Dear Access Instructors,
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a. Analyzing the online tools presented below:
b. Select one you feel more comfortable with,
Other Newspaper lesson plans resources:
English language students discover a whole new world through newspapers, new words, new phrases, new ideas and even new faces! They may have read the news in their own language but reading it in English is so much more exciting and puts the English language into context for them. Today e are going to explore together how we could integrate newspapers into EFL teaching through online and face-to-face interactive activities.
Task 1. In groups of 3, analyze the following resources and state in a form of a short written paragraph:
a. 2-3 reasons to use Newspapers in English Classrooms; and
b. 1-2 challenges the teachers could have while working with authentic press, and ways to overcome these issues.
2. Read the following articles that present the instructive strategies of using Newspapers in English teaching:
a. 2-3 reasons to use Newspapers in English Classrooms; and
b. 1-2 challenges the teachers could have while working with authentic press, and ways to overcome these issues.
- Using Newspapers in Classrooms
- Newspaper in Education: Hands-on Learning
- How to Use Newspaper Articles in the Classroom
- How to Teach English Using Newspapers
2. Read the following articles that present the instructive strategies of using Newspapers in English teaching:
, choose which 3 activities, strategies you consider most interesting, and most appropriate to your Access students' level, and explain through a written comment how you could integrate them into your current Access teaching process.
3. Scavenge the following Newspaper Lesson Plans:
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and select one you like the most.as an English instructor. Explain in writing ( maximum 3 phrases) your choice, offering 2-3 supporting details and arguments.
4. The Internet could serve either a useful informative and methodologic resource to work with Newspapers articles during the English lessons, or an environment of easy and free newspaper generators/creators.
a. Analyzing the online tools presented below:- Printing Press with lesson plan samples involving this tool: Imagine that Playing, Leading Great Places, Significant Influence of a Teacher
b. Select one you feel more comfortable with,
c. Create a 50-word newspaper article on "How could Newspapers contribute to my Access students' progress?", and
d. share it via email access@americancouncils.md
d. share it via email access@americancouncils.md
Other Newspaper lesson plans resources:
Enjoy our list of recommended sites with news:
News in Levels
http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/News
http://www.timeforkids.com/news-archive/entertainment
http://edition.cnn.com/studentnews
http://tweentribune.com/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/
http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/News
http://www.timeforkids.com/news-archive/entertainment
http://edition.cnn.com/studentnews
http://tweentribune.com/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/
Participants' Assignments on Using Newspapers in EFL Classes:
Task 4: Participants' Newspapers:
- Daria Prozorovschi.
- Emma Matreniuc
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- Margarita Bicec:
- Mihai Soltan:
- Olga Taran:
Task #1
ReplyDelete1. -- newspapers are out of school curriculum and this is challenging for sts to be "en vogue";
2.--learn to follow the rule of writing and article, the role of a reporer, interviewre;
3.--enrich the vocabulary form an authentic article;
1. --the news might be distorted and the teacher might not always know how to veryfy or interpret;
2.-- to select the proper article to be understood for language level of group;
Dear Emma and Arina,
DeleteThanks a lot for sharing your ideas!
It's beneficial to use newspapers because the information they provide is up-to-date and they can also be found online, which means that there would not be issues with accessing them at no cost. Moreover, the language that is used is authentic, which would provide students with an accurate image of the English-speaking world.
ReplyDeleteThe challenges we might encounter are complicated terms or phrases, or, sometimes, the information presented might be inappropriate for the students' age.
Yes, girls you are right. When I have brought into the classroom a British newspaper, my students began to study it so attentively (the news was about Royal family). I understood newspapers are a very good resource for our EFL lessons, this authentic material can help us a lot in increasing students knowledge. Of course the articles should be selected or recommended for the students as you already said they are not always appropriate for them.
DeleteFirst of all using Newspapers in English Classrooms help students to discover the real life, the real people and real events. Also, students emprove their reading skills and critical thinking. There are some challenges of this method: not always are good example in newsparers, students might be influensed by author's opinion etc.
ReplyDeleteDear Natalia and Olga, yes, the newspaper is indeed a great resource that helps the students discover the real life. In my opinion, true stories always have a more striking effect, than the fictitious ones, that's why we as teachers should use them as much as we can. In addition to the advantages you listed, I want to mention that newspapers are very good for teaching vocabulary as well, since new words are usually put into context, and articles are also accompanied by suggestive pictures which are helpful. Also, by working with newspapers, you help the students learn different styles of language, since the style of the newspapers is absolutely different from the colloquial one.
DeleteI think that we can bring a lot of fun into the EFL classroom since in addition to teaching the subject we can give some life lessons as well. When working with newspapers, we can teach our students to select the information and to consult several sources before forming their opinion. I agree that teenagers tend to be influenced by someone, but there is a way to avoid that, by giving the students two articles on the same topic, but written from different perspectives. After working with the articles, they will have to express their own opinion regarding the topic. This exercise will make them think critically, and will make them select the information they are exposed to, an action that each person should take in today’s world.
I hope that you will try to work with newspapers in the classroom in the near future. If you do, please share with us your impressions, tell us what has worked well and what has not. Good luck!
Task #2: 3 activities/ strategies I could integrate them into my current Access teaching process.
ReplyDeleteI have never worked before with newspaper as with an authentic material for my regular and Access lessons, but after reading these articles I will surely take advantage of few of them.
Taking into account the particularities of my Access students I would give preference to the following : Arrange in sequence the pictures of a comics, Read a map to gain more information about the place a story is located in, and Newspaper treasure hunt (Where students have to scan more than 1 article in a newspaper to answer the questions).
All these strategies give the opportunity to develop students' Critical Thinking and involve the tactile perception, when manipulating the pictures to arrange them in the correct order, turning over the pager on the newspaper to find the necessary information or skimming the world map "to settle" a newspaper story.
I would use the Read a map and the Newspaper treasure hunt strategies as a while reading activity to stimulate students interest and make my lesson more interactive.
To activate my students vocabulary, the Arrange in sequence technique sound like the perfect choice - after introducing and practicing the new vocabulary, the learners could create a story (in pairs or groups) and after compare with the original one.
Daria, two years ago while I was having an online course I learnt that authentic materials are very helpful, and they are not only newspapers, they can be touristic guides, different adds etc. Students are very motivated to work with subjects that are actual. I agree that the activities mentioned by you will develop critical thinking, enrich vocabulary and their general knowledge. So newspapers are an unlimited resource for English classes. I also found interesting the read information and will be of much help for me too.
DeleteHello Diana,
DeleteThank you a lot for sharing you ideas about "authentic materials". I personally had neglected this source for a long period and preferred to work with sometimes boring and outdated texts simply because I didn't have other options and I didn't know where to look for a more interesting content.
However, today, having such a variety of resources it wouldn't be fair to leave out newspapers and any other texts written by native English speakers.
Respectfully,
Daria
Hincesti
Task #3
ReplyDeleteFirst thank you for the great list of the resources we have access to now.
Analyzing all these materials I decided that I would prefer to work with the lesson plan on the topic "Anti-ageing chocolate" because it explores 2 of the most popular topics: health and food.
Another reason I opt for this resource is the variety of activities I could use for different levels of English my Access students possess (Fill - in - the Gaps, Matching Exercises, Multiple Choice Quizzes, True / False Statements, Leading Discussions, Writing Compositions, etc.) and the fact that all these activities help to develop all 4 skills (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking).
Another important detail is that this site (Breaking News English) provides the on-line activities that can be easily offered by the teachers as homework assignment, launching in this way the Blanding Learning Method and giving more responsibility to students.
Respectfully,
Daria
Dear Daria,
DeleteYou do very good choice for lesson indeed I think these two subjects are the most important for information because it is an important part for present and future students. I agree that this method develops all four skills (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking) which is very necessary in learning.
Task #2
ReplyDeleteThe are numbers of activities among those investigated to be used for Access students. The most appropriate seems to be “ Remove titles from articles ”,that provokes students’ imagination to guess, to use their creative Odissey of the Mind skills. Exploring Geography -- makes English an interdisciplinary subject -- they learn terms, definitions, proper and common names, titles, -- much of what they know in their native language or did not know at all; moreover, here we can use video tours/resources/materials as online additional tools and instruments to perform visual adds to what they see on the static images. What might be better than reading, talking and watching and discussing at the same time.Writing an outline for an article – developing writing skills. Sort and classify activity – using labeled boxes and fill them with adjectives or/and verbs till the end of the week – that is a tremendous source of developing vocabulary and organizing the sharing of who and in what article saw the same tings.
Dear Emma,
DeleteI agree with you that all the activities can be useful and they are interesting, but as you have mentioned we have to choose those that could work best with the students we have. I liked the idea with interdisciplinarity, this is a very important thing we have to take into account while teaching.
Task #3
ReplyDeleteThe “Let’s write a newspaper story!”, the articles from Breaking News—are amazing sources and have extremely good lesson plans and elaborations on how to work with an article.
My attention was stopped on “Writing a news report”.
It helps students learn how to collect the information they need according to the given topic, how to structure on paper what they have found out and arrange their thoughts; it develops the ability to organize the events and transform them from native language thinking into English. In such work they permanently ask and construct questions. Moreover, teacher is always involved in their activity, helping them to work both in a team and/or independently.
Finally, such work with the article, serves to develop thinking, writing and speaking skills, analytical thinking and is a good start to identify the talents in writing, composing or journalistic abilities.
Emma, Thank you for your insights about the lesson plan. This kind of exercise is very useful for students because they learn as you have mentioned how to organize their ideas. Another important thing is to develop their critical thinking on a given subject, this is what we should not avoid in our teaching process.
DeleteTask 1:
ReplyDeletea) 1. Newspapers provide well-selected, interesting information
2. While working with newspapers students are involved in the process of listening, reading, writing and speaking
3. They learn new vocabulary
b) 1. It's difficult to find appropriate articles that would fit them (interest and English level)
2. The information can be wrong or useless. That's why we have to select articles that would provide real information and would teach them something about the American lifestyle, culture, habits...
Task #2:
ReplyDelete3 activities/ strategies we could integrate them into our current Access teaching process:
As we have worked with newspapers, we have used some activities as Story Speculation, Synonym matching, Change the title, change the end of the story... that 've given a visible result. We can use really diverse techniques while working with newspapers because they are adaptable and flexible, build good reading habits and bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world. Depending to the topic, we can play some games, ask questions and express our opinions.. We find newspapers really useful because of their multifunctionality.
Task #3:
ReplyDeleteWe would like to use a well working method ''Let's write a newspaper!''. We'd make small groups by 4 people and each group would have a specific theme to work on, as health, food, sport, school, free time, pets... In the process of writing an attractive article, students will have to include original information, use colorful pictures and specific vocabulary. As well, they will have the great chance to work in groups and create their own article. So, they will be eager to work on such a task and will be proud about their work.
Dear Gheorghe,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a wonderful project, I think the student will enjoy designing the newspaper and then actually having others read it! Do you plan to send it to others? If so, how do you plan to send it out - online or paper? One final question: who would you send it to? I also think the students will like the group participation, they get to work with friends, it lightens the load - great!
Best,
Sheryl
Dear Sheryl,
DeleteI think that this newspaper project/ lesson can be shared online as well. We could manage to have some beautiful posters in our classroom and to make an online version of our articles. Of course, our students could share their thoughts via internet and show them to their friends. Thanks for your good questions. :)
Best,
Taran Gheorghe
It is a huge amount of information we, as teachers can use during our classes. I have never worked before with newspaper as with an authentic material for my regular and Access lessons, but after reading these articles I will surely take advantage of few of them.
ReplyDeleteTaking into account the particularities of my Access students I would give preference to the following : Arrange in sequence the pictures of a comics, Read a map to gain more information about the place a story is located in, and Newspaper treasure hunt (Where students have to scan more than 1 article in a newspaper to answer the questions).
All these strategies give the opportunity to develop students' Critical Thinking and involve the tactile perception, when manipulating the pictures to arrange them in the correct order, turning over the pager on the newspaper to find the necessary information or skimming the world map "to settle" a newspaper story.
I would use the Read a map and the Newspaper treasure hunt strategies as a while reading activity to stimulate students interest and make my lesson more interactive.
Dear Vera,
DeleteI am so glad you find all these activites interesting and useful. I hope you students will enjoy reading newspapers. More than that, I think it would be great to find out that your students made up their own newspaper using online tools.
Good luck!
Task #2
ReplyDeleteThe first strategy would be to do warm-up questions. They can be brainstorming or quizzes based on the subject that is going to be studied. A second good strategy is to have either role plays or debates which will be interesting for the students, as they will be lively engaged into a conversation and therefore learn to think critically. The third strategy would be feedback and motivation. Students need to know what they did wrong and where they succeeded in order for their interest to be maintained.
Task #3
ReplyDeleteI personally prefer the "Exploring a Newspaper" lesson plan. This template is very accessible for the students since only one copy of the local newspaper for every two students is needed. Exploring a newspaper means understanding the information that is presented to you and trying define the main idea/goal of the paper, which is a good skill that is needed in our daily life.
Task 2
ReplyDeleteNewspaper treasure hunt, Classifieds and Photo Articles are the best strategies that I could integrate in my Access Class. I like them because they are fun for the students and make them think critically. We could integrate that in my class by bringing newspapers and by making the students work in groups of two.
Task 3
ReplyDeleteMy favorite lesson plan is the "Exploring a Newspaper". It will help the students to locate three sections of the newspaper, name the main parts of a newspaper article and recognize the main idea of a newspaper article. This is why I would love to implement it into my Access class.
Task #1
ReplyDelete1. Using newspapers in EFL classes as an authentic material for the lessons is a beneficial source for students to enrich their vocabulary in a favorable way.
2. Reading several articles, students start avoiding trivial patterns and notice an increase in their writing skills. They shape their own style of writing.
A challenge might be the reliability of the information provided by the article. We cannot be 100% sure, this information is true, so we have to check out more sources and then present the newspaper to the students.
Task#3
I found the most attractive the lesson plan “Let’s write a newspaper story!” The students have to be in the place of a reporter. Thus, they learn about different types of writing. Being in the role of a reporter, they would become more focused on a certain task, as reading a newspaper correctly and thoroughly.
Dear Mihail, I am sure your students will like to have the role of reporters. Your task is to give them the topic. It should be actual and easy to be discussed. You may brainstorm with your students the ideas of newspaper articles. They know for sure what might be interesting for their community of pupils, teenagers, etc.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Thank you again for all the knowledge you distribute,Good post. I was very interested in the article, it's quite inspiring I should admit. I like visiting you site since I always come across interesting articles like this one.Great Job, I greatly appreciate that.Do Keep sharing! Regards,
ReplyDeleteHaute Living