How to Teach With a New York Times Article
Susan Behrens, Ph.D.
Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Marymount Manhattan College
Strategies connected to reading lessons:
 Anticipating the article: making predictions based on the headline

Vocabulary in context: finding roots, prefixes, suffixes; substitution of unfamiliar words
with synonyms

Look-alike words: e.g., breathe vs. breath, tow vs. toe,

Figures of speech and other literary devices: idioms, metaphors, puns, irony, acronyms

After each paragraph, think of 1-2 questions that are raised. Look to see where (and if)
those questions are answered. What is the pattern of question/answer in this article? Key
to overall organization. Also helps with note-taking.
Strategies connected to writing lessons:
 Summarizing: in margin, summarize in own words, in one sentence, the main idea of the
paragraph. Create backwards outline.

Paraphrasing: find where sources are quoted directly (vs. indirectly). Change former to
latter. Take the first paragraph and put in your own words. Reword it so that you are
explaining to a peer; to a younger student; in an assigned essay; in a formal oral report.

Rewrite the article using a different organization.

Register: Writing for different audiences, levels of understanding; alternating between
formal and informal style.

Synthesizing: connect the article in one way to a text you are working on for a content
course in college. Write a “comparison/contrast” paragraph. Using links embedded in
digital article: click on the links in the article. What additional information do you
encounter? Expand the article by adding to each paragraph that contains a link.
EXAMPLE OF A MARKED-UP ARTICLE
New Moon Probe Raises Questions About What to Do Next in Space
By CAROLINE CHEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/us/new-moon-probe-raises-questions-about-what-to-donext-in-space.html
[What are three points you think this article will make? Do you think this article will raise
questions? Answer questions? Compare viewpoints? Etc.]
The last moon mission on NASA’s current schedule — a small, unmanned spacecraft that will
study moon dust and the lunar atmosphere — is scheduled to launch on Friday from Wallops
Island, Va., elating scientists who study the moon but highlighting political questions about what
NASA should do next.
[What is the main idea of the opening paragraph, put in your own words? What information do
you think is being foreshadowed and will follow in the article, based on paragraph #1? What
vocabulary words would you want to look up? e.g., elating. Click on the link for NASA; what
additional information would work in this paragraph? Why did the reporter choose a link
instead of including that information?]
The Smart Car-size spacecraft, which NASA calls the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment
Explorer, will take 30 days to get into orbit around the moon, spend the next 30 days checking its
equipment and proceed with scientific work for 100 days, searching for water molecules in the
atmosphere and gathering data about the curious substance known as lunar dust. Then the probe,
which goes by the acronym Ladee (pronounced laddie), will take a death plunge into the rocky
surface of the subject it is studying.
[As with paragraph #1, try to anticipate what information the article will convey based on this
paragraph. Why do you think NASA created the acronym Ladee for their spacecraft?]
The results of the scientific program could be helpful in preparing for future manned missions to
the moon. Although NASA currently does not have such plans, some members of Congress have
called on the space agency to return to the moon rather than pursuing its current space objectives.
[The paragraph above ends with a difference of opinion. In your own words, state each side. As
you read the rest of the article, jot down data that each side uses to support its viewpoint.]
Although there is wide agreement that NASA should ultimately aim for a manned flight to Mars,
that goal is far off. The more immediate plan, which has been criticized on Capitol Hill, is to
capture an asteroid and tow it closer to home so astronauts can visit it.
[Reflect on the plan to tow an asteroid closer to earth. What associations do you have with this
plan, from popular culture and/or history? Look at the word ‘tow’ and consider other contexts in
which this word is used. Also consider the expression “to toe the line”; some people think the
word is “tow” in that idiom. Reflect on why there would be confusion.]
But NASA has continued sending unmanned spacecraft to the moon; the coming mission will be
the third to go there in five years. While scientists are excited about what the experiment may
yield, they are also concerned about the absence of future moon voyages on NASA’s schedule.
“If you’re going to fly this mission with the goal of understanding the atmosphere and how dust
might affect future human missions, and you don’t have the future human missions, then part of
the reason for the mission disappears,” said David Kring, senior staff scientist at the Lunar and
Planetary Institute, a NASA-financed research institute in Houston.
[Notice that there is a direct quotation in the paragraph above. Why do you think the reporter
decided to use Kring’s actual words? Find examples where the article paraphrases sources.
What is the difference to you as a reader? How would the reporter decide to quote directly or
indirectly? How would you paraphrase this direct quote?]
Even if NASA sits on the sidelines, traffic to the moon will be busy. China announced last week
that it would land its first exploratory rover on the moon by the end of the year. India, Japan,
Russia and the European Space Agency also have unmanned missions in the works. And Google
is sponsoring a competition called the Lunar X Prize, offering up to $20 million to the first
company that can send a robotic spacecraft to the moon by 2015 and make it perform certain
tasks.
[Consider the expression “sits on the sidelines” in the paragraph above. How literal vs.
figurative is this usage? Try to find other figures of speech and literary devices in this article. In
the name Lunar X Prize, what is the function of X? Lunar is the adjective form of moon. How are
the two words related? Find other adjective/noun pairs in this article; noun/verb pairs.]
The Ladee spacecraft was conceived when NASA was also planning new manned missions to
the moon, which would have been the first since 1972. But the Obama administration canceled
that program, called Constellation, in 2010, calling it over budget and behind schedule. Ladee
stayed in the pipeline.
The spacecraft will search for water in the very thin lunar atmosphere, which is estimated to be
1/100,000th the density of Earth’s, perhaps similar to Mercury’s. Scientists want to find out how
the ice on the moon’s poles managed to get there, said Richard Elphic, project scientist for the
mission. They speculate that water molecules in the moon’s atmosphere may have migrated
toward the poles and frozen in place, he said.
Evidence of water below the moon’s surface was discovered in recent years by a NASA-financed
instrument aboard an Indian spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1. Data collected from the coming mission
could help complete the picture of the moon’s water cycle, Dr. Elphic said.
The orbiter will also examine the movements of lunar dust. “Dust” is a bit of a misnomer, the
scientists said: the crushed debris is extremely fine but also has jagged, sharp edges, since there
is no wind or water on the moon’s surface to wear it down.
[What is the meaning of “misnomer”? Analyze the word into affixes and root. Try to rewrite the
sentence using a synonym. In your own words but based on information in this paragraph, why is
“dust” not an accurate word?]
“It’s certainly more annoying than terrestrial dust,” said Sarah Noble, program scientist for the
mission. “It’s like shards of glass, and it sticks to everything. If it gets into your eyes or your
skin, it’s abrasive and it hurts. It also really gums up machinery.”
[Notice that “terrestrial” is an adjective connected to the noun “Earth.” (See lunar and moon,
above.) Why is Earth capitalized? Do you ever see it not capitalized? “Gums up” is an informal
expression meaning what? Why does the source use such informality? Change the wording so
that it is more formal in style.]
The dust poses a risk to robots and humans alike, as it can wreak havoc on equipment and
spacesuits. Understanding the way the dust moves through the atmosphere will help scientists
better prepare for longer missions on the moon, Dr. Elphic said.
[Consider the use of the preposition in the phrase “longer missions on the moon.” How would
the meaning differ if the reporter wrote “longer missions to the moon”? Can you think of other
expressions that change meaning with a change in a small word like a preposition? Consider
“on sale” and “for sale,” for example. Where in this article might there be changes of
prepositions without changes in meaning?]
Not everyone agrees that dust is a major concern. “Dust on the lunar surface does not pose a
serious risk to future lunar exploration,” Dr. Kring said, pointing out that astronauts managed to
survive the dust without major problems. But he still saw value in the dust inquiry, saying, “We
always want to reduce the risk, and to understand the dust phenomenon in and of itself is
worthwhile.”
NASA said the launching would break technological ground. Previously, spacecraft were
custom-made for each mission and the models were not reusable. But this spacecraft was
designed for assembly-line production, so that future missions could save money by using
identical components.
[What part of speech in the paragraph above is “launching”? Find other words in this article
that function as both nouns and verbs, and explain how the writer signals the correct
grammatical function through the context.]
The spacecraft’s design and construction cost $125 million out of a mission price of $250
million, said Dwayne Brown, a NASA spokesman. If the same design were used again, Mr.
Brown said, NASA estimates that the cost would drop to $90 million for the first spacecraft and
then over time to $55 million each. At the moment, though, NASA does not have other projects
lined up to reuse the model, he said.
The spacecraft will ride on the maiden voyage of the Minotaur V rocket built by the Orbital
Sciences Corporation, one of several private contractors NASA has turned to in recent years to
supply rockets for its missions. The launching will be the first lunar mission for Orbital, as well
as the first moon journey departing from Wallops Island.
[How is the meaning of the word “maiden” altered when used in the expression “maiden
voyage,” as in the paragraph above? What other wording could the reporter use? Is “maiden” a
word you encounter in speech? In writing? In what contexts?]
In 2009 and 2011, Orbital lost two NASA satellites in failed launching of its Taurus XL rocket,
costing the agency more than $600 million.
For this mission to succeed, Ladee will need to launch, separate from the Minotaur V, and insert
itself into lunar orbit. Then, NASA will be able to begin its experiments.
“Once we’re on the moon, we’ll breathe a big sigh of relief,” Dr. Noble said.
[After jotting down a sentence next to each paragraph that summarizes its content, you have a
backwards outline. What is the overall organization of this article? Could it be reorganized?
Write a one-paragraph summary of the article. What information did you have to omit? How did
you choose? Now rewrite that summary paragraph so it works as an oral report. What
differences are there in the written and the spoken forms?]