Newspapers
Genre Definition
A newspaper is a publication that is issued daily or weekly. It can be found in print or online. In print, a newspaper looks like a bunch of pieces of paper that aren't stapled together, it stays together by the way it is folded. You may have seen your parents reading a newspaper in the morning. A newspaper has information about what's happening in your town, in the country, or around the world. A newspaper contains different types of articles or stories. These may be news articles, feature articles, editorials, or advertisements.
Classroom Use
Reading Activity: Instruct students on how to read a newspaper. Explain how long stories are often split up into different sections of the newspaper. Explain that headings and subtitles help us know what the story is going to be about. Give students a variety of newspapers and have them discover the types of information that newspapers provide on their own.
Writing Activity: Cut headings and subheadings out of some newspapers. Give a strip to each student and have them do a five minute free-write about what they think the article is going to be about. Then have students read the actual article and see how close their predictions were.
Social Studies Activity: Have students read an article about an international issue. Then have them locate the city/country on a map. Include technology by having them do more research about the country. What is the country’s capital, language, and currency?
Art Activity: Give students an opportunity to have some fun and get their hands dirty by creating a papier-mache project.
Selection Process
In order to select a quality text there are several things to look for. When picking out newspapers to use in your elementary classroom, the most important aspect to consider is it's purpose. If you are having your students read articles from the newspaper, you'll want to look into it's text complexity. Most newspapers are written for adults. So it is important to question if the majority of the articles found in the newspaper contain content that is at your students' frustration level. If so, try finding newspapers that are written with children in mind. Time for kids is a great place to start looking for articles that are at the appropriate reading level for your students.
Texts that I Recommend
Summary: Tells the story of two young boys, Jake and Charlie, who sell newspapers to survive. The New York Sun prints stories and pictures of discoveries made using a new kind of telescope that can see all the way to Africa. Largely focused on the purpose of newspaper headlines.
Text features: This book includes colorful collage pictures, large kid-friendly text font, and an author's note that provides a background of which this story is based.
Awards: Children's Book Award, Committee at Bank Street Award, College Best Children's Award, Book of the Year Award, Junior Library Guild Selection
Book Reviews: "This book would be a good supplement to a unit on how news reporting has changed over time." --Library Media Connection
"Multimedia collages illustrate the news reports' fanciful elements as effectively as they express the story's rather bleak setting and its darker edge." --Booklist
APA citation: Krensky, S. (2010). The great moon hoax. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books.
Lexile: 750L
Text complexity grade band: 4-5
Read aloud grade band: 2-3
Support: It may be necessary to bring in real samples of newspapers for students who may have never seen or read newspaper. Build students background knowledge on forms of communication.
Summary: A website that provides links to news articles, videos about current events, and non-fiction texts in line with the Common Core ELA, Science, and Social Studies. This webiste is a great online resource for both students and teachers.
Text features: This website is appealing and easy to navigate for students. It provides a multitude of ways to search for articles; such as by grade level, by content area, or by type of multimedia.
Website Reviews: "This safe site, written for kids, by kids, offers news from a younger point-of-view."--Teachersfirst
Link: http://www.dogonews.com/
Grade level: 2-12
Support: Students may need help accessing the website and training on keyboarding skills.
