Students consider the news of interest or concern to them and add to a padlet. They decide on what issue to query with a team by signing up on the padlet. Students create a document of their analysis and views with possible suggestions or solutions, sharing their analysis link back on the padlet. Students also create avatars as signatures to their components.
This is a beginning of the year activity to discover common interests, create avatars, and share out.
Directions here: http://connect2learn.edublogs.org/2013/08/03/news-views-and-you/