Ideas for Using Upfront

I use the “Be the Editor” skill builders as invaluable practice for the ACT. Mainly because of texting and social media, students are struggling more than ever with grammar and the mechanics of writing. My American Lit. students take these as quizzes, and then we discuss them.

—Kyle Borchers, Newton High School, Pleasant Hill, Ohio

As an ELL teacher, I use Upfront to teach students pre-reading skills such as skimming. I ask them to tie the subject matter into their own experiences or compare/contrast with issues in their countries of origin. Teaching students how to process new material in a foreign language is critical to success in their core classes.

—Jo Grunewald, Oak Harbor High School, Oak Harbor, Washington

I share an article, and we analyze the writer’s craft. We discuss various features, including text structure, author’s claim, and evidence. Then I follow with a writing assignment, such as a rhetorical precis, literary analysis, or argumentative essay.

—Lynn Starks, Sunrise Tech Center, Citrus Heights, California

I provide background on events in the articles to help students with context. Next, I ask them to read the article and consider how the issue they’re reading about impacts people and contributes to social, political, and environmental events. Then they have to analyze the content for facts and bias before writing a response. 

Kathryn Kresge, Lely High School, Naples, Florida

I keep issues of Upfront for the Times Past articles, and I create multidisciplinary activities for my students using the quizzes, timelines, and charts. The great thing about the Times Past articles is that they don’t become outdated, and they are always relevant to my World History curriculum.

—William Alexander,  Windsor High School, Windsor, Connecticut

I love the pro-con debates, which I use in my ELA class to teach argument and rhetoric. I let the students read a few and deconstruct them, and then they have to write their own essays, based off the model that Upfront uses.

—Cynthia Lyles-Scott, Hillsboro High School, Nashville, Tennessee

I love using Upfront’s articles to set up a piece of literature. I have students read an article that has a thematic connection to a short story, poem, or novel. This allows students to make a real-life connection to the literature. After they read both texts, I have students make text-to-text connections.

—Melissa Garcia, Weslaco High School, Weslaco, Texas

Since I’m teaching students how to debate, we use the Debate section frequently. For each essay, students must identify the claim, evidence, and impact given by the author. Then they give a spoken summary of the argument they agree with and a brief rebuttal to the argument they disagree with.

—Sherri Bublitz, Los Alamos Middle School, Los Alamos, New Mexico

We do “think-alouds” in which I read an Upfront article and I ask students to write down textual evidence, telling the difference between facts, claims, and evidence. The goal is for students to become thoughtful consumers of information and to consider all perspectives on an issue.

—Kelly Heichelbech, Spencer County High School, Taylorsville, Kentucky

I devote an entire day to reading Upfront. We start with a video, then we read two articles together as a class, pausing to discuss the sidebars and share our thoughts. Finally, students do the comprehension quizzes together. The topics are recent and relevant enough to capture their interest. 

—Austin Barker, A.R. Lewis Opportunity School, Pickens, South Carolina

Upfront has become a staple in my classroom. I often use the articles as writing prompts. Students use the facts from the article, combined with their personal experiences, to defend their side of an argument. Many students tell me they like this activity, because it supplements what we are doing in class

—Denise Windy, Heritage High School, Saginaw, Michigan

I post the Upfront covers on classroom walls to remind students of current events around the world. I tell students: “It’s not just a picture, there’s something behind it.” The best covers need little explanation, and they inspire an interest or pose a question that gives students an opportunity to dig deeper.

—Phyllis Bowie, S.A.V.E. High School, Anchorage, Alaska

Students read and write about the same Upfront article for the first five minutes of class all week long. Each day, they analyze the article through a different lens, including its central idea, the author’s purpose, and word choice. On Friday, they write a personal response. Upfront has become a favorite part of class!

—Judith Iannuzzo, Pike High School, Indianapolis, IN

When my class reads an Upfront article, I sometimes ask students to find related primary sources and to carefully analyze the documents. Then I have students write questions for a deeper student-led class discussion on the topic in the article.

—Edward Donnellan, Gonzaga College High School, Washington, D.C.

Before we begin historical units, I like to find Upfront articles about current events that are the result of or related to the broad topic we’re discussing. This demonstrates how history isn’t just a thing of the past, but leaves lasting impacts on the present and the future.

—Anthony McNamara, Canton Preparatory High School, Canton, Michigan

I use Upfront to engage my students in reciprocal reading groups. Each group agrees on an article to read, annotate, discuss, and write about by asking three big questions of the text: What surprised me? What did the author think I already knew? And what challenged, changed, or confirmed what I knew?

—Vivett Dukes, Queens Collegiate, Jamaica, New York

I like to pair articles with guest speakers who can talk in depth about the subjects we’re reading about in the magazine. Upfront has been a powerful tool, because I work with high school students who don’t often have reading resources in their own homes.

—Leigh Treistman, Caney Creek High School, Conroe, Texas

Upfront does such a great job providing the historical backdrop to important events, so I regularly save past issues and use them as background. When an event is revisited in a current article, I have students compare past with present. They’re asked to explain what’s changed and provide evidence.

—George Burroughs, Montclair High School, Montclair, New Jersey

As an ELA teacher, I use the nonfiction articles in Upfront to help my class segue into a fictional piece of literature that covers a similar theme. It not only helps my students relate to the characters in the literature, but also to connect to the real issues that are faced by everyday people all over the world. 

—Jason Pastore, Central Islip High School, New York

When using the debate, I have my students highlight each writer’s arguments and come up with a persuasive speech based on the opinion they most agree with, which they enjoy. Then I have them argue the other side as well. They find that part especially challenging!

—MaryEllen Webb, Westfield High School, Chantilly, Virginia

The multiple-choice quizzes are invaluable in building test-preparation skills and training students to find references in the text to develop reading comprehension accuracy. For ESL students, I give these as open book assessments, in which the students have to cite the exact source of the correct answer.

—Arya Safa, Northern Valley Regional High School, Old Tappan, New Jersey

I love starting my students off with the political cartoons to see what they can extract. Afterward, we jump right into the articles and videos, which gives students more context about a particular topic. This all leads up to them writing an argumentative essay.

—Ryan Verost, Queens Metropolitan High School, Forest Hills, New York

When we read debate articles from Upfront, my students read both arguments. Then they choose the one they think is right. They move to groups to discuss their argument. Each group develops a stance. Then I remind them, “Every argument sounds right until you hear another.” Then they are allowed to change sides. It is amazing how many change or begin to see both sides of an issue.

—Theresa P. Pierce, Rowan County Early College High School, Salisbury, North Carolina

In my journalism class, I have students read Upfront articles to see how they’re organized. What information is included? Who is quoted? How would the article be different if specific parts were missing? The articles become exemplars for their own writing.

—Raymond Salazar, John Hancock College Preparatory High School, Chicago, Illinois   

I like to have my students look over the entire issue of Upfront for a couple of minutes. We then take a quick classroom poll to see which article we would like to discuss in more depth as a class. If time allows, we can then go back to discuss other articles as well.

—Eric Langhorst, Discovery Middle School, Liberty, Missouri