Introduction


The newspaper is a valuable source of information and an effective vehicle for enhancing the learning process. The major issues and events of the day that are covered in the news keep readers informed about the world around them. This teacher's guide has been created to assist the teacher in using the newspaper in the classroom while addressing the major content areas of the curriculum. Each learning activity focuses on a specific skill from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills to help teachers plan and organize. Although the skill for each activity is noted, these activities are appropriate for various grade levels and address other skill areas as well.

Read and Repeat

Skill: 3.5 Reading/ word identification
Have the students follow along as you read the headlines from the front page. Have them repeat the headlines after they have been read. Can any of the students read any of the headlines on their own?

Find the Letter

Skill: 3.1 Listening/speaking/purposes
Have the students find letters from the headlines and work with those letters. Can they find a word that begins with the letter "C"? Can they find a word that begins with the same letter as their name? You may want to play a game with them. Ask them to find a word that begins with "C" and then let the student who finds the word ask the class to find the next letter-sound.

Get the Job Done

Skill: 3.7 Reading/variety of texts
What jobs in the classroom need to be done? Have the students look at the help wanted ads to see how they are written. Have them read some ads aloud. They can create a chart to show what the abbreviations mean. Then they can write an ad looking for someone to do a classroom job.

Getting to Know You

Skill:3.8 Reading/vocabulary development
Your students may know someone with whom they want to become friendlier. In order to tell more about themselves to a new person they can create a collage of words and pictures from the newspaper that represent facts about them and the things they like.

Headline Charades

Skill: 3.10 Reading/literary response
As a class, play "Headline Charades." Have students scan the newspaper, paying attention to the action in the headlines. For example, "Snow Snarls Traffic" or "Texas Stuns Opponent." Ask students to select or clip several examples of action headlines. Working individually or in teams, have students select one headline to act out for the rest of the class. Using only body language and other non-verbal communication, challenge students to get the class to guess the headline as quickly as possible.

Defining

Skill: 3.12 Reading/inquiry/research
The students can choose a word they do not know from headlines or ads. They can use a dictionary to define the word and then draw a picture to represent that word. Let them make their own dictionaries with these words and pictures.

What Did You Know, What Did You Learn

Skill: 3.9 Reading/comprehension
Select a newspaper story that would be interesting to your class. Ask the students what they already know about the topic and write their responses on the board. Read or paraphrase the story. Then ask the students what they learned from the reading. Record their responses. You may also want to ask them what more they would like to learn about the subject after hearing the story.

Television Reporters

Skill: 3.3 Listening/speaking/audiences
Find interesting, age-appropriate stories in the newspaper and read them to the class. Let students pretend to be TV news reporters and tell the news back to the class by reporting what is in the story in a one-minute presentation.

Heroes and Villains

Skill: 3.17 Writing/grammar/usage
Who is a hero? Who is a villain? Have students find examples of both in today's newspaper and then write a description of each. What impact do they have on your students' lives?

Listen and Act

Skill: 3.17 Writing/grammar/usage
Choose a short, interesting story from the newspaper to read to students. The stories should involve some action so students can act out the parts. Or, you can have the class memorize a line from the story to say together. Students can also make up short poems about the pictures they see and read them aloud.

Photo Description

Skill: 4.1 Listening/speaking/purposes
Cut apart several photos and their captions. Have the students look at the photos and tell what is happening in each picture. Then they can read captions aloud and match the photo with each caption. Did they correctly describe the events in the photo? Can a photo have more than one description? Ask several students to describe what is happening in the same photo to get different perspectives.

Make a Guess

Skill: 4.2 Listening/speaking/critical listening
Go through one section of the newspaper at a time. Have the students determine or guess what information is found in each section of the newspaper. Their responses can be recorded on experience chart paper. The students can examine the ads and find logos, store names or products that they recognize. Can they explain why advertisements are in the paper?

Disaster Films

Skill: 4.16 Writing/penmanship/capitalization/punctuation
Instruct your students to imagine that they are producers of a disaster movie. Have them scan the newspaper looking for an event that could translate into a film. They can outline a movie plan including plot sketch, casting and locations.

Capturing Emotions

Skill: 4.19 Writing/writing processes
A range of emotions can be found in the newspaper. Invite your students to find someone in the newspaper who is feeling the same way they are feeling today. Each person can find someone and write an explanation of that person's feelings. What would that person say about their feelings?

Find the Middle Ground

Skill: 4.21 Writing/inquiry/research
Can your students find a conflict situation in the newspaper that could benefit from a compromise between the parties? Have them write summaries of the problem and the possible compromise.

Comic Character Analysis

Skill: 4.14 Reading/culture
Have each student select two comic strip characters from the newspaper and list the ways in which they are alike and different. They can then do the same for themselves and one sibling or friend.

Fantasy Friend

Skill: 4.10 Reading/comprehension
What famous person in the newspaper would your students most want to have for a friend? Have them write three questions that they would like to ask the person they selected.

Meanings and More

Skill: 4.9 Reading/vocabulary development
Can students search the newspaper for words that are synonyms, antonyms or homonyms? Which words have multiple meanings? Encourage students to use a variety of word-reference materials to check their ideas.

Timeline

Skill: 4.13 Reading/inquiry/research
The students can use the newspaper to find a story with several significant events that could be placed on a timeline. They should create a timeline of the events and include the date and location.

Word Bank

Skill: 5.6 Reading/word identification
The students can create a word bank of words from the newspaper. Assign each student one unfamiliar word. They can use a dictionary to verify the meaning of the word. Have them write a sentence using the word and draw a picture illustrating the meaning. They should find an antonym and synonym for each word.

Responding to Reading

Skill: 5.8 Reading/variety of texts
Ask students to choose one news or feature story and identify the main idea. What opinions, predictions or conclusions can students draw from the story? After reading, assign students to create an outline, web or other graphic organizer for the story.

Dream Job

Skill: 5.19 Writing/writing processes
What do your students dream about, career-wise? Have them find a dream career in the help wanted ads. Each student can write a letter to a prospective employer detailing why they should be hired.

Newspaper Info

Skill:5.13 Reading/inquiry/research
A newspaper has so much information. Talk with students about how one can use a newspaper to find a job, a place to live, a car, entertainment and even a mate! They can use the newspaper as a reference to find information such as where the president is, the television lineup for this evening or the sports scores from yesterday. Have the students create a list of questions that could be answered from the information presented in the newspaper.

Survivor

Skill: 5.18 Writing/grammar usage
Have your students imagine that they are going on an extended trip. What supplies do they think they would need to make the trip? Students can browse through the newspaper looking for five items they would absolutely want to have with them if they were planning a trip. Have them write a reason explaining why they chose each one.

Job Interview

Skill: 5.11 Reading/literary response
Ask students to find someone in the newspaper they would want to work with. Then give them five minutes to write five questions they would want to ask this person at a job interview.

Sports Talk

Skill: 5.20 Writing/evaluation
Sports articles often have great examples of vivid, figurative language. Review a story from the Sports section with your students to find that kind of writing. Have them underline descriptive words or phrases. Discuss why use of vibrant language is important in writing. They can write their own descriptive paragraph about another sports event.