Transcript Newspapers in Education

Newspapers
in
Education
Literacy Teaching Ideas
Presented by:
Kathy Conville Sims
Simsboro High School
Newspapers in
Education
 Newspapers are the most widely used
of the media as a teaching instrument
in the classroom.
 Newspapers are a cost effective way
to educate.
 Newspapers teach all sorts of
valuable skills including reading
comprehension, writing for meaning,
media literacy, critical thinking, word
meaning and sequencing.
Reasons Teachers Use
Newspapers In Education
 An adult medium that
students of all ability
levels can be proud to be
seen reading.
 Deals with what’s
happening now, providing
motivation for
reading/discussion.
 Extremely flexible and
adaptable to all curriculum
areas and grade levels.
 Bridges the gap between
the classroom and the
“real” world.
 Builds good literacy habits
that last a lifetime.
 Can be cut, marked,
clipped, pasted, filed, and
recycled.
 Gives everyone something
to read – news, sports,
comics, weather,
editorials, etc.
 Makes learning fun.
 Contains practical
vocabulary and the sound
models of clear, concise
writing.
Newspapers Impact
Literacy in All Classrooms
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Language Arts
Math
Science
Technology
Social Studies
Critical Thinking
Life Skills
Character
Education
Language Arts
Ideas
 Remove and display headlines from news stories.
Students take stories and match to appropriate
headlines. Excellent group activity!
 On newspaper page draw circles around various
parts of speech. List examples.
 Build bulletin board of articles written in and
labeled present, past and future tense.
 Find words with prefix/suffix. Locate base word
and meaning. Change prefix/suffix to create new
words. Use words in a sentence.
 Cut apart comic strips with multiple frames. Have
students sequence comics in correct order.
Students may create their own comics strips.
Using Newspapers
in Math
 Write a word problem using an grocery
advertisement as its basis.
 Read a page in the newspaper and
underline words and phrases referring to
time (annual, bicentennial, hourly, etc).
 Race through the newspaper. Circle all the
number words you can find!
 Refer to the “Living” section. Choose
several kinds of entertainment you enjoy.
After determining the cost of each, journal
about an imaginary weekend of
entertainment including specifics.
Science and Technology
Ideas
 Find article about severe weather. Use dictionary to
define unknown terms. Write essay on preparation
for weather emergences.
 Find article discussing world problem. Write about
an invention to solve the problem.
 Begin vocabulary list of science/technology words
from newspaper. Record spelling, meaning and use
of words.
 Collect advertisements for products not available 20
years ago. Identify scientific/technological advances
these products have made possible. Journal on
ideas.
 Find articles on animals. Identify genus, species, etc.
Research animal for project written report.
Social Studies
Ideas
 Travel by means of newspaper. Journal
about things you might do or see in a
different country. Share your ideas.
 Read an editorial or article. Draw political
cartoon representing information.
 Place news stories (photos) of each state
on large outline map of the US. Read and
summarize articles from different states.
 Use news stories to teach new words
related to geography, government, etc.
Discuss the meaning of words used in
newspaper stories.
Critical Thinking Idea # 1
 Choose a story from the front page.
 Find answers to the following:
Who? What? When? Where? Why?
 Note organization of story details.
 Which detail is most important?
Less?
 Where is this detail found in article?
 Does the headline highlight an
important fact?
 If not, where did information for
headline appear in story?
Critical Thinking Idea #2
Choose editorial from newspaper.
Underline each fact.
Circle each opinion.
Discuss logic of the ideas.
Discuss the organization and
development of arguments.
 Have students journal about their
opinion(s) on this issue based on
fact.
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Life Skills Ideas
 Take a scavenger hunt and circle certain names and
phrases with certain meanings or emphasis.
 Prepare menus using food advertisements including
food from all 4 food groups.
 Collect articles about accidents. Journal about how
these accidents could have been prevented.
 Select a job in the classified section. Write a letter
to the Human Resource director stating what
qualities make you perfect for the job.
 Find a comic strip in the newspaper that shows a
conflict. Rewrite it depicting a better way for the
situation to be handled. Use a thesaurus to find
synonyms for words. Recreate the cartoon.
Newspapers in
Character Education
 Make a “Hall (Wall) of Fame” by clipping articles
of people who exhibit good character traits.
 Make a “Survival Vocabulary List” of words
(including legal terms) a person would need to
know to be a responsible citizen.
 Read an article about an honest individual and
consider the consequences of the act.
 Make a poster of a family crest with examples of
what is good about you and your family. Cut
words out of newspaper that remind you of your
family.
 Find articles of individuals, groups, or nations in
conflict. Write about resolutions and solutions to
conflict.
Political Cartoons
Bill of Rights
Spotlight on News
My Favorite
Newspaper in
Education
Activities
How I Use Political Cartoons
in My Classrooms
 To stimulate discussion on certain topics
 To gauge prior or recently developed
knowledge and/or values
 To gain student’s interest
 In some cases, just for humor
 As a form of formative or summative
assessment
 To develop skills involved in interpreting
cartoons
 To increase opportunity and motivation for
students with lower literacy levels to
participate
Political Cartoon
Activity
 Discuss political
cartoon and reason
behind it.
 Use current or past
political cartoons.
 Analyze dates,
captions, people, etc.
 Have students write a
evaluative paragraph
about the cartoon.
 Have students draw
their own political
cartoon.
 Identify people, places,
time periods,
vocabulary and symbols
of cartoons.
 Compare drawings of
people in cartoon to
actual photographs.
 Use Venn diagram to
show similarities and
differences between
two cartoons.
 Develop an essay,
based on the Venn
diagram exercise.
Bill of Rights
 Brainstorm basic rights students possess as
Americans.
 List student responses on board.
 Distribute copies of Bill of Rights.
 Identify which rights were omitted during
brainstorming.
 Find articles in newspapers relating to
individual rights.
 Analyze which rights the topic of the article
relates to.
 Determine if rights were upheld or violated.
“Spotlight on News”
 Read the chosen article.
 Look for important details on topic.
 Summarize those details based on
the facts presented in the article.
 If possible, compare the news story
in one newspaper to the same story
in another newspaper.
 Write a written report of summary.
 Make an oral report to the class.
Newspaper In Education
Activities:
 Support literacy in numerous ways.
 Stimulate student interest in current
events.
 Support learning across the
curriculum.
 Promote higher level thinking skills.
 Stimulate independent reading and
writing.
 Support character development.
 Provide a lifelong desire to read and
learn.
Many of these ideas came from the “Newspaper in Education Web site. To find more
information on “Newspaper in Education” classroom activities visit: http://nieonline.com .