parties.

Last year those parties agreed to borrow money to pay Greece’s debts. But in exchange, they promised to start up an austerity program—a very harsh, cost-cutting plan that slashes the country’s spending. (Usually what gets cut are health and welfare benefits and government jobs.)

People in Greece have been protesting in the streets against the cuts.

In a northern state of Germany, the conservative party was also recently kicked out because its plan for cutting expenses was rejected by the people.

In the last year, at least eight of 17 Euro-zone leaders have been forced out of office because the people were unhappy with their proposed austerity plans.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
Many countries in the European Union are scrambling to find ways out of their economic problems. Is this simply their problem or could European problems affect you?

Reading Prompt: Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts
Today’s article states,

Experts are saying (the recent election results in Greece and France) could be a sign that more countries in Europe will protest against spending cuts by voting out current governments.”

Given the difficulties in Europe, why might experts make this prediction?

Intermediate
Develop and explain interpretations of increasingly complex or difficult texts
using stated and implied ideas from the texts to support their  interpretations (OME, Reading: 1.5).

Grammar Feature: Parenthesis (Full Sentence)
Today’s article contains two sentences that are written entirely in parentheses. (That’s not very common.) When an entire sentence is inside parentheses, the period is placed inside the right parenthesis. (It looks like this.) When only a part of the sentence is in parentheses, the period is placed outside the right parenthesis (like this).

In the following paragraph insert 4 sets of parentheses. Use 2 around entire sentences and 2 as part of a sentence.

Deepak and Kyle have the funniest habit. Everyone knows about it. They both like to scratch their backs with rulers. I’ve even seen them do it with metre sticks. They usually take the rulers from the bin the black ones. And once they start scratching they just can’t stop that is until the figure out that everyone is watching them.

Image: Ian Muttoo

Canada is the fifth happiest country in the world.

That’s according to a World Happiness Report, released earlier this month by the United Nations.

And out of everyone in Canada, people in Quebec are the happiest of all.

Just four countries, all from Europe, beat out Canada. In order, they are Denmark (happiest of all), then Finland, Norway and the Netherlands.

The United Nations held a three-day conference on happiness. The goal of the conference was to get governments to consider their citizens’ happiness when they make new laws and policies.

“Happiness” was judged on five criteria: family, good health, income, sense of freedom and lack of corruption.

In other words, if most people in a country felt close to their family, had good healthcare, made enough money to live well, felt free to do and say what they liked (within reason) without having to worry that they would be sent to jail for it, and had a fair government and police force, they scored well on the Happiness Report.

The report was co-edited by John Helliwell, from the University of British Columbia and Jeffrey Sachs, from Columbia University in the U.S.

They found that in general, people around the world have become “a little happier” over the last 30 years.

The report said that the five least happy countries are Burundi, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Benin and Togo. Togo was found to be the least happy country in the world, at least for now.

Richer countries tend to be happier than very poor countries, according to the report. However, the quality of human relationships is a very important factor in happiness, the report said.

The United States was cited as the 11th happiest country in the world and the United Kingdom took the 18th spot.

There have been other “happiness reports” written by other people and using different criteria to measure happiness. In those reports, countries may place differently. For instance, last year in a happiness poll by Leger Marketing, Canada came in 23rd out of 58 countries.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt

Do you agree with the criteria the report-writers used to judge the happiest countries (family, health, money, freedom, fairness)? What else do you think they should have included?

Of the criteria that were used, which do you think is the most important one? Explain.

Reading Prompt: Metacognition
Record and rank the three most important facts in today’s article? “How do you figure out what information is important to remember? (OME, Reading: 4.1)

Primary
Identify, initially with some support and direction, what strategies they found
most helpful before, during, and after reading and how they can use these and
other strategies to improve as readers (OME, Reading: 4.1).

Junior
Identify the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading and explain, in conversation with the teacher and/or peers or in a reader’s notebook, how they can use these and other strategies to improve as readers (OME, Reading: 4.1).

Intermediate
Identify a range of strategies they found helpful before, during, and after reading and explain, in conversation with the teacher and/or peers or in a reader’s notebook, how they can use these and other strategies to improve as readers(OME, Reading: 4.1).

Grammar Feature: Irregular Plurals
To make a noun plural we often just add the letter s. When the word ends with an s, ch, sh, x, or z, we add the letters es. But sometimes, we do neither. These are irregular. Their endings are unpredictable so you using them when you speak is good practice.

Turn the following nouns into plurals. Then use a dictionary to find out if you were right.

ox __________________                                octopus _______________
datum _______________                                cactus ________________
half _________________                                deer __________________

Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, during a royal visit at Dundurn Castle, 2009. Image: Ibagli

Last year around this time, a royal couple visited Canada.

Prince William (second in line to the throne of England) had just gotten married to Catherine Middleton and the two spent much of their honeymoon touring Canada.

Next month Canada will get a visit from another royal couple—this time, it’s the father of the groom. Prince Charles is William’s father. Charles is first in line to the throne. That means that when his mother—Queen Elizabeth—steps down, Charles will become king. (There is also a chance that the throne could go directly to William, but that hasn’t been decided yet.)

Charles will come to Canada with his second wife, Camilla.

Charles’ first wife was one of the most well-known and popular celebrities in the world, Princess Diana. (Princess Di, as she was known, was killed in a car crash in 1997. When that happened, millions of people around the world mourned.)

Charles and Camilla will tour New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan from May 20 to 23.

The tour is part of “diamond jubilee” celebrations for Queen Elizabeth. The diamond jubilee refers to a celebration taking place to recognize that Queen Elizabeth has reigned as queen of Canada (and other countries) for 60 years.

The last time a diamond jubilee was celebrated was for Queen Victoria in 1897.

Elizabeth is the queen of 16 “commonwealth countries,” including England, Canada, Australia and Jamaica.

Because she lives in England, she is represented in Canada by our Governor-General, David Johnston.

Royal visits are very expensive, partly because they need a lot of security to protect the royals. It typically costs more than $1-million to host a royal visitor. In Canada, the visits are paid for by the country’s Department of Canadian Heritage.

Some Canadian politicians are not pleased that Canada is spending so much money to host a royal visit, especially when government jobs are being cut (in other words people who work for the government are losing their jobs in order to help the government save money.)

Charles and Camilla will land in Fredericton, NB on May 20. They will watch a Victoria Day fireworks display in Toronto, visit with First Nations leaders and award some diamond jubilee medals to “deserving Canadians.”

The Canadian visit is one of hundreds of things that will be happening throughout the United Kingdom and the commonwealth nations to celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee.

Note: This article was updated at 10 p.m. on May 7 to correct a typo on the date of the royals’ visit.

Related links
TKN’s article on William and Kate’s marriage last year. (This article also has a picture of Princess Diana.)

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
The article explains, “Some Canadian politicians are not pleased that Canada is spending so much money to host a royal visit, especially when government jobs are being cut (in other words people who work for the government are losing their jobs in order to help the government save money.)”

What is your opinion on this issue? Do you think money should be spent on the royal visit? Do you think the money spent on the royal visit connects to the government jobs being cut? Do you think government jobs should be saved and the royal visit should be cancelled or shortened?

Reading Prompt: Read a variety of texts
Traditionally, diamonds are used to signify a 60-year anniversary, which is why this year is called the “diamond jubilee” year for Queen Elizabeth.

Use the Internet to find out what object represents the following anniversaries:
1. 1 year
2. 5 years
3. 10 years
4. 15 years
5. 25 years
6. 50 years

Junior
Read a variety of texts from diverse cultures, including literary texts, graphic texts and informational texts (OME, Reading: 1.1).

Intermediate
Read a wide variety of increasingly complex or difficult texts from diverse cultures, including literary texts, graphic texts and informational texts (OME, Reading: 1.1).

Grammar Feature: Plural nouns
When we write a plural noun, we often add -s or -es to the end of the word. Sometimes, this rule doesn’t apply. For example, the plural of governor-general is governors-general. Also, the plural of mother-in-law but mothers-in-law.

Can you think of any other words that don’t follow the standard rule for making a noun plural?

Rob Ford, seen here in happier times, seems to be at the centre of one odd moment after another. Image: MTLSkyline

Toronto’s mayor is involved in another bizarre situation. This time, mayor Rob Ford, had a confrontation with a reporter from the Toronto Star newspaper.

(You may recall a past TeachingKidsNews article when Mayor Ford was confronted by a CBC comedian on his property, and called the police. Here is a link to that article.)

In this case, the Star found out that Ford intends to buy some property next to his home. Ironically, Ford wants to buy the property in order to erect a security fence.

Star reporter Daniel Dale went to Ford’s home around 7:45 p.m. to look at the property and take some pictures of it.

One of Ford’s neighbours called the mayor and told him someone was snooping around his house.

Ford got very angry. He drove home and confronted the reporter.

Now here’s where it gets somewhat confusing for anyone who wasn’t there at the time.

Ford says the reporter was standing on a concrete block, leaning over his fence and taking pictures of his backyard.

The reporter says he didn’t even see any concrete blocks, and was only looking at the property Ford intends to buy. He said he got confused and was actually standing on the wrong piece of property—but he says that at no time was he on Ford’s own private property.

He also says the mayor stormed up to him, put up a fist and threatened him, telling the reporter to drop his cell phone and his recorder, which Dale says he did.

Dale said he shouted for help over and over, and asked the mayor not to punch him.

Dale says Ford blocked his path when he tried to escape.

Dale and Ford both say the mayor never touched the reporter.

Another interesting piece to the story is that the battery on the reporter’s cell phone was dead when he dropped it on the ground and left. However, the Star says the phone was charged up and then used 45 minutes later. The police say they did not use the phone. The police say the battery was partly charged when they received it later from Ford.

After the incident, the mayor asked the Star to remove Dale from covering City Hall. (The newspaper says they won’t do that.)

The mayor said that in the future he will not talk to any reporters—not just the Star—if Dale is part of the group of reporters. In other words, no other news agencies would be able to get any information from the mayor if Dale is with them.

Toronto’s mayor and the Toronto Star haven’t gotten along for a long time, particularly since the Star wrote some negative things about the mayor. A representative from the Star spoke with the CBC and said that’s nothing new; reporters often have a difficult relationship with the people they cover and the Star has had troubles with other politicians in the past.

The mayor has received death threats in the past and says his priority is protecting his family, which was why he was so angry.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
Freedom of the press is written into Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In a free and democratic society, a free press is very important. Consider this in relation to mayor Ford’s threat to not speak to reporters if Dale is part of the group.

Reading Prompt:
With a partner pretend one of you is mayor Rob Ford and the other is Star reporter Daniel Dale. What are three things you might say to defend your actions? After your discussion ask: Whose side do you think our TeachingKidsNews reporter is on?

Primary
Identify the point of view presented in a text and suggest some possible alternative perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).

Junior
Identify the point of view presented in texts, ask questions to identify missing
or possible alternative points of view, and suggest some possible alternative
perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).

Intermediate
Identify the point of view presented in texts, including increasingly complex or
difficult texts; give evidence of any biases they may contain; and suggest other
possible perspectives(OME, Reading: 1.9).

Grammar Feature: Irregular Verbs (past)
Regular verbs have a “ed” or “d” added to their ends when they take place in the past. Irregular verbs behave differently and, when written in the past, are written as different words. For example, the verb “go,” when written in the past, becomes “went.” Like right here:

“Star reporter Daniel Dale went to Ford’s home around 7:45 p.m. to look at the property and take some pictures of it.”

Write the correct form of the following irregular verbs on the blanks.

1. She _____________ (begin) her school work right away!
2. Emilio _______________ (bring) a cool trumpet to our music class.
3. Rosario _______________ (strike) the ball with all her might.
4. The sun ____________ (shine) in their eyes and they ___________ (fall) right out of the tree house.
5. I____________ (think) we were having pizza for dinner.