Newspaper Reading.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/school-bullies-prey-on-children-with-autism/?ref=health

Newspaper Reading: Preparation for Group Discussion

Student: Aubree Mendez

1) Select one magazine or newspaper article to bring to class. This article can also come from an online newspaper such as The New York Times or The Los Angeles Times.

2) Gather three words you did not understand, liked, and/or found interesting in the article you selected, look them up in the dictionary, and complete the table below.

WORD	PART OF SPEECH (Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, etc.)	SYNONYM OR DEFINITION
1. Pervasive	Adjective	Spread throughout.
2. Perilous	Adjective	Involving or full of grave risk or peril.
3. Asperger syndrome	Noun	A development disorder characterized by severely impaired social skills, repetitive behaviors, and often, a narrow set of interests, but not involving delayed developement of linguistic and cognitive abilities: now considered one of the autism spectrum disorders.

3) To help with the context for the words you selected, highlight or underline the sentences that contain the three words you gathered.

1. Many parents of children with autism already are well aware that their children are taunted and tormented at school, but the new study suggests the problem is pervasive.

2. Dr. Paul A. Law, director of the Interactive Autism Network at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, said middle school can be particularly perilous for high-functioning children with autism who lack social skills, because it represents a time when peers can be especially unforgiving of social missteps.

3. Connie Anderson didn’t know what was bothering her 17-year-old son, a Baltimore-area high school senior with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.

4) In one sentence, explain what the article is about. You can use the following sentence starters to help you: “This article is about…” “The main idea in this article is…”

The main idea of this article is about school bullies tend to prey on children with autism.

5) Bring this sheet and a hard or digital copy of your article to class. Be prepared to share this information with a group of peers next class.