In the News-using a daily news story to spark/discussion/writing

[Gail Hennessey]

Want to engage your students in the news? I’ve begun a daily news page on my website.The news stories I'm posting are about interesting things going on in the news that aren’t top news stories of the day but are news stories which I thought might interest young people. Each story, includes a website for more information. The news story of the day could be used to get kids discussing the topic and could perhaps be used as a daily writing prompt. Hope you find this to be a positive addition to your classroom day! Check out today’s story at: http://www.gailhennessey.com/index.shtml?news.html
Additionally, I will archive the previous news postings as well.
Gail

[annettemcd]

In our community, the local paper, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner (Fairbanks, Alaska), get contritbutions from local businesses to support a program which supplies copies of the daily newspaper to schools. A stack of papers is then delivered to any school requesting them, free of charge to the school. These are available to any teacher who wants to use them on a regular or irregular basis. (I was doing a guest lecture on Friday and used the newspapers myself for instruction in desktop publishing and marketing.) You might want to contact your local paper and if such a program does not exist, propose it. Newspapers can be used in many classes --not just social studies, but English, Economics, Math, Science, Life skills, Health, etc.

Years ago, I know that CNN had a special news broadcast for use in schools. It was broadcast early in the morning and could be taped. There was a different theme each day of the week and a daily summary and worksheet which could be downloaded off the internet. As I remember it was short enough to use without taking up an entire period, did not need to be used daily, could be used in bits and pieces, but was well done and aimed at students with an emphasis and language which would appeal to 5-9 graders. (I just checked; it is called, of all things :rolleyes:, "Student News.")