Harper’s Index Great Teaching Tool

For
years the Dowbrigade has been using the Harper’s Index with his advanced
ESL students.  The Harpers Index is a monthly list of surprising
or unexpected or counterintuitive statistical
facts, written in a strange hybrid form expressing equivalency, but
gramatically neither statement nor question. Here are some examples from last
month’s list:

Percentage by which the Defense Department proposed cutting its budget
this year by closing its Peacekeeping Institute: 0.001

Ratio of the institute’s budget to the estimated price ofJennifer Lopez’s
engagement ring: 3:4

First year in which the definition of "turkey" in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary went beyond fowl: 1949

Grams by which the amount of fat in McDonald’s fattiest salad exceeds that
in its fattiest burger: 3

First the students were instructed to rewrite the items as gramatically correct statements
– for example, "McDonald’s fattiest salad has three grams of fat more than
its fattiest burger."

Next they would rewrite them again as questions and answers. Q: "How many
more grams of fat does McDonalds fattiest salad have than its fattiest burger?"
A: Three grams

Finally, and here is where the higher order language functions kick in,
they had to answer the question "And the point is?" (Salads can have more
grease and fat than burgers, at least at MickyD’s)

Students love figuring out what the point is, and pursuing the subsequent
conversational strands ("What could they possibly put in their salads to
make them greasier than their burgers?")

However I remember lamenting several years ago that the monthly lists
were unavailable on the Harpers magazine web site. No more. Now, they have
an archive of past indexes, and on the first of each month post the previous
month’s list.  The items are even linked to Harper’s stories and other
resources! Great resource for teachers.

from Harpers