Students today are sophisticated collectors of news.  "Did you hear about the storm in New York City?" and heads nod.  "Yeah, I saw it on channel 4."  Few people appear to read the newspaper.

I grew up with two newspapers in my home so it is strange to be with young people who don't read a newspaper daily.   Some students approach a newspaper activity with doubts:

DOUBTS
1.  Why are we reading a newspaper in the classroom?   I can do this at home.
2.  What should I look for?
3.  Can I mark the newspaper?
4.  Can I cut out the paper?
5.  How can I cut it out without scissors?
6.  Do you have glue?
7.  I don't like glue.  Do you have tape?
8.  I forgot my notebook.   Where should I put my article?

A newspaper activity is a "fill in" for some teachers, but requires planning to avoid these doubts or to answer them.   The first question (This is not a valuable exercise.  Why are we doing this in class?  I can read by myself") indicates that the student doesn't understand that this exericse is more than a reading exercise.  It is a SCANNING exercise (find a cool headline and or a photo that is interesting) and then cut it out to show someone.  It's a COMMUNICATION exercise, often turning into a conversation starter.

Some students do not know what the exercise is for -- "Why aren't we reading the same article together?" is the typical question.  The point is for each student to turn into a megaphone to explain the topic to the other students.  Learning through passions and interests has been shown to be effective, and students who select an article that interests them tend to memorize the new words more easily.


Having materials handy in the classroom or i
n your carry-around bag is helpful in addressing most of the questions.   I usually address the question about "not having a notebook" by finding an empty space in the school textbook because the students buy their text.

Here's how I described the activity to my director in a school newsletter:

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HUNT FOR AN INTERESTING ARTICLE:  In the world of the Internet, it is still a useful skill to find an interesting article and say, "Wow, i didn't know that" to start a conversation in class. In our class with newspapers, the students found several photos or articles and said, "This is amazing!"  "I can't believe this!"  "I didn't know he died!"  or "That's incredible!" or "Only in the USA!"  Then the partner asked, "What are you reading about?" to start the conversation.  Each student cut out at least one article and glued it in a book, then underlined the difficult words and we learned ways to remember the names.  For example, we learned that TUSKS for elephants are really TEETH, so we can remember how the word "tusk" starts by thinking of "teeth."

The newspapers are recycled after the class and the students have an article with vocabulary words to recycle later in the week.  One of the week's test questions is "Use at least two new words that you have been studying in a sentence."

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In short, in a world of instant updates through Twitter and CNN and BBC, a newspaper seems "last century," but the paper format is helpful for slowing down and studying and finding new words.  Using articles for each student makes the classrom more diverse and aids in forcing students to communciate with each other (Why are you interested in that article?  What does that word mean?)