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Mixed Media Applications

Using the Newspaper as a Tool for Teaching

by Aparna Nambiar

Have you ever considered using the newspaper as a teaching resource in your classroom or at home with your children? The daily newspaper can instill enthusiasm for learning in the minds of young children. It could be a welcome change in your list of teaching resources. The newspaper can enliven a classroom of students, whose normal props are unchanging school textbooks.

Why do we read newspapers? The usual reasons that we read them are for news and entertainment. Try using the same reasons as a tool to teach. For a start, the newspaper can be used for effective communication, problem solving, investigation, critical thinking, effective use of technology, responsible citizenship, and career education.

Newspapers can provide a way of engaging students to work on outcomes that are vital to the whole school curriculum. For language arts, encourage students to read articles aloud to improve comprehension skills and to work crossword puzzles to strengthen vocabulary. For history, offer the events in the newspapers for analysis and show how the media influences our understanding of history. In studying science, help students understand ecological and environmental issues and discuss why these issues may be hard to locate in the mainstream press. Use the advertising techniques to create awareness among the students about the power of persuasion in health and physical education. For music, inspire students to investigate the influence of music, radio, and television on their musical taste and consumption. Provide photographs and articles for family studies, which could be used to generate discussions regarding the influence of media and how media interpret messages.

Here are some activities that you can offer your children:

Ask the children to circle all the words on a page of the newspaper that relate to the sense of smell.
Encourage the children to find synonyms for the word 'said' from page 1 of the newspaper.
Inspire the children to pick out unfamiliar words from the newspaper and write them on a piece of paper. Show them how to use the dictionary to learn the meanings of the words.
Ask the children to divide all of the headline words into syllables.
Give the children some of the photographs. Have them write a report based on what they see or write a suitable caption for it.
Have the children pay attention to the advertisements and notice the places where they appear in the newspaper. Help them to prepare an ad for a class newspaper.
Show the children how to prepare their own newspaper with reports, articles, photographs features, and all!

Save the newspaper from the kitchen table after reading it over your morning cup of tea. Introduce it to your students and children at a young age. It will bridge the gap between classroom or home and the "real" world outside. Here's wishing you luck for crossing this bridge!

Aparna is qualified in the field of Communication Media for Children and wishes to use her skills in this field to help children become better consumers of the Media. She has worked with children and is currently a freelance writer.

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