Lesson

In this lesson, you will explore some of the world’s greatest museums and artistic treasures and consider the role of art in chaotic times. In a Going Further activity, you will respond to one artwork in depth.Afterward, respond to the following prompts:Questions for Writing and DiscussionRead the article, then answer the following questions:1. Jason Farago…

Warm UpElizabeth Carlen, a biologist at Fordham University, wanted to know if the pigeons that live in the Boston-Washington corridor, which includes cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Providence, are all one interconnected population. In other words, do the birds in all these cities interbreed? To answer this question, Ms. Carlen caught pigeons with…

In this lesson, you will learn what’s gotten better and what’s gotten worse in the five decades since millions of people marched to demand a cleaner, healthier environment. In a Going Further activity, you will consider what the focus of the environmental agenda should be in future decades.Warm UpWhat do you know about Earth Day?…

Find all our Lessons of the Day here.Lesson OverviewFeatured Article: “The Lost Diaries of War” by Nina Siegal and Josephine SedgwickVolunteers have begun an effort to transcribe the pages of more than 2,000 diaries written by ordinary people during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Their voices, filled with anxiety, isolation and uncertainty, resonate powerfully…

Warm UpBefore you read this article, take a look at a screenshot from this shark’s Twitter account. (Yes, the great white shark, Katharine, has a Twitter account. We’ll get to that later.)ImageCredit...Twitter.comWhat do you notice? What do you wonder?What can you infer about this shark and why she is important just from the information on…

Find all of our Lessons of the Day here.Lesson OverviewFeatured Article: “Here’s How Those Hot Jigsaw Puzzles Are Made”The coronavirus has sent puzzle businesses racing as demand surges past levels seen at Christmas.In this lesson, you will learn how jigsaw puzzles are made and why companies that create them see the sudden surge in interest…

Find all our Lessons of the Day here.Lesson OverviewFeatured Article: “Meet Your Meme Lords” by Steven KurutzA small team at the Library of Congress is archiving internet culture as fast as it can. Already the library has amassed more than 2.129 petabytes of data — or put another way, 18 billion digital documents. And that’s…

Find all our Lessons of the Day here.Lesson OverviewFeatured Article: “‘What Rhymes With Purell?’ Franglais Rappers Push Language Boundaries in Quebec” by Dan BilefskyRappers in Montreal, Quebec are playing with the use of language in the music they are creating; however, bilingual wordplay is not embraced by all people in Quebec. Some Quebecois think it…

Ever since many of us started working from home in the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve been invited to countless gatherings taking place on Zoom, the videoconferencing app. Virtual happy hours, work meetings, dinners, you name it.I’ve been a no-show, and it’s not just because my hair has grown embarrassingly long. It’s because I have a fundamental…

Find all of our Lessons of the Day here.Lesson OverviewFeatured Article: “This Sculpture Holds a Decades-Old C.I.A. Mystery. And Now, Another Clue.” by John Schwartz and Jonathan CorumKryptos has been in a courtyard at C.I.A. headquarters for almost 30 years. Three of its four passages have been decoded. Will one more clue unlock the last?In…