Using Newspapers in the Classroom

A newspaper is not just for reporting news; its for getting people so mad they will do something about it.
--Mark Twain --Mark

Why use newspapers?

 Easily adaptable for all ability levels  Ideal for individualized instruction  Use for all curriculum areas and grade levels  Contain practical vocabulary  Can be marked, pasted, colored, and cut  Real-world textincreases relevancy Realtext

Why use newspapers?

 They can be used for individual or cooperative ideas  Give your students a current source of information  Cost-effective Cost Readily obtainable  To promote a habit of reading  They are interesting and motivating for students

Standards
 4.12.1,4.12.2-analyze text features 4.12.1,4.12.2 4.12.3 locate, organize, interpret, synthesize information  4.12.4 critique power, logic, reasonableness of argument  5.12.4 write summaries or abstracts  8.12.1summarize and evaluate communications  2.12.3 plan ,monitor and assess comprehension strategies

Newspaper Activities
      
My life in Headlines Wacky headlines Who am I? Fact and opinion in the news Scavenger Hunt Teaching with the classifieds More activities than I can tell you about

My life in headlinesa great headlines beginning of the year activity

 Before the lesson, make up a collage which gives personal information about yourself using only newspaper headlinescomplete headlines headlines, phrases and individual words.  You should feel comfortable about explaining anything in your collage to your students. In addition, you will need a stack of old newspapers , construction paper, scissors and glue.

My life in headlines--2 headlines--2

 Show your students your headline collage and explain how the words and phrases relate to you personally. Encourage your students to discover information about your life by asking you questions about anything they do not understand.  With glue, paper, and newspaper headlines, your students will make similar collages containing information about themselves.  While your students are working on the collages, circulate about the room dealing with any vocabulary and language problems.  I find that I get the most productivity out of this activity if I limit the amount of time that I allow for collage production.

My life in headlines--3 headlines--3

 When the time for collage completion is over, ask students to turn to a partner and explain their collages. Allow two minutes for each student to share, and then ask them to find a new partner.  Continue the sharing for a few turns and then ask the students to display them on the classroom walls.  This is a non-threatening way to create nonclass climate, and learn things about your students.

Wacky Headlines
        Kids make nutritious snacks Police help dog bite victim Miners refuse to work after death Hospital sued by 7 foot doctors Panda mating fails; veterinarian takes over Lung cancer in women mushrooms Eye drops off shelf Safety experts say school bus passengers should be belted

More Wacky Headlines

 Stolen painting found by tree  Red tape holds up new bridge  Chef throws his heart into helping feed the needy  Arson suspect is held in Massachusetts fire  Local high school dropouts cut in half  Include your children when baking cookies  Juvenile court to try shooting defendant

Activity
 Write one of the ambiguous headlines on the board Kids make nutritious snacks  Ask your kids to explain the double meaning of the headline  Ask students how the headline could be rewritten to make the intended meaning clear  Give students several of the ambiguous headlines on a handout and ask them to rewrite them as a group or individual activity  Have students choose one of the ambiguous headlines, and as a group or individual activity write a short story based on the amusing, unintentional meaning.  Ask your students to look for further examples of ambiguous headlines and share them with the class.

Who am I?
This activity is a good one for later in the year, after the students have formed community, and feel comfortable sharing more about themselves. Give each student a few pages of the newspaper and ask them to cut out words and phrases which describe themselves. You can make the task harder or easier by asking them to find certain parts of speech or only words from headlines.

After each student has found and cut out a certain number of words, (this activity takes at least fifty word to be successful) have them form a picture of their faces using the words. This activity is really simple, but I have always had great participation and the students take great care to create a beautiful face collage using the words to form eyes, nose, hair etc. Some of them are really exceptional.

Fact and opinion in the newspaper

Students often assume that what they read in the newspaper is fact. This activity refines student ability to distinguish fact from opinion in news reporting. Point out to students ways in which news reporters avoid the appearance of personal opinion or judgment by using qualifying words or phrases. These qualifying words include reportedly, was reportedly, reported to be, was thought to, allegedly, was believed, etc.

Give each student or pair of students a news section of the newspaper and ask them to find two articles which interest them and cut them out. After they have done this, ask them to read the articles carefully, looking for qualifying phrases and words in the articles and highlighting the sentences which contain opinion. Again this activity is best when the students are timed. As a culminating activity, ask students to share the article, and read several of the sentences which they found to contain opinion. This is a powerful lesson for the students as they hold up their articles and show how much of the article is highlighted, reflecting a writers opinion and not pure fact

Scavenger Hunt
 Excellent skimming and scanning practice.  Can be cross-curricular as items sought crossmay be items referring to any discipline.  Fun, fast and often competitive  This activity is easily adaptable as you can change the number and difficulty of items for individual students

Can you find.?

 A used Ford for less than $500.00  A place to hear Irish music  The oldest person on the obituary page  A story about a mouse  A recipe for bouillabaisse  The price of Iams dog food  Two places to have your teeth whitened  What movie is playing at 7:30 at the cinema 12  A story about the governor  A used fiddle for sale  The score of the football game  Why Jerry Frenz is angry?  The interest rate on a new Dodge pickup truck  The address of the local library  The time of the AARP meeting  The publishers name  Etc.

Teaching with the classified ads

Give each your students a task to complete using the classified ads: 1. You have $1,000 and you must furnish your apartment. Cut out advertisements which contain items you need and can afford. Keep a running total of how much you have spent and how well you have completed your mission.

Advertisements
Ask your students to find ten jobs in the classified ads and rank them from the most desirable to the least desirable, with an explanation for your feelings toward each occupation. Ask your students to cut out many unusual items which are for sale in the classified ads: a player piano, a large parrot cage, an unused wedding gown, etc. Place these items in a container and ask each pair of students to choose three of the items and write a newspaper article in which the three items appear conspicuously.

Describe your ideal house to the students, describing it in as much detail as you can. Give your students the classified pages which contain the ads for houses for sale. Read a few of them and explain any terms they do not understand. Pair your students and ask them to describe their own dream house to their partner, again giving as much detail as possible. Tell your students to take notes on their partners description. When all pairs have finished, each student should read the classified ads trying to find the closes possible match to their partners dream house. When all students have found what they think is the closest possible match, ask them to show the advertisement to their partner and explain why they chose it for them.

Tell each of your students to write a list of three people they would like to buy presents for, and the reasons why: birthday, thank you present, special occasion. Pair students and ask partners to exchange lists and tell each other about the people on their lists, their hobbies, what they are interested in etc. The listener should take notes based on the information about each person on the list. When your students have exchanged lists and information , each student will choose presents for their partners list of people,(money is no object for this exercise) and then explain why they chose the present that they did.

More activities than I can tell you about

 After reading the obituary page and noting the format, have students write obituaries for objects that are ready to be gone: old tennis shoes, a bad habit etc.  Read the advice column with your students and write and answer letters.  Geographyask students to search the Geography newspaper for stories that illustrate each of the five themes of geographylocation, place, human geography interactions and the environment, movement and communication, and regions. Display the stories on a labeled bulletin board.

 Expand vocabulary --assign each student a letter --assign of the alphabet and using skimming and scanning have them find as many words beginning with that letter as possible, then have them sort them according to parts of speech. Look for words:  with a particular suffix or prefix  Compound words  Words in the past, present, and future tenses  Possessives  Misspelled  Similes and metaphors  Hyperbolesatire etc. Hyperbole

 Outliningafter teaching the rudiments of Outlining outlining, give the students a newspaper and have them select an article to read and then outline the story.  Who, what ,when, where, whyGive each why student a newspaper. Have each select an article. On a piece of paper have them list the five Ws. Next to the five Ws have them list the information from the article that pertains to each. Encourage them to write the answers in sentence form.

 Content discriminationgive your students discrimination a page of the paper and have them highlight good news in one color and bad news in another. Have them explain their reasoning to a partner.  Parts of speechSelect two or three parts speech of speech and have your students search the paper for words that match the category. Using scissors have them cut out the words and glue the words on a piece of paper according to the part of speech label.

 After studying a certain author or topic, ask students to find articles that pertain to the topic or which the person in question would like, hate, be angry about etc. We just studied Thoreau and our newspaper was filled with articles to enrage Henry, according to students.  Have your students make a poster, collage or booklet of what they feel are the most important items for a week. Instruct them to give reasons why they included each item.

 Have students find five advertisements in the newspaper and ask them to list the products in order, according to the appeal of the ads. Distribute a list of propaganda techniques to the students: bandwagon, card stacking, glittering generalities etc. and have them determine the propaganda techniques used in each ad and to rate the effectiveness of the techniques. As a followfollowup ask the students to design their own ads using one of the propaganda techniques.

 Have students write found poetry using words and phrases cut from the paper. I find these work best if they are given a theme to write on such as war or the economy.

Sources for presentation

Paul Sanderson --Using Newspapers in the --Using Classroom . 1999 The Teachers Desk Using Newspapers in Desk the Classroom. http://www.teachersdesk.org Education WorldTen Great Activities: World Teaching with the Newspaper. http://www.educationhttp://www.education-world.com