(Adapt the activity levels in the following guides to fit the needs of your class!)
Celebrate Diversity!
Help students understand and appreciate the history, culture and contributions of diverse cultural groups. Units provide students with experiences in communicating, negotiating and cooperating with others to solve interpersonal and intergroup problems. Through the use of the newspaper, students relate the nature of bias to current issues facing individuals, communities and nations. Activities are designed to allow students to read, write, discuss and apply critical thinking strategies.
Challenges and Choices
Activities help students examine challenges they face as individuals, as members of their communities and as citizens of the world. Teachers are encouraged to select the lessons that meet the needs of their classrooms in six different challenge areas: the information explosion, personal challenges, citizenship, global challenges, the arts and the future.
Conflict and Resolution
Written by three conflict resolution experts, this guide uses real-life examples, activities, puzzles and games to help students understand and resolve everyday disputes. Peer mediation and guided role-play are introduced!
Creating a Classroom Newspaper
Designed for five days of instruction, this guide allows your class to practice, prepare and create its own newspaper. Each day’s work has been organized with a teacher’s lesson plan, student worksheets labeled “Reporter’s Notebook,” and ideas for additional activities called “On Assignment.” Students, who understand the structure of the text they are using, read with more understanding!
Education for Freedom, Lessons on the First Amendment!
This guide was prepared by the First Amendment Congress – a coalition of communications organizations – as part of its commitment to making all Americans aware of the importance of their First Amendment freedoms. Included are five basic areas: religion, speech, press, assembly and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. The goal is to develop teaching the First Amendment at all levels.
In My Opinion
The Newspaper and Persuasive Writing was designed to be used with students in grades 4-12. Ideally, it is meant to be in a 10 to 20 week progressive unit of study. But it can be adapted, used a few at a time, and out of sequence if you want. Initial activities build awareness of persuasive messages in general and opinion writing in newspapers in particular. Later activities take students step by step through finding, researching, writing and presenting an opinion about a topic, issue, or situation of special interest or importance.
Massachusetts, Read All About It!
This guide explores the past, present and future of Massachusetts through the newspaper. The activities encompass many facets of our state and community including history, government, culture and geography. Teachers will find a variety of activities and exercises that are all designed to encourage discussion and exploration of Massachusetts and Lowell. The appendices contain glossaries and pages that can be duplicated. (Including activities for Lowell.)
Measuring up in Math
Addressing the NCTM Standards for school Math (K-8 or 9-12) Take steps toward preparing your students for the unpredictable future! In this guide, the National Council of Teachers of Math offers effective instructional practices, which make math learning more relevant and more transferable. Provided are activities that meet the standards and use the newspaper to do so! A bonus unit – a shopping spree -is included.
Multiple Intelligences
MI theory helps teachers develop different learning opportunities for students and provides ideas for teachers to design activities for performance assessment. Based on the work of Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, who has identified seven “intelligences:” Linguistic – the capacity to use words effectively; Logical-Mathematical – the capacity to use numbers effectively; Spatial – the capacity to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately; Bodily-Kinesthetic – the capacity to use one’s whole body to express ideas and feelings; Musical – the capacity to perceive, discriminate and transform and express musical forms; Interpersonal – the capacity to be sensitive to the moods, intentions, motivations of people; Interpersonal – self-knowledge and ability to act on that self-knowledge. Activities are organized according to seven intelligences. They become progressively more difficult. Appropriate for Grades 1-6
Multicultural Community: Understanding Our Changing Society
People in our society must learn to live and work together without prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination and racism. This unique curriculum guide presents these major concepts through lesson ideas and student activities designed to heighten an awareness and encourage positive change for a better community. All lessons and exercises incorporate the daily newspaper. Appropriate for grades 4-10.
Native Americans
Provide students with a link to the indigenous people of North America! This unique resource is divided into four sections: The Story, The Struggle, The Land and The Legacy. It includes historical biographical information and includes Chief Joseph, as well as many less familiar personalities of the 20th century. Thought-provoking newspaper lessons enhance reading, writing, social studies and problem solving skills.
Presenting…Your Portfolio!
How students do in school isn’t just a story of grades and tests and papers anymore. School districts across the nation are turning to portfolios as an expanded approach to assessment. But many students and teachers, too, need a primer on how portfolios work. This is a hands-on walk through a themed portfolio on weather. The activities provide examples of all different types of portfolios teachers may use. (L, M, Sc, A)
Presidents, Politics and the Process
Capturing each President’s personal imprint on U.S. History, this well-focused book of lessons is also designed to relate themes and events which distinguished past presidential administrations to today’s world. Written for use by teachers with grades 4-8 and should be adapted to meet the individual needs of the students.
Survival Skills for the Student at Risk
This guide focuses on expanded learning opportunities for the potential secondary school dropout. It is filled with creative lessons integrating subject areas to motivate those students who have high interest levels (non-academic) and low reading levels. Included also as part of this guide is a chapter defining the characteristics of “at-risk” students and a method for addressing this problem in the school environment. All activities incorporate the daily newspaper. (self-awareness, social studies, language arts, math, science, life skills.)
Talking about Freedom
A teacher’s guide to the First Amendment – this contains copies of advertisements, suitable for handouts or classroom display, along with ready-to-use exercises and discussion guides and suggestions for interdisciplinary activities.
The Weather Page (Understanding how weather happens)
From basic physics and geography to explaining barometric pressure and air patterns that affect storms, this guide teaches the how’s and why’s of weather. The easy-to-understand lessons, activity sheets, experiments and illustrations teach about the familiar. (temperature, humidity, clouds, and precipitation)
The Writer’s Workshop
Students often complain “I can’t think of anything to write about!” Great story ideas often come from everyday life. And everyday life comes to us in the daily newspaper! This guide shows kids how to mine newspaper stories, ads, photos, and headlines for writing ideas – weird plots, unsolved mysteries, unusual characters and settings.