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1. What are the two official languages of Puerto Rico?
2. Are Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens?
3. Can Puerto Ricans vote for the U.S. president?
4. Are Puerto Ricans represented in Congress?
5. Do Puerto Ricans pay U.S. taxes?
6. How big is Puerto Rico, compared with the 50 states? If it were a state, what would its size ranking be? (Rhode Island, the smallest state, is 1 and Alaska is 50.)
7. How many people live in Puerto Rico? (Here's a hint - its population is bigger than the populations in 21 states, including Nevada and Kansas.)
8. Why isn't Puerto Rico a state?
9. What's one question you still have about Puerto Rico?

Then, as a class, have students discuss their answers, using this answer key (PDF) to provide correct information.

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More Teaching and Learning Ideas

Below, we provide a variety of learning activities teachers or students can choose from to learn more about current events in Puerto Rico. You might delve into one as a whole class, or you might have smaller groups complete different activities and report back to the rest of the class.
1. Hurricane Destruction and Recovery
Watch the six-minute video above, created by New York Times reporters touring the island, which shows that vast humanitarian and logistical challenges remain two weeks after Hurricane Maria hit.

Then, choose one or more of the articles below to read to learn about the damage caused by Hurricane Maria and the struggle to recover. If you're working with a small group, you may want to read different articles and then share what you learned. (Or, choose your own articles from the Times Topics page on Puerto Rico, the best place to find the latest news.)
One Day in the Life of Battered Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico's Agriculture and Farmers Decimated by Maria
For Ravaged Vieques, Solitude, Once an Allure, Is Now a Curse
2. The Politics of Catastrophe Cracks in a Puerto Rican Dam Send Neighbors a Message: Leave Now
With Widespread Power Failures, Puerto Rico Is Cash Only
Aid Is Getting to Puerto Rico. Distributing It Remains a Challenge.
Finally, imagine you are drafting a report to Congress or the president detailing the extent of the crisis in Puerto Rico and what kind of aid island residents will need. What does the island - and its residents - need now? What will it need in the future? Why? Explain your findings.

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Although President Trump has generally earned high marks for his handling of the hurricanes that struck Texas and Florida recently, he has been sharply criticized for being slow to sense the magnitude of the damage in Puerto Rico and project urgency about helping. This Sept. 30 article, 10 days after the storm made landfall in Puerto Rico, captures the criticism and attacks:

President Trump lashed out at the mayor of San Juan on Saturday for criticizing his administration's efforts to help Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, accusing her of "poor leadership" and implying that the people of the devastated island were not doing enough to help themselves.

As emergency workers and troops struggled to restore basic services in a commonwealth with no electricity and limited fuel and water, Mr. Trump spent the day at his New Jersey golf club, blasting out Twitter messages defending his response to the storm and repeatedly assailing the capital's mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz, and the news media.

Read the entire article and respond to these questions:

1. Was San Juan's mayor justified in criticizing the president? Why?

2. Peter Baker writes in the article, "The president's stream of Twitter bolts appeared repeatedly over the course of 12 hours and touched off a furious day of recriminations that fueled questions about his leadership during the crisis." Should the president's tweets raise questions about his leadership? Why?
3. Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis
3. President Trump visited Puerto Rico on Oct. 3. Mark Landler writes,

The trip marked a well-worn routine for a president on his fourth visit to a disaster zone in two months: a pep rally-like briefing with officials in an aircraft hangar, a quick drive past twisted houses and uprooted trees and a brief, friendly encounter with victims of the destruction.

Are these customary presidential visits to disaster areas important for the relief effort? Do you think they have the power to influence the president and his team? Are they powerful symbols for both disaster victims and the rest of the country? If you were president, would you make sure to visit places like southeast Texas after Hurricane Harvey or Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria? Why?

Then, with your classmates, discuss the crisis in Puerto Rico and its possible political ramifications. Do you think it is likely to become an embarrassment and political liability for the Trump administration? Has it already become that?

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Note to teachers: Preview the 21-minute clip above to make sure it is appropriate for your students. It includes sexual references and curses, but it also provides an engaging explanation of Puerto Rico's debt crisis. The clip above is timed to start at minute 19, when Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the Broadway musical "Hamilton," performs a rapped plea for relief.

The Puerto Rican debt crisis has a series of complex causes and far-reaching effects. To help you get a handle on both, here are some resources.
Puerto Ricans Face 'Sacrifice Everywhere' on an Insolvent Island
Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis Claims Another Casualty: Its Schools
Exodus From a Historic Puerto Rican Town, With No End in Sight _________ 4. Statehood, Commonwealth or Note to eachers: For this activity, you might divide the class into three groups, one for each of the three possible statuses. Or, you can have students, working individually or in pairs, research all possibilities, and then choose the status they think would serve both Puerto Rico and the U.S. best. Independence?
As Others Pack, Some Millennials Commit to Puerto Rico
For starters, we don't usually look to late-night TV for financial history lessons, but John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" segment above explains the background on the debt crisis in Puerto Rico, and includes a guest appearance by Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose parents are both from Puerto Rico.

To better understand why the island is reeling from so much debt, and what remedies the courts and Congress have provided, read the May 3, 2017, article " Puerto Rico Declares a Form of Bankruptcy." It begins:

With its creditors at its heels and its coffers depleted, Puerto Rico sought what is essentially bankruptcy relief in federal court on Wednesday, the first time in history that an American state or territory had taken the extraordinary measure.

The action sent Puerto Rico, whose approximately $123 billion in debt and pension obligations far exceeds the $18 billion bankruptcy filed by Detroit in 2013, to uncharted ground.

While the court proceedings could eventually make the island solvent for the first time in decades, the more immediate repercussions will likely be grim: Government workers will forgo pension money, public health and infrastructure projects will go wanting, and the "brain drain" the island has been suffering as professionals move to the mainland could intensify.

Puerto Rico is "unable to provide its citizens effective services" because of the crushing weight of its debt, according to a filing on Wednesday by the federal board that has supervised the island's financial affairs since last year.

You can follow that article by reading the DealBook piece " Puerto Rico: A Debt Problem That Kept Boiling Over " about how Puerto Rico's debt grew to such a crushing amount.

Once you feel you have an understanding of what the debt crisis is, then read one or more of these articles below about the sacrifices, hardships and opportunities that the crisis is presenting Puerto Ricans:

So, what should be done about the debt crisis, especially following Hurricane Maria? Create your own Opinion piece to persuade government leaders. You can make a rap, like Mr. Miranda, draw an editorial cartoon or write an editorial. To get additional ideas, you can read one or more of these opinion pieces:
5. How to Help
Strangling Puerto Rico in Order to Save It (Opinion) Washington Set Puerto Rico Up for Disaster (Opinion) The Jones Act: The Law Strangling Puerto Rico (Opinion) Congress Should Not Bail Out Liberal Governance in Puerto Rico (Opinion | The Hill)
Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis: We Can't Reward Fiscal Failure With a Bailout, Bankruptcy (Opinion | Fox News)

Puerto Rico's fiscal crisis, and now the hurricane recovery, have made a longstanding debate feel more urgent: Should Puerto Rico continue with its commonwealth status, or should it become America's 51st state - or an independent country?

You can use the resources below to prepare for a debate or to use as evidence for writing an editorial about which status might serve Puerto Rico and the U.S. best.

For background into this debate, start by reading the May 16 article " Amid Puerto Rico's Fiscal Ruins, a New Push for Statehood." It begins:

SAN JUAN, P.R. - It is a proudly Spanish-speaking territory at a time when the White House has taken down the Spanish version of its website. It is as materially poor as it is culturally rich. And Puerto Rico has entered a new and exotic version of bankruptcy, facing a staggering $123 billion in debt and pension obligations.

In short, it is difficult to imagine a worse time for governing-party officials in this struggling Caribbean commonwealth to persuade Washington it is ready to become the 51st American state.

But they have pledged to make their case anyway.

Tell them that it seems impossible, and they will conjure the long moral arc of the universe and how it bends toward Puerto Rican statehood. "That's what they told the blacks," an indignant Ramón Rosario Cortés, Puerto Rico's public affairs secretary, said in an interview last week. "That they were wasting their time attending the marches of Martin Luther King Jr. because nobody was ever going to hear the cry of the people!"

A vigorous push for statehood was a central campaign promise of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, 38, who was inaugurated in January. Next month, he will ask residents to vote, in a nonbinding referendum, for statehood as part of a long-term fix for a commonwealth facing a period of severe austerity that is likely to include shuttered public schools, frozen salaries, slashed pensions and crimped investments in public health. The island remains in the grip of a recession that has lingered for much of the past decade.

Statehood, Mr. Rosselló and his allies argue, would mean more investment in infrastructure, which would attract more businesses and create a more stable economy. Mr. Rosselló has also criticized Puerto Rico's current relationship with the mainland as a "colonial status" that deprives its 3.4 million residents "of the right to political, social and economic equality under the U.S. flag."

Then, answer these five comprehension and analysis questions related to that article, in our Article of the Day feature.

Note that when the June nonbinding referendum took place, 97 percent of the ballots cast were in favor of statehood. However, on an island where voter participation often hovers around 80 percent, just 23 percent of registered voters cast ballots. Critics boycotted the special election, which they considered rigged in favor of statehood.

To gather evidence both for and against the three positions, read these opinion pieces from various news sources.

Puerto Rico Statehood Is a Moral, Democratic and Economic Imperative (Opinion | Fox News)
Statehood for Puerto Rico; an Insane Proposition (Opinion | The Hill)
4 Reasons Independence Is the Right Path for Puerto Rico (Opinion | HuffPost) A Debate on Puerto Rican Statehood (Opinion | The Stanford Daily)

Then, write an editorial supporting one position, or hold a debate with your classmates about which status makes the most sense for Puerto Rico.

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Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands need immediate and long-term help after the devastation wrought by this hurricane season. In this article, The Times lists more than a dozen charities that are collecting donations to provide such relief.

How can you and your class help raise money for the relief effort? Or, is there something else you could do? Are there students in your class with relatives or friends in Puerto Rico? What specific needs are they aware of?

Brainstorm ideas, decide to which charities you want to contribute, and then swing into action.

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Island in Crisis: Teaching About Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria

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1. What are the two official languages of Puerto Rico?2. Are Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens?3. Can Puerto Ricans vote for the U.S. president?4. Are Puerto Ricans represented in Congress?5. Do Puerto Ricans pay U.S. taxes?6. How big is Puerto Rico, compared with the 50 states?