Literacy for Life

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Student success must extend beyond the classroom. As a teacher, I search for lessons that bridge the school world and the world outside of school. The alarming news of students' lack of reading for pleasure prompts teachers of all levels to help students relate reading to their lives and fall in love with literacy. Using newspapers and magazines in the classroom entices students to build a lifelong reading habit. Teaching students to recognize bias in journalistic-style writing will help to create informed citizens. The key to making this work with students is to use materials that appeal to them and to allow time to build that reading habit.

OBJECTIVE

Students will:

1. Analyze newspapers and magazines for journalistic style.
2. Recognize signals of opinion and bias in printed materials.
3. Summarize articles with main idea and important detail.
4. Write articles in both newspaper and magazine style.

LESSONS FOR THIS UNIT
Lesson 1: Get in the Newspaper Habit
Lesson 2: Magazine for Every Interest

REPRODUCIBLES
Newspaper Log Form (PDF)

CULMINATING ACTIVITY

Students are assigned to research their favorite musical artist. Along with facts about the musician's life, students must define the category of music performed, some facts about that genre of music and its history. This helps students place their favorite artist in a historical perspective and leads to more objective writing. Students then write a magazine article on that musician and we publish the articles in a class music magazine. I have also had students write a compare/contrast piece on their favorite and least favorite musician in the same genre of music. This extension is extremely popular with students.

SUPPORTING BOOKS

Resources to Encourage Life-Long Literacy

Connotation: Effective Word Choice
Promotes effective word choice, with a fun and exciting introduction of connotation through an examination of sports team names.

ARTICLE	Navigating Scholastic News Online Offers detailed descriptions of Scholastic News' online tools and activites. Those inlude games, quizzes, graphic organizers, and much more.
LESSON PLAN	Magazine for Every Interest Presents a lesson designed to 'hook' students into lifelong reading with magazines. Also useful in teaching text features and writing style...
ONLINE ACTIVITY	Grade 2 - Kids Are Earth Helpers From making a giant caterpillar out of trash to growing vegetables, see what students are doing to help the planet in an article with audio and...