Teaching with Newspapers

Works4Me presents weekly practical classroom tips from real experts -- your colleagues!

1. Newspaper Skills

From Felicia Arnold, a retired third grade teacher from Vernon, New Jersey:

"I was fortunate to have a sponsor for the Newspapers in Education (NIE) program for over ten years. During that time, my third graders and I worked on various skills. Reading the weather map was wonderful for identifying local areas on the map. We studied math skills when we compared temperatures and precipitation levels. To reinforce the proper use of quotation marks, students selected their favorite cartoon and rewrote what their character said in correct form. The sports section was an excellent area for comparing scores and working on number sense. Using the TV schedule helps with elapsed time lessons, reading schedules and sequencing skills. Various headlines and articles are inappropriate for third graders so it is essential to monitor the students' use of the newspaper. Select the article, cut it out, and use it for display with the accompanied lessons. Since there are time constraints in the classroom, these lessons work well as group projects, indoor recess lessons, or extra credit assignments. Enjoy!"
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2. Newspaper Hunts

From Sara Graham, an English and reading teacher at West High School in Waterloo, Iowa:

"I do newspaper hunts with the students on Fridays. I get an earlier edition of the paper and compose 10 - 12 questions for the students to answer. It's very easy to level the questions based on the skills of your students. The students first have to figure out what the question wants to know, then where to look for it and finally read the article/ad/comic to find the meaning. This exercise is great for finding main idea and supporting details, evaluating credibility, and practicing reading skills in general. The comic strips are useful for inferences. Sports pages are great for doing math based questions or figurative language skills. These newspaper hunts generally take the whole class period. My kids always respond well to these newspaper activities. It becomes a bit of a competition to see what group can figure them out first and get the most correct answers. They rework answers that they miss. Any extra time is spent reading the newspaper articles that we didn't cover in the newspaper hunt. After doing these hunts for awhile, they start to write their own questions and challenge their classmates."
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3. NIE Coordinators

From Lisa Childers, a history teacher at Fraser High School in Fraser, Michigan:

"Contact the NIE coordinator for your local newspaper. In our community, the coordinator is very helpful and has tons of lesson plans for teachers to use and modify."
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4. Question of the Week: Meaningful Tasks

From the Works4Me Worker Bees:

"What are ways to make mundane administrative tasks like attendance and lunch count meaningful for your students?"
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5. Lunchroom Atmosphere

Heard Last Week in the Works4Me Lounge from Claire, a teacher in Minnesota:

"I need ideas on how to maintain a reasonable eating atmosphere with a large group (200 students) in a lunchroom where the sound bounces off the walls and hard tile floor. The noise level is not tolerable for many children because to be heard by your friends at your table one has to use a very loud voice. The level just keeps rising as the lunch period progresses."
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