Lindsay,
Just so you know, we wrote our comments in bold and italics to explain to you what is going on in the article. If you have any questions, let us know and we'll help you out! Enjoy the article!
Alexa and Kelley
Free Speech
From Time for Kids
Stephen Downs, 61, and his 31-year-old son, Roger, went shopping at a mall in Guilderland, New York, last Monday. They got a lot more than they bargained for.
The two had T-shirts printed. Roger's said, "No War with Iraq." His dad's said, "Peace on Earth." They put on the shirts over their other clothes. The antiwar messages caught the attention of a security guard, who asked the men to take off the shirts. They refused. The guard came back with a police officer, who asked them to remove the shirts or leave. Roger took his off, but his dad still said no.
"I said, 'All right then, arrest me if you have to,'" Stephen Downs recalls. "So they did. They put the handcuffs on and took me away." Two days later, about 100 protesters marched in the mall to support Downs. A trespassing charge was dropped, but both men were upset.
"I think he'd like an apology," Roger said of his father.
This lead paints a picture for the reader that shows two regular people who are against the war with Iraq. It sets up the rest of the article because gives a story that relates to the topic without giving away exactly what the story is about. It works because it draws the reader into the story, and it is also something many Americans can probably relate to easily.
Americans treasure free speech and expression. Our right to share our ideas--by writing them in books, shouting them at a rally or ironing them onto T-shirts--is protected by the First Amendment. The amendment is one of 10 in the Bill of Rights, added to the Constitution in 1791. Lawmakers of the day passed the Bill of Rights because they believed that some key freedoms, including speech protection, should be part of the Constitution.
This is the nut graph. It goes right after the lead, and it tells the reader what the story is about. Just remember that the nut graph is very different than the lead because it is not a story like the lead is, but it tells what the rest of the article is about.
But First Amendment experts say that the right to speak freely comes with an unwritten requirement to act responsibly. "Many Americans have an overdeveloped sense of rights and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility," says Sam Chaltain, coordinator of the First Amendment Schools project. "Our rights are spelled out in the First Amendment. But the amendment will work only if we guard the rights of those with whom we disagree."
The green part is the set up for the quote. This is usually a sentence that will introduce what the quote will be about. The blue part is the actual quote. This includes who says the quote and it is very clear who this person is and what they do ("Sam Chaltain, coordinator of the First Amendment Schools project" in this example). This is a good quote because it talks about the first ammendment (which was introduced in the first sentence) and the quote also gives the person's perspective on the topic.
With a possible war in Iraq looming, emotions across the country are running high. Last Wednesday, tens of thousands of high school and college students all over America left their classrooms and staged large antiwar demonstrations. Other Americans feel just as strongly about expressing support for our leaders' decisions. Those groups also held rallies and spoke out. When the two points of view clash, trouble can follow.
This paragraph leads into the next topic that the reader will see in the next paragraph.
Take Toni Smith, a basketball player for Manhattanville College in New York. Because she objects to certain U.S. policies, she does not salute the flag as the national anthem is played before her games.
Some opposing teams' fans began to boo Smith. They wore American flag pins and waved the flag to taunt her. On February 23, a Vietnam War veteran came onto the court and held a flag in front of her. He was thrown out of the arena--not for expressing his view but for disrupting the game.
This is another story that relates to the topic. It makes the point in order to show another aspect of the story.
"Toni Smith was being patriotic by doing what she felt she must," Chaltain told TFK. "Every person who chose to stand and put a hand over his heart during the anthem was exercising the same freedom."
This is another quote that supports what Toni Smith did. It gives a good opinion about rights and freedoms that everyone deserves.
The First Amendment is often amended itself. Court decisions have limited its freedoms to protect individuals' privacy or national security, among other goals. But speaking out, whether in favor of the government's policies or against them, is among the fundamental rights--and responsibilities--of every American. It is, in fact, at the very heart of our democracy.
This is the conclusion of the story. It gives an overview of the article and makes the final point of the article.