Free Curriculum Guides for Teachers Using Newspapers

The use of the newspaper in each curriculum area can assist the classroom teacher in motivating students by making the skills and concepts learned in school more relevant. Perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to learning from a student point of view is that the work being completed in the classroom has no meaning, no application outside the classroom walls.

A teacher's reasons for using the newspaper in his/her classroom vary widely, but often include teaching students to:

• use the newspaper (and other media) as 'real world' text for all subjects, content skills and concepts
• use the newspaper (and other media) effectively as tools for information
• use the newspaper (and other media) in the creation of student media projects

The curriculum guides listed here will make it easier for teachers to meet their classroom goals. All of these newspaper guides address classroom standards that are easily applied to your classroom Grade Level Expectations. The suggested grade levels listed in parentheses after the title of each guide are a recommendation only. You are the best judge of what your students are capable.

Teachers using the American Press in their classrooms may order up to three different printed/paper copies of these guides (titles) with a maximum of one copy of each guide (title). Teachers not using the American Press in their classrooms will be asked to pay a nominal fee of $2.00 per printed/paper guide to cover postage.

Many of these guides (titles) are available for download. Click the appropriate link to download the guide. Teachers may request unlimited downloaded guides (titles). Teachers should call the American Press Newspaper in Education office at 337-494-4011 or 800-737-6891 or send e-mail to nie@americanpress.com with your request for a password to open the guides.

High Five Lesson Plans

The NAA Foundation, with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has developed High Five in an effort to address concerns about student achievement.

"The Nation's Report Card," a report released by the National Center for Education Statistics in August 2000, presented summary data from 30 years of trend assessment for 9-, 13- and 17-year-olds. The report showed no progress over the period. There were gaps between achievement of white students and students of color in all age groups.

"The Nation's Report Card" data from 2004 revealed improvement for 9- and 13-year-olds, but no changes among 17-year-olds. The comparison between white students and those of color continued to cause concerns. While the gap between white and black students on reading scores narrowed in all three age groups, the gap between white and Hispanic students did not differ in the 13-year-old group.

High Five places special emphasis on schools with students who are majority-minority, low-income and/or primarily conversant in a language other than English. Further, it expands the reach of student newspapers, found most often in high schools, into middle schools.

High Five provides an integrated, three-unit curriculum that includes reading, writing, journalism, grammar, linguistics and visual literacy. All materials are age-appropriate for middle-school students. The curriculum uses the daily newspaper as a textbook and information source.

Each unit is designed to be used as a stand-alone piece. However, the power of the curriculum lies in interrelated concepts presented in the individual units.

Click to download: Unit A | Unit B | Unit C

Teaching Reading with your E-Edition (a 64-page PDF activity guide for grades 4-12) Students practice reading skills using the E-Edition with plentiful student activity sheets in 19 themed units, each unit contains 4-5 daily lessons. Unit topics include Build Reading Skills, Reading for Meaning, Learning Reading Clues, Recognizing Story Techniques, Improving Vocabulary and much more. Lessons include standards addressed by the activities.

Super Skills for e-Editions (2.6 MB pdf) (a 100-page activity package for grades 4-12) Introduces e-Editions to students and teachers. The lessons explore academic subject areas through e-Editions. More than 100 activity sheets exploring the workings of e-Editions and teaching Language, Math, Science and Social Studies through the e-Edition. Activities tiered for Elementary, Middle and High School. All activities written to state and national standards. Technology activities introduce the features of e-Editions and teach students and teachers how to use them. Lessons contain standards and skills addressed meeting grade-level expectations.

Teaching Science with Your e-Edition (1.1 MB pdf) (a 42-page activity guide for grades 4-12) Explore science using the e-Edition in 15 themed units with plentiful student activity sheets. The units include Science in the World, Space Exploration, Lifestyle, Communication, Animals, Habitats, Plants, Getting Involved, Places & Cultures, Ecosystems & Resources and more. Students study science everywhere, high-tech jobs, science fiction, energy conservation and many other topics in these units. Lessons contain standards and skills addressed meeting grade-level expectations.

Teaching Writing Skills with Your e-Edition (768K pdf) (a 46-page activity guide for grades 4-12) Students practice writing skills using plentiful activity sheets as they explore the e-Edition in 16-themed units. The units include Expressing Heritage, Meeting Challenges, Appreciating Literature, Studying Surroundings, Ways to Write the News, Becoming Better Writers and much more. Lessons contain standards and skills addressed meeting grade-level expectations.

Teaching Election '08 with your e-Edition (392K pdf) (a 38-page activity guide for grades 4-12) Students use the e-Edition to track the 2008 presidential election in 14-themed units. Units include Elections & e-Editions, Assessing Candidates, News Is Always Changing, Experience & Issues, The Power of Politics, Ethnic Issues in Politics, Building for the Future, The Opinions and more. Lessons contain standards and skills addressed meeting grade-level expectations.

Connect to the World: Improving Comprehension with the Newspaper (a 62-page curriculum guide primarily for grades 6-12 with a section for grades 3-5) Meet comprehension grade-level expectations using this guide and your newspaper. The 62-page guide features 14 lesson plans, each with a student activity sheet for middle-school and high-school students. Also included in the guide are 14 elementary-level pages for younger students. They parallel the lesson plans and activities in the guide and focus on local and community news. Activities in the teacher's guide are designed to help students improve their reading comprehension by making connections to self, to the world and to text through newspaper activities. The newspaper is the perfect resource for helping students make these connections because it matches their prior knowledge, interests and experiences.

Electing the President (for grades 4 and up, 30 pages) is a free election resource for teachers. The guide is based on the League of Women Voters (LWV Choosing the President book and other LWV resources). The election resource is available online now in letter-size PDF format. There are also many newspaper election activities provided (last 5 pages).

Students will learn about all aspect of elections as require by state standards. State standards usually include:
• Explain what an election is
• Describe, explain and evaluate the election process including:

* Voter Registration
* Primary Elections & Caucuses
* Political Party Conventions
* General Elections
* The Electoral College

• Describe, analyze, and evaluate the role of the press in political life and elections in the U.S.
• Explain the role of the media in setting the public agenda.
And many other social studies, civics and government standards.

P1 "It's NIE for K to 3" (a 76-page curriculum guide for grades pre-kindergarten-3) The contents of the guide focus on the areas of newspaper knowledge, language arts, math, social studies, health and science lessons. These pages may be used in individualized learning or learning centers, for small group or large group instruction or for practice or enrichment. Teachers of pre-kindergarten to first grade students may need to read the instructions with the students so that each one understands each task clearly. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed on each activity.

P2 "NIE ... It's Elementary" (a 75-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-5) The activity guide is developed to assist elementary educators in classroom use of the newspaper. The sections of the guide are designed to aid the educator in the introduction of the newspaper and its various sections to young students. The activities in each section of the guide emphasize skills in language arts, math, social studies and science. The activities do not require sequential use. These pages may be used in individualized learning or learning centers, for small group or large group instruction or for practice or enrichment. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed on each activity.

P3 "Newspapers: Touching the Kaleidoscope of Your Mind" (2.5 MB PDF) (a 55-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-12) Newspaper activities in this guide are organized according to the seven intelligences of Multiple Intelligence theory. The main section contains 70 activities for students in grades K-5. The ideas at the beginning of each section (intelligence) are for primary students. The second section at the end of the guide contains 17 activities designed for middle school and secondary students. All of the Multiple Intelligences are thoroughly explained for the teacher and student in the guide.

P4 "Special Education and Cooperative Learning" (an 82-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-12) Newspaper activities in this curriculum guide are organized into four units-a Kindergarten-Grade 2 unit, a Grade 3-5 unit, a Grade 6-8 unit and a Grade 9-12 unit. Each unit contains descriptions of 10 instructional activities and 10 worksheets. Each lesson uses the newspaper as a primary resource and gives the standard addressed. Lessons teach language, math, social studies and thinking skills.

P5 "Writing with the Newspaper" (a 25-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-8) This language arts guide provides descriptions of the basic types of writing — narrative, descriptive, comparative, expository and persuasive. Examples of writing activities are included with each type of writing. The guide also provides dozens of exciting ideas to enrich classroom-writing lessons with the newspaper and is divided into units for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8.

P6 "Election Primary" (a 36-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-3) This guide will assist teachers of primary grade students to use the newspaper in the study of the elections. The activities focus on the few months before the election. The final page of supplemental activities should provide the teacher with some ideas to use on or after Election Day.

E1 "NIE ... It's Elementary" (a 75-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-5) The activity guide is developed to assist elementary educators in classroom use of the newspaper. The sections of the guide are designed to aid the educator in the introduction of the newspaper and its various sections to young students. The activities in each section of the guide emphasize skills in language arts, math, social studies and science. The activities do not require sequential use. These pages may be used in individualized learning or learning centers, for small group or large group instruction or for practice or enrichment. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed on each activity.

E2 "Special Education and Cooperative Learning" (an 82-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-12) Activities in this curriculum guide are organized into four units-a Kindergarten-Grade 2 unit, a Grade 3-5 unit, a Grade 6-8 unit and a Grade 9-12 unit. Each unit contains descriptions of 10 instructional activities and 10 worksheets. Each lesson uses the newspaper as a primary resource and gives the standard addressed. Lessons teach language, math, social studies and thinking skills.

E3 "Newspapers: Touching the Kaleidoscope of Your Mind" (2.5 MB PDF) (a 55-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-12) Activities in this guide are organized according to the seven Intelligences of Multiple Intelligence theory. The main section contains 70 activities for students in grades K-5. The ideas at the beginning of each section (intelligence) are for primary students. The second section at the end of the guide contains 17 activities designed for middle school and secondary students. All of the Multiple Intelligences are thoroughly explained for the teacher and student in the guide.

E4 "What's Black and White and Read All Over?" (a 45-page curriculum guide for grades 4-8) This exciting guide offers 10 activities each for language arts, math, science and technology and social studies at the elementary and middle grades. These reproducible activity pages with the newspaper offer the teacher a unique opportunity to motivate students, broaden knowledge and reinforce basic skills.

E5 "Writing with the Newspaper" (a 25-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-8) The language arts guide provides descriptions of the basic types of writing — narrative, descriptive, comparative, expository and persuasive. Examples of writing activities are included with each type of writing. The guide also provides dozens of exciting ideas to enrich classroom-writing lessons with the newspaper and is divided into units for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8.

E6 "Creating a Classroom Newspaper" (780K PDF) (a 30-page curriculum guide for grades 3-8) The journalism guide teaches the parts and purposes of newspapers as students understand their daily newspaper. Students will learn to write news articles, feature stories and editorials and to design advertisements. The guide also serves as planning guide for students who want to produce their own newspapers. The symbols (*) shown in the lower right-hand corner of each student worksheet indicate the level of the activity (*=elementary, **=intermediate and ***=advanced). Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed in the guide.

E7 "And Time Marches On: Current Events in the Newspaper" (a 57-page curriculum guide for grades 4-10) There is not another resource like the newspaper that can provide the ongoing, daily reporting of local, state, national and international news, accompanied by a wealth of interpretation of news events with a local perspective. The sections of the guide focus on understanding general news, local news, national news and international news issues.

E8 "The Sunday Edition" (a 36-page curriculum guide for grades 5-12) The guide contains activities to discover the unique content in the Sunday edition of the newspaper. Activities in this guide may be used in a variety of content areas, though most activities are interdisciplinary. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed for each activity in the guide.

E9 "Science in the News" (a 70-page curriculum guide for grades 4-10) The newspaper is a tremendous source of information for its readers, but used in the science classroom as a learning guide, the newspaper becomes a continuing source of motivation for learning. Because the newspaper lends relevance to the daily science curriculum, students develop an awareness of the crucial role science plays in their daily lives. The units of the guide include health and nutrition, the environment, earth science, careers/technology and general science.

E10 "Mathematics in the News" (a 57-page curriculum guide for grades 4-10) The newspaper can be a valuable tool for the mathematics teacher in convincing students that consumer and basic math skills are crucial in everyday life. From a simple calculation of the total cost of a few grocery items to the more challenging calculations of total cost of a car or a house, the newspaper is an extremely viable tool for introduction to real life problem-solving techniques via mathematics.

E11 "Elections!" (a 50-page curriculum guide for grades 3-12) The guide is designed to provide teachers with activity ideas to focus on candidates, issues, resources and the elections process. Elections content can be found in comics, letters to the editor, advertising, editorials, and editorial cartoons, as well as front page and business news. Perhaps the most important reason for using the newspaper to study governmental processes is to assure that the future of our country rests in the hands of a reading, thinking public.

E12 "Newspapers and the Net" (a 43-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide is designed to help students and teachers make connections between the newspaper and Internet resources. The guide is divided into background and activities. The background contains a discussion of the purposes of this resource and some basic Internet vocabulary, suggestions for working with the Internet. Lessons are divided into three parts, a newspaper activity, the Internet link and an extension activity that asks students to think ahead.

E13 "Read All About It: Your Neighborhood, Your Nation, Your World" (a 31-page curriculum guide for grades 3-8) The guide is designed for five days of instruction. It allows students to explore the five themes of geography, location, place, relationships within places, movement and regions. Each day's work has been organized with a lesson plan and student worksheets, labeled Understanding your World. The symbols (*) shown in the lower right-hand corner of each worksheet indicate the level of the activity (*=elementary, **=intermediate and ***=advanced).

E14 "Using the Newspaper to Teach About the Constitution" (a 9-page curriculum guide for grades 3-8) The newspaper-related activities that follow are divided for use in elementary and middle grades. Each section includes one full lesson and class handout, plus a list of additional activities. Students will need copies of the constitution and the newspaper to complete most exercises.

E15 "Using the Newspaper in the Upper Elementary and Middle Grades" (5.3 MB PDF) (a 71-page curriculum guide for grades 4-8) The guide offers 10 lessons for each of the subject areas, newspaper knowledge, language arts, science, math and social studies. Each lesson describes its objective, lists materials needed to accomplish that objective and then provides detailed instructions to the teacher. Many of the activities have the Louisiana benchmarks listed on the activity.

E16 "Citizens Together: You and Your Newspaper" (a 30-page curriculum guide for grades 3-10) The guide is designed for five days of instruction. It provides the opportunity for your class to explore the individual freedoms protected in the Bill of Rights. Five specific rights have been identified in daily focus lessons. Each day's work has been organized with a lesson plan and student worksheets. The five lesson plan topics are: Your Right to Know, Your Right to Express Your Opinion, Your Right to Assemble, Your Rights in the Legal System and Your Right to Be Secure. The symbols (*) shown in the lower right-hand corner of each student worksheet indicate the level of the activity (*=elementary, **=intermediate and ***=advanced).

E17 "Newspapers: Exploring the Dimensions of Thinking" (a 29-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide is designed for five days of instruction. It allows your class to identify and apply a variety of thinking processes or skills in many different contexts. Each day's work has been organized with a lesson plan and student worksheets, labeled Exploring your thinking. The symbols (*) shown in the lower right-hand corner of each worksheet indicate the level of the activity (*=elementary, **=intermediate and ***=advanced). Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed with each activity.

E18 "Just Think! Higher-level Thinking Skills and the Newspaper" (a 34-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide focuses on helping students develop higher-level thinking skills using the newspaper. Content standards in every subject area, language arts, social studies, geography, math and science, require students to use the higher-level thinking skills of evaluation, synthesis and analysis.

E19 "Football Fan Fare" (a 41-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide uses newspapers and the game of football to motivate students and reinforce skills in language arts, social studies, science and mathematics. The sections of the guide focus on each of the content areas above. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed for each activity in the guide.

E20 "Comic Strips ... Newspaper Capers" (an 80-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide contains 69 comic strip activity sheets and 41 supplemental activities. Each activity has a clearly defined purpose and statement of student perceived outcomes. Categorized in the table of contents under Comic Strip Understandings, Values and Human Behavior, Social Problems and Issues, Language Arts Foundations and Creative Writing/ Development, the activity pages and supplemental activities provide a comprehensive package for teacher selection. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed for each activity in the guide.

E21 "Put First Things First: Using the Newspaper to Teach the Five Freedoms of the First Amendment" (168 K PDF) (a 41-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. This teachers guide introduces the five freedoms of the First Amendment to students at all grade levels. Each freedom has one elementary level activity, one middle school activity and one high school activity.

E22 "100 Ways to Use the Newspaper in Bilingual Spanish/English" (244 K PDF) (100 newspaper activity cards for grades 4-8 and adult learners) The 100 activity cards include ten lesson each for newspaper knowledge, language arts, social studies, math, science, critical thinking, character education and 30 subject unassigned. The cards are printed in English on one side and Spanish on the other side.

E23 "Keep It Real — Newspapers, the Ultimate Informational Text" (1 MB PDF) ( a 50-page curriculum guide for grades 4-8) This guide is the latest (2006) Newspaper In Education curriculum guide available. It brings excitement and passion to the celebration of literacy, reading and NIE programs. The goal of NIE is to reinforce a positive and relevant lifetime reading habit in students by engaging them with an authentic text — the newspaper. Until recently, much classroom reading instruction has focused on fiction and narrative texts. But studies show that even primary children like nonfiction topics and texts. Students like learning about the real world, and real-world reading requires the ability to read and understand informational text. What students need is instruction in how to read the expository text structures found in nonfiction and informational text. And the newspaper is the ultimate informational text.

E24 "Multigenre Research Projects Using Newspaper Genres" (852K PDF) (a 27-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The research paper has been a cornerstone of American education for well over 100 years. Students were taught to select a topic and find documented information on that topic. Usually students were taught to use index cards to collect and organize the information before writing an extensive essay. This essay was then revised and edited and students were given a final grade on the project.
With the great changes in society, research is still essential, but not necessarily in the traditional format expressed above. Few people today will need to write their research in a formal essay with footnotes and an extensive bibliography. Instead people today are being asked to publish their research in a manner that other people can easily digest. Readers want graphic application formats that speak to the type of information that needs to be communicated. Readers usually do not have the time to read extensive research papers unless it is part of their job description.
Even though the multigenre research paper is gaining in acceptance and popularity each year, we do not want to minimize the importance of the traditional research paper. There is a definite place for both in our curriculum. In some schools a formal research paper is done one year and a multigenre research paper the alternate year. In some schools, students do mini multigenre research papers throughout the year. In other schools students are shown both types of formats and are then empowered to make a choice. Multigenre writing has become one of the most productive approaches teachers can use to help students write creative, informational research reports. This guide will help teachers succeed in that effort.

E25 Now I Get It! (852K PDF) (a 67-page guide for grades 4-12) This guide provides a variety of lessons and activities to help students develop their comprehension skills. It also includes information about current comprehension skills research and national standards for reading comprehension. The material is appropriate for both middle and high school students. Special activities are included for elementary students. There are 12 lesson plans, each with accompanying student activity sheets. The lessons contain background and instructions, and have the following components: newspaper focus, background, before reading (introduce the lesson), during reading (direct instruction), after reading (reflect and review) and a performance rubric.

M1 "Creating a Classroom Newspaper" (780K PDF) (a 30-page curriculum guide for grades 3-8) The guide teaches the parts and purposes of the newspaper as students understand their daily newspaper. Students will learn to write news articles, feature stories and editorials and to design advertisements. The guide also serves as planning guide for students who want to produce their own newspapers. The symbols (*) shown in the lower right-hand corner of each student worksheet indicate the level of the activity (*=elementary, **=intermediate and ***=advanced). Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed in the guide.

M2 "Press Ahead" (a 71-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The journalism guide provides background on the different sections and elements of the newspaper. It includes an instructional guide that requires students to go beyond a quick overview of the newspaper components by analyzing the structure, language and connections of different parts of the newspaper. The guide also serves as planning guide for students who want to produce their own newspapers. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed in the guide.

M3 "N the News" (a 60-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The guide gives teachers access to cutting edge lesson plans created by teachers for teachers which utilize the daily newspaper as the class textbook. The eight journalism units in the guide include a set of lesson plans, activities and assessments that utilize the daily newspaper. The eight units include the evolution of the newspaper, law and ethics, information gathering, writing news, writing features, writing opinions, writing sports and headlines and cutlines. Lesson objectives for each lesson are aligned with National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) standards and Louisiana benchmarks.

M4 "Messages & Meaning" (2.3 MB PDF) (a 60-page curriculum guide for grades 6-10 with a family media guide for parents of elementary school students) The curriculum guide serves as an introduction to the forms and issues related to media literacy (using media). The activities are designed to be used with middle school students, but may be adapted to upper elementary or secondary students. Instructional activities are organized around four units: Accessing, Analyzing, Evaluating and Communicating Media Messages. May be used before "Mastering the Message" for a deeper understanding of media.

M5 "Mastering the Message" (2.3 MB PDF) (a 49-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The guide is designed to help students gain control of media messages by analyzing them and using what they learn to create messages of their own. Most lessons can be used over several days or weeks. Each lesson contains several parts: a brief overview of the topic, background information and discussion points, student activities with steps to analyze and discuss the topic, student activities where students use the knowledge they have gained to create or develop a media message and suggested assessment tools (rubrics) for evaluating the student work.

M6 "The Sunday Edition" (a 36-page curriculum guide for grades 5-12) The guide contains activities to discover the unique content in the Sunday edition of the newspaper. Activities in this guide may be used in a variety of content areas, though most activities are interdisciplinary. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed for each activity in the guide.

M7 "Exploring Your World with Newspapers" (a 38-page curriculum guide for grades 5-8) The activities in this curriculum guide are organized into seven units. Each unit contains descriptions of instructional activities, suggested worksheet formats and actual full-size worksheet pages. Lessons integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in multi-disciplinary activities and include individual and group activities. The curriculum includes activities in geography, economics, the environment, government and other content areas.

M8 "Challenges and Choices" (2.2 MB PDF) (a 35-page curriculum guide for grades 5-8) The activities in this guide are organized into six units. Each unit contains descriptions of instructional activities, suggested worksheet formats and actual full-size worksheet pages. Lessons integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in multi-disciplinary activities and include individual and group activities. Six content strands are woven through the challenge units: self-esteem, multicultural education, civic competence, literacy/language, geography and economics.

M9 "Newspapers and the Net" (a 43-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide is designed to help students and teachers make connections between the newspaper and Internet resources. The guide is divided into background and activities. The background contains a discussion of the purposes of this resource and some basic Internet vocabulary, suggestions for working with the Internet. Lessons are divided into three parts, a newspaper activity, the Internet link and an extension activity that asks students to think ahead.

M10 "Special Education and Cooperative Learning" (an 82-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-12) Activities in this curriculum guide are organized into four units-a Kindergarten-Grade 2 unit, a Grade 3-5 unit, a Grade 6-8 unit and a Grade 9-12 unit. Each unit contains descriptions of 10 instructional activities and 10 worksheets. Each lesson uses the newspaper as a primary resource and gives the standard addressed. Lessons teach language, math, social studies and thinking skills.

M11 "Newspapers: Touching the Kaleidoscope of Your Mind" (2.5 MB PDF) (a 55-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-12) Activities in this guide are organized according to the seven Intelligences of Multiple Intelligence theory. The main section contains 70 activities for students in grades K-5. The ideas at the beginning of each section (intelligence) are for primary students. The second section at the end of the guide contains 17 activities designed for middle school and secondary students. All of the Multiple Intelligences are thoroughly explained for the teacher and student in the guide.

M12 "Citizens on Assignment" (a 70-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) This guide provides teachers with concrete suggestions on how to use the newspaper as the basis for a curriculum to promote a constructive, participatory citizenry. It contains three major section and can easily integrated into either language arts or social studies courses such as history, government, law, American problems or current events. The section titles are: Citizens Beat, What Can You Do About the News and See It in Print.

M13 "Newspapers Maintain the Brain" (1.3 MB PDF) (a 41-page curriculum guide for grades 3-12) The activities in this guide to teaching critical thinking with the newspaper offer a process for learning. The lessons take students through steps to arrive at a level of understanding. Each activity requires thought and creativity. Each activity is labeled to indicate approximate grade level, E=Elementary, M=Middle Grades and S=Secondary grades.

M14 "Citizens Together: You and Your Newspaper" (5.7 MB PDF) (a 30-page curriculum guide for grades 3-10) The guide is designed for five days of instruction. It provides the opportunity for your class to explore the individual freedoms protected in the Bill of Rights. Five specific rights have been identified in daily focus lessons. Each day's work has been organized with a lesson plan and student worksheets. The five lesson plan topics are: Your Right to Know, Your Right to Express Your Opinion, Your Right to Assemble, Your Rights in the Legal System and Your Right to Be Secure. The symbols (*) shown in the lower right-hand corner of each student worksheet indicate the level of the activity (*=elementary, **=intermediate and ***=advanced).

M15 "What's Black and White and Read All Over?" (a 45-page curriculum guide for grades 4-8) This exciting guide offers 10 activities each for language arts, math, science and technology and social studies at the elementary and middle grades. These reproducible activity pages with the newspaper offer the teacher a unique opportunity to motivate students, broaden knowledge and reinforce basic skills.

M16 "Writing with the Newspaper" (a 25-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-8) The language arts guide provides descriptions of the basic types of writing — narrative, descriptive, comparative, expository and persuasive. Examples of writing activities are included with each type of writing. The guide also provides dozens of exciting ideas to enrich classroom-writing lessons with the newspaper and is divided into units for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8.

M17 "Using the Newspaper in the Upper Elementary and Middle Grades" (5.3 MB PDF) (a 71-page curriculum guide for grades 4-8) The guide offers 10 lessons for each of the subject areas, the newspaper, language arts, science, math and social studies. Each lesson describes its objective, lists materials needed to accomplish that objective and then provides detailed instructions to the teacher.

M18 "And Time Marches On: Current Events in the Newspaper" (a 57-page curriculum guide for grades 4-10) There is not another resource like the newspaper that can provide the ongoing, daily reporting of local, state, national and international news, accompanied by a wealth of interpretation of news events with a local perspective. The sections of the guide focus on understanding general news, local news, national news and international news issues.

M19 "Science in the News" (a 70-page curriculum guide for grades 4-10) The newspaper is a tremendous source of information for its readers, but used in the science classroom as a learning guide, the newspaper becomes a continuing source of motivation for learning. Because the newspaper lends relevance to the daily science curriculum, students develop an awareness of the crucial role science plays in their daily lives. The units of the guide include health and nutrition, the environment, earth science, careers/technology and general science.

M20 "Mathematics in the News" (a 57-page curriculum guide for grades 4-10) The newspaper can be a valuable tool for the mathematics teacher in convincing students that consumer and basic math skills are crucial in everyday life. From a simple calculation of the total cost of a few grocery items to the more challenging calculations of total cost of a car or a house, the newspaper is an extremely viable tool for introduction to real life problem-solving techniques via mathematics.

M21 "All Together Now: Living and Learning in a Multicultural Society" (92 K PDF) (a 37-page guide for grades 6-12 and ESL learners of any age) This teacher's guide contains 12 detailed lesson plans to help students to understand their own culture and the culture of others. Student activity pages accompany the lesson plans. There is also a section of activities specifically directed toward students for whom English in not their first language.

M22 "Elections!" (a 50-page curriculum guide for grades 3-12) The guide is designed to provide teachers with activity ideas to focus on candidates, issues, resources and the elections process. Elections content can be found in comics, letters to the editor, advertising, editorials, and editorial cartoons, as well as front page and business news. Perhaps the most important reason for using the newspaper to study governmental processes is to assure that the future of our country rests in the hands of a reading, thinking public.

M23 "Using the Newspaper to Teach About the Constitution" (a 9-page curriculum guide for grades 3-8) The newspaper-related activities that follow are divided for use in elementary and middle grades. Each section includes one full lesson and class handout, plus a list of additional activities. Students will need copies of the constitution and the newspaper to complete most exercises.

M24 "Celebrate Theatre!" (13.1 MB PDF) (a 44-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) This curriculum guide offers some starting points to involve students with theatre and newspapers. The activities in this guide are play-specific. The annotated entries may help teachers decide which plays to share with students. Students complete the activities after experiencing the play.

M25 "Celebrate Diversity" (a 63-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The activities in this guide are organized into eight units, Understanding Yourself and Others, Racial Diversity, Gender Diversity, Ethnic Diversity, Religious Diversity, Language Diversity, People with Disabilities and Reactions Against Diversity. The suggested activities are concentrated in three areas of critical thinking: awareness of the history and nature of prejudice, understanding how to value difference and applying knowledge to celebrate diversity.

M26 "Football Fan Fare" (a 41-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide uses newspapers and the game of football to motivate students and reinforce skills in language arts, social studies, science and mathematics. The sections of the guide focus on each of the content areas above. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed for each activity in the guide.

M27 "Read All About It: Your Neighborhood, Your Nation, Your World" (a 31-page curriculum guide for grades 3-8) The guide is designed for five days of instruction. It allows students to explore the five themes of geography, location, place, relationships within places, movement and regions. Each day's work has been organized with a lesson plan and student worksheets, labeled Understanding your World. The symbols (*) shown in the lower right-hand corner of each worksheet indicate the level of the activity (*=elementary, **=intermediate and ***=advanced).

M28 "Character Education Through the Newspaper" (a 36-page curriculum guide for grades 5-12) Positive traits of human character are not limited to those mentioned in this guide. At the bottom of several activity pages you will find enrichment ideas/activities related to the character concept on the page. Identified as character builders, these activities may encourage further discussion, private reflection and/or personal interaction with parents or adults about the topic. Parents of pre-adolescent and adolescent students will likely welcome the opportunity to talk about family values by focusing on the newspaper.

M29 "Using the Newspaper in Secondary Social Studies" (6.3 MB PDF) (92-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The activities in the guide are organized by subject area to reflect the practicality of the way things are in the social studies classroom. Activities are grouped into general social studies, history, government, economic and geography activities, with more than 40 activity sheets. The activities involve students in problem solving, conflict resolution, issues analysis and other kinds of approaches, which emphasize the collection, analysis and presentation of data.

M30 "Using the Newspaper in Secondary Mathematics" (a 13-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The guide provides secondary mathematics teachers with a series of meaningful activities that use the newspaper as a learning resource. The sections of the guide are: cultivating an awareness of mathematics, numbers, real life applications, working with data, probability and geometry and measurement.

M31 "Newspapers: A Good Read" (2 MB PDF) (Promoting Adolescent Literacy through Newspapers) (a 108-page curriculum for grades 6-12) First, all of the activities begin by finding certain information in the newspaper. Secondly, we provide ten core activities that deal with culture, which help us examine ourselves in the context of our cultural background. Thirdly, after each of the core activities, we provide related activities, some to extend the lesson and some based on the multiple intelligence theory, allowing students to spend time working from their gifts and talents.

M32 "Give Them the Keys" (Promoting Adolescent Literacy with the Newspaper) (a 60-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The adolescent literacy guide is designed to help teachers use the newspaper effectively in their classrooms. There are ten lessons accompanied by reproducible student activity pages. Each lesson contains a page for the teacher and an activity sheet for the student that can be duplicated.

M33 "Comic Strips ... Newspaper Capers" (an 80-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide contains 69 comic strip activity sheets and 41 supplemental activities. Each activity has a clearly defined purpose and statement of student perceived outcomes. Categorized in the table of contents under Comic Strip Understandings, Values and Human Behavior, Social Problems and Issues, Language Arts Foundations and Creative Writing/ Development, the activity pages and supplemental activities provide a comprehensive package for teacher selection. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed for each activity in the guide.

M34 "Using the Newspaper to Teach Higher Order Thinking Skills" (9.2 MB PDF) (a 59-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The materials in this publication are designed for secondary students in gifted programs who have mastered the fundamentals of the regular curriculum and need more advanced kinds of educational stimulation. However, while designed for use with gifted students, the authors believe that many of activities could be used successfully with a wide range of high-achieving students in regular classrooms.

M35 "Newspapers: Exploring the Dimensions of Thinking" (a 29-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide is designed for five days of instruction. It allows your class to identify and apply a variety of thinking processes or skills in many different contexts. Each day's work has been organized with a lesson plan and student worksheets, labeled Exploring your thinking. The symbols (*) shown in the lower right-hand corner of each worksheet indicate the level of the activity (*=elementary, **=intermediate and ***=advanced). Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed with each activity.

M36 "Just Think! Higher-level Thinking Skills and the Newspaper" (128 K PDF) (a 34-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide focuses on helping students develop higher-level thinking skills using the newspaper. Content standards in every subject area, language arts, social studies, geography, math and science, require students to use the higher-level thinking skills of evaluation, synthesis and analysis.

M37 "Put First Things First: Using the Newspaper to Teach the Five Freedoms of the First Amendment" (168 K PDF) (a 41-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. This teachers guide introduces the five freedoms of the First Amendment to students at all grade levels. Each freedom has one elementary level activity, one middle school activity and one high school activity.

M38 "100 Ways to Use the Newspaper in Bilingual Spanish/English" (244 K PDF) (100 newspaper activity cards for grades 4-8 and adult learners) The 100 activity cards include ten lessons each for newspaper knowledge, language arts, social studies, math, science, critical thinking, character education and 30 with unassigned subjects. The cards are printed in English on one side and Spanish on the other side.

M39 "ESL, the Newspaper and the Classroom" (84 K PDF) (a 30-page activity guide for elementary to advanced levels of ESL students) Features that distinguish the activities in this guide as ESL are their sensitivity to diversity; their immersion in American culture; their focus on specific language needs-vocabulary, idioms, sentence structure, paragraphing, rhetorical patterns, nuances within language (e.g. puns, symbols, abbreviations, metaphors, personification, analogy); and their rigorous expectations for students who already know another language and culture and therefore carry with them some sophisticated knowledge and skills.

M40 "Keep It Real — Newspapers, the Ultimate Informational Text" (1 MB PDF) ( a 50-page curriculum guide for grades 4-8) This guide is the latest (2006) Newspaper In Education curriculum guide available. It brings excitement and passion to the celebration of literacy, reading and NIE programs. The goal of NIE is to reinforce a positive and relevant lifetime reading habit in students by engaging them with an authentic text — the newspaper. Until recently, much classroom reading instruction has focused on fiction and narrative texts. But studies show that even primary children like nonfiction topics and texts. Students like learning about the real world, and real-world reading requires the ability to read and understand informational text. What students need is instruction in how to read the expository text structures found in nonfiction and informational text. And the newspaper is the ultimate informational text.

M41 "Multigenre Research Projects Using Newspaper Genres" (852K PDF) (a 27-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The research paper has been a cornerstone of American education for well over 100 years. Students were taught to select a topic and find documented information on that topic. Usually students were taught to use index cards to collect and organize the information before writing an extensive essay. This essay was then revised and edited and students were given a final grade on the project.
With the great changes in society, research is still essential, but not necessarily in the traditional format expressed above. Few people today will need to write their research in a formal essay with footnotes and an extensive bibliography. Instead people today are being asked to publish their research in a manner that other people can easily digest. Readers want graphic application formats that speak to the type of information that needs to be communicated. Readers usually do not have the time to read extensive research papers unless it is part of their job description.
Even though the multigenre research paper is gaining in acceptance and popularity each year, we do not want to minimize the importance of the traditional research paper. There is a definite place for both in our curriculum. In some schools a formal research paper is done one year and a multigenre research paper the alternate year. In some schools, students do mini multigenre research papers throughout the year. In other schools students are shown both types of formats and are then empowered to make a choice. Multigenre writing has become one of the most productive approaches teachers can use to help students write creative, informational research reports. This guide will help teachers succeed in that effort.

M42 Now I Get It! (852K PDF) (a 67-page guide for grades 4-12) This guide provides a variety of lessons and activities to help students develop their comprehension skills. It also includes information about current comprehension skills research and national standards for reading comprehension. The material is appropriate for both middle and high school students. Special activities are included for elementary students. There are 12 lesson plans, each with accompanying student activity sheets. The lessons contain background and instructions, and have the following components: newspaper focus, background, before reading (introduce the lesson), during reading (direct instruction), after reading (reflect and review) and a performance rubric.

S1 "N the News" (a 60-page curriculum guide for grades 9-12 and advanced grades 6-8) The guide gives teachers access to cutting edge lesson plans created by teachers for teachers which utilize the daily newspaper as the class textbook. The eight journalism units in the guide include a set of lesson plans, activities and assessments that utilize the daily newspaper. The eight units include the evolution of the newspaper, law and ethics, information gathering, writing news, writing features, writing opinions, writing sports and headlines and cutlines. Lesson objectives for each lesson are aligned with National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) standards and Louisiana benchmarks.

S2 "Press Ahead" (a 71-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) This journalism guide provides background on the different sections and elements of the newspaper. It includes an instructional guide that requires students to go beyond a quick overview of the newspaper components by analyzing the structure, language and connections of different parts of the newspaper. The guide also serves as planning guide for students who want to produce their own newspapers. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed in the guide.

S3 "Messages & Meaning" (2.3 MB PDF) (a 60-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12 with a family media guide for parents of elementary school students) The curriculum guide serves as an introduction to the forms and issues related to media literacy (using media). The activities are designed to be used with middle school students, but may be adapted to upper elementary or secondary students. Instructional activities are organized around four units: Accessing, Analyzing, Evaluating and Communicating Media Messages. May be used before "Mastering the Message" for a deeper understanding of media.

S4 "Mastering the Message" (2.3 MB PDF) (a 49-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The guide is designed to help students gain control of media messages by analyzing them and using what they learn to create messages of their own. Most lessons can be used over several days or weeks. Each lesson contains several parts: a brief overview of the topic, background information and discussion points, student activities with steps to analyze and discuss the topic, student activities where students use the knowledge they have gained to create or develop a media message and suggested assessment tools (rubrics) for evaluating the student work.

S5 "The Sunday Edition" (a 36-page curriculum guide for grades 5-12) The guide contains activities to discover the unique content in the Sunday edition of the newspaper. Activities in this guide may be used in a variety of content areas, though most activities are interdisciplinary. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed for each activity in the guide.

S6 "Using the Newspaper to Teach Secondary Language Arts" (736 K PDF) (a 57-page curriculum guide for grades 9-12) There are more than 200 language arts activities in this guide and more than 50 worksheets. The activities are classified as language arts foundations, writing applications, literature applications and speech applications.

S7 "Special Education and Cooperative Learning" (an 82-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-12) Activities in this curriculum guide are organized into four units-a Kindergarten-Grade 2 unit, a Grade 3-5 unit, a Grade 6-8 unit and a Grade 9-12 unit. Each unit contains descriptions of 10 instructional activities and 10 worksheets. Each lesson uses the newspaper as a primary resource and gives the standard addressed. Lessons teach language, math, social studies and thinking skills.

S8 "Newspapers: Touching the Kaleidoscope of Your Mind" (2.5 MB PDF) (a 55-page curriculum guide for grades kindergarten-12) Activities in this guide are organized according to the seven Intelligences of Multiple Intelligence theory. The main section contains 70 activities for students in grades K-5. The ideas at the beginning of each section (intelligence) are for primary students. The second section at the end of the guide contains 17 activities designed for middle school and secondary students. All of the Multiple Intelligences are thoroughly explained for the teacher and student in the guide.

S9 "Newspapers and the Net" (a 43-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide is designed to help students and teachers make connections between the newspaper and Internet resources. The guide is divided into background and activities. The background contains a discussion of the purposes of this resource and some basic Internet vocabulary, suggestions for working with the Internet. Lessons are divided into three parts, a newspaper activity, the Internet link and an extension activity that asks students to think ahead.

S10 "Comic Strips ... Newspaper Capers" (an 80-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide contains 69 comic strip activity sheets and 41 supplemental activities. Each activity has a clearly defined purpose and statement of student perceived outcomes. Categorized in the table of contents under Comic Strip Understandings, Values and Human Behavior, Social Problems and Issues, Language Arts Foundations and Creative Writing/ Development, the activity pages and supplemental activities provide a comprehensive package for teacher selection. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed for each activity in the guide.

S11 "Newspapers: A Good Read" (2 MB PDF) (Promoting Adolescent Literacy with the Newspaper) (a 108-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) First, all of the activities begin by finding certain information in the newspaper. Secondly, we provide ten core activities that deal with culture, which help us examine ourselves in the context of our cultural background. Thirdly, after each of the core activities, we provide related activities, some to extend the lesson and some based on the multiple intelligence theory, allowing students to spend time working from their gifts and talents.

S12 "Give Them the Keys" (Promoting Adolescent Literacy with the Newspaper) (a 60-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The adolescent literacy guide is designed to help teachers use the newspaper effectively in their classrooms. There are ten lessons accompanied by reproducible student activity pages. Each lesson contains a page for the teacher and an activity sheet for the student that can be duplicated.

S13 "All Together Now: Living and Learning in a Multicultural Society" (92 K PDF) (a 37-page guide for grades 6-12 and ESL learners) This teacher's guide contains 12 detailed lesson plans to help students to understand their own culture and the culture of others. Student activity pages accompany the lesson plans. There is also a section of activities specifically directed toward students for who English in not their first language.

S14 "Citizens on Assignment" (a 70-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) This guide provides teachers with concrete suggestions on how to use the newspaper as the basis for a curriculum to promote a constructive, participatory citizenry. It contains three major sections and can be easily integrated into either language arts or social studies courses such as history, government, law, American problems or current events. The section titles are: Citizens Beat, What Can You Do About the News and See It in Print.

S15 "And Time Marches On: Current Events in the Newspaper" (a 57-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) There is not another resource like the newspaper that can provide the ongoing, daily reporting of local, state, national and international news, accompanied by a wealth of interpretation of news events with a local perspective. The sections of the guide focus on understanding general news, local news, national news and international news issues.

S16 "Science in the News" (a 70-page curriculum guide for grades 4-10) The newspaper is a tremendous source of information for its readers, but used in the science classroom as a learning guide, the newspaper becomes a continuing source of motivation for learning. Because the newspaper lends relevance to the daily science curriculum, students develop an awareness of the crucial role science plays in their daily lives. The units of the guide include health and nutrition, the environment, earth science, careers/technology and general science.

S17 "Mathematics in the News" (a 57-page curriculum guide for grades 4-10) The newspaper can be a valuable tool for the mathematics teacher in convincing students that consumer and basic math skills are crucial in everyday life. From a simple calculation of the total cost of a few grocery items to the more challenging calculations of total cost of a car or a house, the newspaper is an extremely viable tool for introduction to real life problem-solving techniques via mathematics.

S18 "Celebrate Theatre!" (13.1 MB PDF) (a 44-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) This curriculum guide offers some starting points to involve students with theatre and newspapers. The activities in this guide are play-specific. The annotated entries may help teachers decide which plays to share with students. Students complete the activities after experiencing the play.

S19 "Character Education Through the Newspaper" (a 36-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) Positive traits of human character are not limited to those mentioned in this guide. At the bottom of several activity pages you will find enrichment ideas/activities related to the character concept on the page. Identified as character builders, these activities may encourage further discussion, private reflection and/or personal interaction with parents or adults about the topic. Parents of pre-adolescent and adolescent students will likely welcome the opportunity to talk about family values by focusing on the newspaper.

S20 "Celebrate Diversity" (a 63-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The activities in this guide are organized into eight units, Understanding Yourself and Others, Racial Diversity, Gender Diversity, Ethnic Diversity, Religious Diversity, Language Diversity, People with Disabilities and Reactions Against Diversity. The suggested activities are concentrated in three areas of critical thinking: awareness of the history and nature of prejudice, understanding how to value difference and applying knowledge to celebrate diversity.

S21 "Using the Newspaper in Secondary Science" (1.8 MB PDF) (a 27-page curriculum guide for grades 9-12) The guide provides science teachers with a series of activities that use newspapers as a learning resource. The guide demonstrates that newspapers-because they are comprehensive, up-to-date and interesting to students-can be used as effective supplements to science instruction at the high school level. The four sections of the guide are: personal needs, societal needs, academic preparation and career education/awareness.

S22 "Using the Newspaper to Teach Higher Order Thinking Skills" (9.2 MB PDF) (a 59-page curriculum guide for grades 6-12) The materials in this publication are designed for secondary students in gifted programs who have mastered the fundamentals of the regular curriculum and need more advanced kinds of educational stimulation. However, while designed for use with gifted students, the authors believe that many of activities could be used successfully with a wide range of high-achieving students in regular classrooms.

S23 "Newspapers: Exploring the Dimensions of Thinking" (a 29-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide is designed for five days of instruction. It allows your class to identify and apply a variety of thinking processes or skills in many different contexts. Each day's work has been organized with a lesson plan and student worksheets, labeled Exploring your thinking. The symbols (*) shown in the lower right-hand corner of each worksheet indicate the level of the activity (*=elementary, **=intermediate and ***=advanced). Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed with each activity.

S24 "Just Think! Higher-level Thinking Skills and the Newspaper" (128 K PDF) (a 34-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide focuses on helping students develop higher-level thinking skills using the newspaper. Content standards in every subject area, language arts, social studies, geography, math and science, require students to use the higher-level thinking skills of evaluation, synthesis and analysis.

S25 "Football Fan Fare" (a 41-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The guide uses newspapers and the game of football to motivate students and reinforce skills in language arts, social studies, science and mathematics. The sections of the guide focus on each of the content areas above. Actual Louisiana benchmarks are listed for each activity in the guide.

S26 "Using the Newspaper in Secondary Social Studies" (6.3 MB PDF) (92-page curriculum guide for grades 9-12) The activities in the guide are organized by subject area to reflect the practicality of the way things are in the social studies classroom. Activities are grouped into general social studies, history, government, economic and geography activities, with more than 40 activity sheets. The activities involve students in problem solving, conflict resolution, issues analysis and other kinds of approaches, which emphasize the collection, analysis and presentation of data.

S27 "Using the Newspaper in Secondary Mathematics" (a 13-page curriculum guide for grades 9-12) The guide provides secondary mathematics teachers with a series of meaningful activities that use the newspaper as a learning resource. The sections of the guide are: cultivating an awareness of mathematics, numbers, real life applications, working with data, probability and geometry and measurement.

S28 "Put First Things First: Using the Newspaper to Teach the Five Freedoms of the First Amendment" (168 K PDF) (a 41-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. This teachers guide introduces the five freedoms of the First Amendment to students at all grade levels. Each freedom has one elementary level activity, one middle school activity and one high school activity.

S29 "Multigenre Research Projects Using Newspaper Genres" (852K PDF) (a 27-page curriculum guide for grades 4-12) The research paper has been a cornerstone of American education for well over 100 years. Students were taught to select a topic and find documented information on that topic. Usually students were taught to use index cards to collect and organize the information before writing an extensive essay. This essay was then revised and edited and students were given a final grade on the project.
With the great changes in society, research is still essential, but not necessarily in the traditional format expressed above. Few people today will need to write their research in a formal essay with footnotes and an extensive bibliography. Instead people today are being asked to publish their research in a manner that other people can easily digest. Readers want graphic application formats that speak to the type of information that needs to be communicated. Readers usually do not have the time to read extensive research papers unless it is part of their job description.
Even though the multigenre research paper is gaining in acceptance and popularity each year, we do not want to minimize the importance of the traditional research paper. There is a definite place for both in our curriculum. In some schools a formal research paper is done one year and a multigenre research paper the alternate year. In some schools, students do mini multigenre research papers throughout the year. In other schools students are shown both types of formats and are then empowered to make a choice. Multigenre writing has become one of the most productive approaches teachers can use to help students write creative, informational research reports. This guide will help teachers succeed in that effort.

S30 Now I Get It! (852K PDF) (a 67-page guide for grades 4-12) This guide provides a variety of lessons and activities to help students develop their comprehension skills. It also includes information about current comprehension skills research and national standards for reading comprehension. The material is appropriate for both middle and high school students. Special activities are included for elementary students. There are 12 lesson plans, each with accompanying student activity sheets. The lessons contain background and instructions, and have the following components: newspaper focus, background, before reading (introduce the lesson), during reading (direct instruction), after reading (reflect and review) and a performance rubric.

A1 "The Newspaper: Your Key to Better Living" (a 50-page curriculum guide for adults and ESL learners reading at the grade 3-6 level) Newspaper activities in Units 1-5 address reading comprehension, vocabulary development, consumer education and life-skills tasks. Activities in Unit 6 are supplementary activities designed to reinforce skills introduced in earlier units. Students learn to index, skim and follow directions. There are also activities help learners become familiar with the newspaper.

A2 "100 Ways to Use the Newspaper in Bilingual Spanish/English" (244 K PDF) (100 newspaper activity cards for grades 4-8 and adult ESL learners) The 100 activity cards include ten lessons each for newspaper knowledge, language arts, social studies, math, science, critical thinking, character education and 30 with unassigned subjects. The cards are printed in English on one side and Spanish on the other side.

A3 "ESL, the Newspaper and the Classroom" (84 K PDF) (a 30-page activity guide for elementary to advanced levels of ESL learners) Features that distinguish the activities in this guide as ESL are their sensitivity to diversity; their immersion in American culture; their focus on specific language needs-vocabulary, idioms, sentence structure, paragraphing, rhetorical patterns, nuances within language (e.g. puns, symbols, abbreviations, metaphors, personification, analogy); and their rigorous expectations for students who already know another language and culture and therefore carry with them some sophisticated knowledge and skills.

A4 "Keep It Real — Newspapers, the Ultimate Informational Text" (1 MB PDF) ( a 50-page curriculum guide for grades 4-8) This guide is the latest (2006) Newspaper In Education curriculum guide available. It brings excitement and passion to the celebration of literacy, reading and NIE programs. The goal of NIE is to reinforce a positive and relevant lifetime reading habit in students by engaging them with an authentic text — the newspaper. Until recently, much classroom reading instruction has focused on fiction and narrative texts. But studies show that even primary children like nonfiction topics and texts. Students like learning about the real world, and real-world reading requires the ability to read and understand informational text. What students need is instruction in how to read the expository text structures found in nonfiction and informational text. And the newspaper is the ultimate informational text.

A4 "All Together Now: Living and Learning in a Multicultural Society" (a 37-page guide for grades 6-12 and ESL learners) This teacher's guide contains 12 detailed lesson plans to help students to understand their own culture and the culture of others. Student activity pages accompany the lesson plans. There is also a section of activities specifically directed toward students for who English in not their first language.

Teachers using the American Press in their classrooms may order up to three different printed/paper copies of these guides (titles) with a maximum of one copy of each guide (title). Teachers not using the American Press in their classrooms will be asked to pay a nominal fee of $2.00 per printed/paper guide to cover postage.

Many of these guides (titles) are available for download. Click the appropriate link to download a guide. Teachers may download and print an unlimited number of downloadable guides (titles). Complete the order blank below and submit it to NIE. We will send your guide(s) as soon as possible. Call the American Press Newspaper in Education office at 337-494-4011 or 800-737-6891 or send e-mail to nie@americanpress.com with your questions.

Please send me this (these) printed newspaper curriculum guide(s) (maximum of three titles/guides and one copy of each title/guide)